Poster
Client Context
Xfinity’s Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) procurement team purchases two modems and two gateways from three Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in Asia and has deployed 14.7M CPE devices in 2021. Currently, CPE is manufactured at OEMs in Asia, shipped to the Port of Long Beach or Port of Seattle via ocean freight, and then trucked to OEM DCs. Omni Logistics, Comcast’s third-party logistics provider, trucks the products to each Comcast DC.
Project Objective
The project goal is to identify recommendations for cost savings, primarily in preparation for Spring 2022 OEM contract negotiations, while maintaining lead time thresholds. To accomplish this, two main opportunities were examined – FTL/LTL shipping policies and OEM contract negotiations. Comcast currently pays OEMs fixed unit costs per product, which incorporates transportation, manufacturing, and operational charges.
Design Strategy
The team analyzed FTL/LTL shipping policies to determine per route breakeven points at which it becomes more cost effective to pay for a shipment as an FTL instead of an LTL, and tested these policies with 2020 purchase order data. For OEM contract negotiations, the team first developed a port selection optimization model with the Gurobi Python package that determines which port each OEM should use in order to minimize end-to-end transportation costs. Likewise, the team performed a palletization configuration analysis to identify optimal pallet configurations for each CPE. Finally, the team analyzed the cost of moving the self-install kit assembly process from the U.S. to overseas at each OEM.
Deliverables
The team integrated the FTL/LTL breakeven policies, palletization configuration optimization analysis, and port selection optimization model into a User Interface (UI). The UI allows Comcast to rerun each analysis with updated data and for new products. The team also provided a detailed User Manual for the UI that walks the client through each page. Additionally, the team provided Comcast a self-install kit analysis, demonstrating why it is beneficial to uphold the current process.
Project Information
Student Team
Rayen Kang, Alex Lin, Anna Munns, Kristy Nguyen, Katie O'Keefe, Jenny Shen, Cameron Whaley, Ed Yan
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Evaluator
