Course Syllabus

Syllabus ENVR E-137

Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management Operations

Fall 2015 (4 Credits)

CRN (14010)

 

Instructor:     Dr. Ramon Sanchez

Director of the Sustainable Technologies and Health

Director of Corporate Outreach and Strategy

Center for Health and the Global Environment

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

rsanchez@hsph.harvard.edu

 

Enrollment Status: Limited to 35 Students

 

Class times:

 

Class Meetings Online

Tuesdays from 7:40 to 9:40 PM (U.S. Eastern Time)

Start Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2015

 

Required on campus weekend

Saturday, September 19, 9 AM to 5 PM

Sunday, September 20, 9 AM to 1 PM

 

Class Website: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/4088

 

This course provides a set of tools and skills to identify, evaluate, and improve the sustainability of manufacturing and supply chain operations. It enables students to understand core concepts of industrial and commercial activities, in this way they will be able to design sustainable manufacturing, service and supply chain operations.

Students will learn:

• How to use continuous improvement techniques and value stream mapping to reduce waste and environmental impacts while reducing costs.
• How to plan retrofits and capital investments in current and future productive operations to reduce environmental impacts
• How to manage a product development or new product introduction process from conceptual design to large-scale manufacturing while reducing its environmental impacts
• How to design a production floor layout to reduce the environmental footprint for any product
• How to evaluate suppliers’ sustainability in an objective way and how to use this information to assign purchasing contracts and to negotiate joint research programs to reduce the environmental footprint of products
• How to manage transportation logistics and suppliers to keep low inventories and save energy by reducing the need for warehouses inside the company
• How to design and manage a vendor management program to reduce delivery lead times, costs and environmental impacts while improving overall quality of the company’s products.
• Practical techniques to reduce energy usage, raw materials, work-in-process, down times, overproduction, etc.
• How to operate and manage a manufacturing facility for any product and/or how to run a warehouse to reduce environmental damages
• How to select materials for products or processes to reduce environmental impacts by design (by using "green chemistry")
• How to estimate the right level of automation for each product line based on market stability and product's complexity, this helps to keep capital costs low, but also helps in reducing the "legacy" environmental footprint caused by machinery and other capital goods
• How to reduce human environmental exposures in an industrial environment
• Techniques for efficient materials' handling inside the company in order to reduce the need for conveyors, forklifts and carts (which reduce the overall environmental impacts of the operation)
• How to do "reverse-engineering" and design changes to improve products’ sustainability

Teaching Fellow:

 

Piers MacNaughton, MSc. 

E-mail: pom422@mail.harvard.edu

 

Recommended books:

 

Liker, Jeffrey. "The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer". McGraw-Hill, 2004

 

Ingrassia, Paul and White, Joseph. “Comeback: The Fall and Rise of the American Automobile Industry”. Simon & Schuster, 1995.

 

Womack, James and Jones, Daniel. “Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated”. Free Press (a division of Simon & Schuster), 2003.

 

Palevich, Robert. "The Lean Sustainable Supply Chain: How to Create a Green Infrastructure with Lean Technologies". FT Press, 2012

 

 Course Schedule:

Session 1, September 1, 2015 (Online)

• Introduction to the Course
• A brief history of manufacturing, commerce and sustainability

 

Session 2, September 8, 2015 (Online)

• The extended value stream process: From conceptual design to the final customer
• Basic concepts on strategic planning of manufacturing and supply chain operations
• Strategic considerations: Manufacturing VS Outsourcing

 

Session 3, September 19, 2015 (On-Campus, 9 AM to 5 PM, 1 Story St. Room 304)

• Types of production systems and their relationship to capital expenditures and sustainability
• Introduction and basic principles of the Toyota Production System
• Principles for selecting the right level of automation in manufacturing and warehousing operations
•  
• Case Study: NUMMI, a joint venture between GM and Toyota in American soil
• See how Toyota learned how to adapt its Lean Production System to American suppliers, government regulations and labor practices
• See how GM got exposed to a new production system, difficulties in changing GM’s decades-old corporate culture and how investments in state-of-the-art facilities aren’t everything when maintaining global competitiveness

