Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-163). / This thesis reflects on the issues and challenges large software product engineering managers face. Software is hard to engineer on a small scale, but at a larger scale, engineering and management tasks are even more difficult. In the context of software product line evolution, the goal of this work is to look at current managing practice, through the lens of Systems Thinking as well as my own experience. We develop a System Dynamics model to operationalize the notions examined here and run a variety of experiments representative of real situations, from which we learn some lessons and recommend policies that engineering leaders may use to manage large-scale software development organizations. During the course of this research, we found that the model developed intuitively matched experiences in the software industry. Product line engineering and tighter deadlines force software producers to require more accurate control of the production capability of their development organization. In the context of many release cycles and multiple simultaneously active releases, we present some findings about scheduling of the workload, which the engineering manager may leverage to make decisions about the allocation of work. The research presented here from the point of view of the producers of software can help other stakeholders in the software ecosystem understand the challenges these organizations face and the reasoning behind choices made by these providers. / by Jean-Baptiste Nivoit. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-106). / A growing number of embedded multi-core processors from several vendors now offer several technical advantages over single-core architectures. However, despite these advantages, adoption of multi-core processors in embedded systems has fallen short of expectations and not increased significantly in the last 3-4 years. There are several technical challenges associated with multi-core adoption that have been well studied and are commonly used to explain slow adoption. This thesis first examines these technical challenges of multi-core adoption from an architectural perspective through the examination of several design scenarios. We first find that the degree of the technical challenge is highly related to the degree of architectural change required at the system level. When the nature of adoption requires higher degrees of architectural change, adoption is most difficult due to the destruction of existing product design and knowledge assets. However, where adopting firms can leverage existing architectural design patterns to minimize architectural change, adoption can be significantly easier. In addition to the architectural challenges, this thesis also explores several other factors that influence adoption related to management strategy, organization, ecosystem, and human cognitive and behavioral tendencies. Finally, this thesis presents a set of heuristics for potential adopters of multi-core technology to assess the suitability and risk of multi-core technology for their firm's products, and a second set of heuristics for supplier firms developing or selling multi-core processors to determine their likely success. / by Daniel Thomas Ledger. / S.M.in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 60-63). / The personal computing industry has witnessed significant changes with more users moving from desktop PCs to battery-operated mobile devices. These dynamics have prompted chip-design companies to evaluate ways to lower the power consumption of devices, thereby elongating battery life. With its lower power microprocessor-core architecture, a newer and smaller company, ARM Holdings, has been able to challenge the much bigger incumbent Intel and capture significant market share by creating a powerful ecosystem based on strategic partnerships. This thesis will evaluate how ARM's 'design and license' business model based on a platform ecosystem-partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), semiconductor companies, and software developers, has been able to counter Intel's vertically-integrated business model. This thesis will discuss the details of underlying technologies - Intel's high speed vs. ARM's low power architectures, and further evaluate how ARM gives its partners more customizing power and the ability to differentiate its products with respect to competitors that also use the ARM architecture. / by Tanmoy Sen. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-143). / The objective of this project is to address the failure rate or "slipback" of rural water supply systems in India by analyzing performance of previous water projects using the national government database called IMIS. Data analysis and visualization tools are used on the IMIS in combination with the FIETS framework for sustainability enabling the categorization of variables into Financial, Institutional, Environmental, Technological, and Social factors. This analysis provides an evaluation of the IMIS database and how it can be used to meet the FIETS categories. It also provides quantitative metrics of slipback of water supply systems based on the available variables, helping identify correlations to problem areas and FIETS variables, enabling data-driven actions to promote sustainability. This assessment is designed based on the state of Gujarat - a generally successful model of water management projects in India - for the developing stage. The Jamnagar district was selected for the sub-district level analysis. Results show that IMIS database has data that satisfy FIETS factors at state and district levels. There are some limitations on data visibility between these two geographical levels but in both cases a complete analysis of FIETS factors is possible. A gap data analysis provides a detailed list of what are the available variables and which ones are missing from the database. In the case of Gujarat there is a high coverage of water supply in the rural areas, which makes challenging to find correlations with FIETS factors. Significant positive correlation was identified between low covered areas and districts with high Scheduled Tribal population. There was no correlation between expenditures and low coverage areas or built infrastructure. At sub-district level there are less variables available for analysis and correlations were found to be similar to the state findings. Field visits were made to several villages in Jamnagar that raised questions about the water quality data as well as coverage. The use of IMIS database to improve the rural water supply sector is very recent and further research is recommended to improve the data collection process, enabling decision-makers to understand better IMIS data, and pilot test this analysis to improve the annual planning of water supply systems at district and state levels. / by Marianna I. Novellino F. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Research on Procurement Risk Management has been conducted by Accenture and MIT in order to identify the best practices used to manage commodity price volatility and supplier risk. In today's increasingly turbulent market it is crucial for companies to have their procurement risk management capabilities developed. Risk Management becomes imperative for buyers in order to make the best business decisions and continue to drive their performance up. Risk Management is now becoming a major requirement for Procurement departments, and while most companies have risk-management expertise within their finance departments, only a few formally extend this capacity into the procurement department. Excellence in managing risks will be a key differentiator for procurement departments in the near future. The main risk categories today are suppliers and price risks. These risks can be managed by different sets of capabilities in an effort to reduce a possible impact. The risk management process contains three main stages; risk anticipation, risk identification and monitoring, and risk mitigation. As all stages are important to master, some capabilities have shown clearer correlation than others. By conducting an extended literature review, procurement top management personnel interviews, and brainstorming sessions with Accenture, a set of hypotheses were formed. This set of hypotheses was verified against the results of a survey. The survey contained an extended set of questions that revolved around each hypothesis. This survey was answered by 122 companies from various industries. The main conclusions are based on observations and detailed analysis of survey results. A lack of impact measuring and a lack of use of technology for the purpose of risk assessment were observed. It is believed that improving these capabilities will promote profitability, and prevent impact as a result of risky events. Based on the results analysis, the procurement performance level is heavily dependant on risk management measures, and that excelling at the procurement level can be reflected further on the overall success of the company. / by Maya Olsha. / S.M.in System Design and Management

Thesis (S.M. in Engineering and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-118). / The U. S. federal government contracts over five hundred billion dollars in goods and services each year. Traditionally, these contracts are awarded on the basis of a combination of a contractor's proposed cost, quality, technical capability and demonstrated past performance. While all valid and important comparators, the overall quality and customer satisfaction achieved at the completion of contracts awarded on these bases remains highly variable from contract-to-contract. This thesis examines potential reasons for the variability of these results and further proposes additional factors for contract evaluation and award that should improve the chances for successful contract outcomes. Twenty four randomly selected and recently completed U. S. Coast Guard construction contracts were used as the basis for study. The documented performance information for each contract was compared against contract demographic information in a search for correlations that are predictive of the likelihood of a high level of contract satisfaction. Contract performance ratings, contract timeliness and contract on-budget performance were compared to overall contractor annual revenue, total contractor employees, the relative contract size and a contractor's revenue per employee. The main finding is that total contractor revenue, relative contract size (higher is better) and contractor revenue per employee (higher is better) are reliable predictors of performance and should be considered as relevant source selection factors for negotiated contracts. Capable small contractors should be selected not simply as a matter of conformance to a social program, but because the expected results are higher. In addition, the following recommendations apply in order to maximize the probability of positive performance outcomes on U. S. Coast Guard construction contracts: 1) Improve the collection and utilization of past performance data. 2) Minimize sealed-low bid contracting. 3) Maximize contracts by negotiation. 4) Maximize the usage of small businesses, above the "micro-small" level. / by Dennis C. Evans. / S.M.in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 101-103). / The automotive industry is constantly challenged with meeting and exceeding customer expectations while reducing time to market of new products in order to remain competitive. Providing new features and functionality into vehicles for customer satisfaction is becoming more challenging and driving design complexity to a higher level. Although traditional methods of Product Development Failure Mode identification such as FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) or FTA (Fault Three Analysis) have been used to analyze failures in automotive systems, there are limitations when it comes to design errors, flawed requirements, human factors implications, and component interaction accidents in which all components operated as required but the system behavior was not as expected. In order to determine if there is room for improvement in current automotive product development process, this thesis applies Dr. Nancy Leveson's Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) technique to compare and contrast with a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) approach as used in the automotive industry through a case study. A formal method of comparing results is proposed. This study found limitations with FMEA in terms of identifying unsafe interactions between systems, anticipating human error and other behaviors dependent on human interaction, identifying engineering design flaws, and producing requirements. STPA was able to find causes that had a direct relationship with those found in FMEA while also finding a portion of causes related to a higher level of abstraction of those in FMEA. STPA also found a subset of causes that FMEA was not able to find, which relate mainly to engineering design flaws and system interaction. / by Rodrigo Sotomayor Martínez. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 104-110). / As power systems adapt to include aging infrastructure, new socio-political priorities, and renewable electricity resources, grid operators look to a more flexible grid. Electricity storage flexibility is one strategy gaining interest. Clean energy advocates see benefits in terms of greater renewables integration and lower emissions; grid operators see storage as an improved security system in the face of supply and demand variability and uncertainty. However, as power systems are designed for reliable and efficient operations using available technologies, newer, better-performing technologies such as energy storage devices may not always win the market. Several market barriers to storage remain, including high storage capital costs and a lack of trusted tools for modeling and estimating the lifetime value of new capacity investments [1]. Most storage modeling strategies omit constraints that describe the technical operating boundaries of different power generating technologies, which can lead an overestimation of total operating costs for the power system [2]. I describe a mixed integer linear optimization framework for estimating the optimal control and value of energy storage in a virtual power generation system with economic, regulatory, and technical performance characteristics. The model consists of power plant commitment, dispatch, and selective capacity expansion constraints that simulate optimal investments and operations of the power generation system. A new formulation for modeling energy storage is also developed in order to improve the accuracy of round-trip efficiencies and allow for the inclusion of minimum storage output constraints. Using this model, I solve for break-even target prices for storage capital costs under a range of scenarios (storage futures scenarios). A second challenge slowing the adoption of storage is a lack of spending on performance improvements and cost-reductions. A two-factor learning curve and optimization approach is developed to solve for the optimal portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and diffusion investments (RDD&D) over multiple investment periods. Using the target capital costs from unit commitment model output as the investment model input value, innovating firms and policy planners may better identify cost targets and investment strategies for reaching target levels of storage deployment. Electricity storage becomes more valuable as net load variability increases. The impact of net load variability is tested by changing the level of renewable generation resources in the system. The current capital cost of storage-here, compressed air energy storage (CAES)-generally exceeds the target cost needed to make CAES economical when it is used to provide load following, load shifting, and operating reserve services in high-voltage power generation systems. Scenario analysis shows that when renewables generation reaches 35%, CAES becomes economical in limited quantities due to the added value from providing renewables integration and greater operating reserves. Using this framework, I identify different levels of cost reductions needed to drive improved adoption and make several RDD&D recommendations. / by Jacob Whitcomb. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 118-121). / Internet of Things (IoT) is being touted as the next wave of big opportunity. However, the picture does not seem to be very rosy for semiconductor vendors and chip suppliers who might find it difficult to make high revenues or gain a position of power to drive this market. There are several reasons for this: i. The IoT devices are made up of relatively less complex, low cost and low profit-margin chip components such as sensors, RF and microcontrollers ii. The IoT is not a single market, but an umbrella of fragmented markets with many different niche segments and lack of common standards, making it difficult for companies to decide what they are going to do and which segments and opportunities they want to focus iii. High value and importance is given to software and services in the IoT ecosystem iv. The steadily shifting of power from companies in the supply chain to service providers v. The continuing rising cost of semiconductor manufacturing vi. Increasing SoC design landscape, rather than discreet components Most of the semiconductor companies are not realizing this and, thus, they don't have a go-to-market strategy for IoT in place, even after making a decision to enter the market. The thesis aims at identifying the major IoT trends that will determine the prospects for semiconductor companies. In addition, it tries to answer the questions regarding how and where they can add value to this market and, in return, create a sustainable competitive advantage, or maximum ROI, for themselves. In more details, the thesis will address some of the secondary questions as follows: i. Why having a IoT strategy is so important for semiconductor companies? ii. Who are the different players in the IoT ecosystem? iii. How is evolution of hardware capabilities, as well as other technologies including software and firmware, happened and happening in the IoT space? iv. In the tough economic situations, how can semiconductor manufacturing companies capture more value? / by Parag Vijay. / S.M. in Engineering and Management

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 47-48). / The Hospital to Home architecture aims to provide a successful transition for patients leaving the hospital in order to improve health outcomes and minimize hospital readmission. This thesis analyzes the current hospital to home system, explores its flows and proposes a better architecture to improve the patient transition from the hospital to home. It makes a significant contribution by proposing a new architecture based on a patient-centric approach within the framework of the Hospital to Home (H2H) initiative called Caregiver Coordination. In this architecture, we propose the creation of a web and mobile based application that allows patients and caregivers to interact easily with each other to help manage the patient's wellbeing. We include a short summary illustrating how this new architecture can address the two main problems: (1) the decentralization of the discharge plan and (2) the dependency on the interactions among diverse stakeholders. We propose to: 1. Analyze and critique the existing hospital to home architecture 2. Follow an existing architecture pattern/framework 3. Recommend a new architecture 4. Create a Caregiver Coordination application using an open source framework to enable a successful transition of patients from hospital to home / by Hassan Mousaid. / S.M. in Engineering and Management