 

• Description of types of waste in manufacturing and supply chain operations
• First step for sustainable operations: Value Stream Mapping
• Importance of keeping a “multi-bottom line” approach in any organization

 

• Workplace organization, basic definitions and importance
• Relationship between workplace organization, inventory levels and sustainability
• Basic techniques to implement an appropriate workplace organization to reduce inventories, improve quality of manufactured goods and expedite customer service

 

Session 4, September 20, 2015 (On-Campus, 9 AM to 1 PM, 1 Story St., Room 304)

• Principles for designing the lay-out of a manufacturing operation or warehouse
• Equipment features and practices to enable flexibility in the use of the production and/or warehouse floor
• Environmental and economic effects of changing from a “functional” to a “product-oriented” lay-out in a manufacturing operation or warehouse
• Some logistical benefits of a proper lay-out for your operations

 

• Principles for flexible and agile manufacturing
  • One-piece-flow
  • Just-in-time (JIT)
  • Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED)
  • Workstation design and ergonomics
  • Card signaling system (Kanban)
  • “Fool-proof” systems (Poka-Yokes)
• Game on Sustainable Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations

 Assignment 1 is available

 

Session 5, September 29, 2015 (Online)

• Chronology on the manufacturing and supply chain landscape in the past 2 decades and how this relates to job creation and sustainability
• Potential health and environmental effects of international trade and manufacturing operations
• Principles of pollution prevention, industrial ecology, environmental and life-cycle assessments
• Recommendations for risk management in manufacturing and supply chain operations

 Midterm is assigned

 

Assignment 1 is due in Oct 6

 

Session 6, October 20, 2015 (Online)

• The concept of Continuous Improvement
• Importance and some recommendations on how to implement a continuous improvement project
• Recommendations to enhance employee involvement in any continuous improvement project
• Some recommended practices when implementing a continuous improvement project
• Relationship between continuous improvement and sustainability

 

Session 7, November 3, 2015 (Online)

• A brief description of a New Product Development or New Product Introduction Process
• Sustainable materials and “green chemistry” in product design
• Importance of the integration between manufacturing and product design (modular design, “design for manufacturing” guidelines, pilot runs, rapid integration of new products into the production lines, etc.)
• Lessons learned from managing a product development and a manufacturing area at the same time
• Environmental and economic effects of a good new product development process

Midterm is due 

Assignment 2 is available

 

Session 8, November 17, 2015 (Online)

• The Supply Chain and the concept of “Extended Enterprise”
• Basic components of a Supply Chain
• Recommendations for an effective Supply Chain Management
• Some operational practices to enhance operational flexibility (supply agreements, on-time delivery clauses, Vendor Managed Inventory, etc.)

 Assignment 2 is due

Final Project and Final Presentation Descriptions are available

 

Session 9, December 1, 2015 (Online)

• Operational Considerations: Manufacturing VS Outsourcing
• Technical and financial considerations when selecting a vendor
• Environmental and sustainability considerations when evaluating or selecting a vendor
• Recommendations for effective outsourcing (with national and international suppliers)
• Sustainability implications of outsourcing

 

Session 10, December 8, 2015 (Online)

• Concept of Value Engineering Projects
• Management of “reverse engineering” and value engineering projects
• Monitoring of cost and environmental savings due to value engineering projects

 

Final Presentations will be posted online using VoiceThread (Due December 15 @ 11:59 PM)

 

Grading:

Homework                  (20%) – Each homework is worth 10% of final grade

Midterm Project          (35%)

Final Project                (35%)

Final Presentation       (10%)

Graduate students are expected to deliver final projects with a higher content of quantitative results (guidelines will be provided in the description of the final project)

 

Disability Services:

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Disability Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.

 

Academic Integrity:

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.