Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010. / "June 2010." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49). / Accidents and incidents are among the major drawbacks in the development of systems engineering. Investigations attribute most of these accidents to their operators' unsafe acts generally termed as "human errors". One way most organizations chose to address this issue is to define accountability and assign blame in the wake of accidents. Clearly, disciplinary policies in force in organizations are supposed to support their system safety efforts. Yet, despite the prevalence of the culture of blame, the percentage of accidents attributed to human errors is not decreasing significantly. Recently, some researchers in system safety rightly identified the overemphasis on blame as a major impediment to conducting proper accident investigations and setting an effective reporting safety system. So, they developed an alternative concept that they termed "Just Culture" that is supposed to improve safety in organizations by addressing the limitations of the current punitive culture. / by Adama Soro. / 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. / High tech startups can be exciting places to work. Unlike many large corporate environments, startups offer new challenges almost every day, innovation is a sine qua non, and the rewards can be colossal both from financial and intellectual perspectives. People in startups can make their own rules, and change them at will. It's not uncommon for startups to change significantly as each new hire is added, since the impact of a single person in a small organization is significant. However, if a startup doesn't pay attention to the elements that do make many large corporations successful, they risk falling into traps that can result in failure. This paper shows the problems facing a particular startup that had grown quickly because of the brilliance of the ideas behind their technology and the founder, and offers suggested remedies. / by Christopher Blade Kotelly. / 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. 89-92). / Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) aims to deliver competitive investment returns while fostering social good. It aims achieves its objective by including a firm's corporate social performance (CSP) in its investment d s . I has giesgnfct momentum over the past few years and is poised to assume a mainstream role in the asset management business. However, the scholarship on the effect of corporate social performance on a firm's corporate financial performance (CFP) is ambiguous. CSP is a complex entity made of multi-dimensional sub-components. This thesis attempts to breakdown the multi-dimensional CSP into its core constituent dimensions and to examine their inter-relationships and relationship with CFP, using statistical analysis. Two different vendor data sets were used as samples to understand if proprietary transformations made by vendors affect results. Analysis reveals that differences in factor payoff horizons, difficulties in transforming environmental, social and governance data into composite CSP ratings and the proprietary nature of such transformation could be some of the contributing factors to the ambiguity in establishing the nature of CSP-CFP relationship. / by Arun Balasubramaniam. / S.M.in Engineering and Management

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2010. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-73). / Software can either be developed in a way such that the source code is available to others, open source, or such that it is not, closed source. Open source software has a number of architectural advantages over traditionally developed closed-source software including modularity, a frequent release pattern and a strong culture of reuse. As there has been a shift away from developing software that runs locally to a model where service based computing and web services are some of the most important software used on a daily basis by people, there has been a shift away from developing such software as open source. This thesis looks at a comparison between open source and web services and shows how they compare on some of the aspects which are the most important architectural advantages of open source. This examination is based on a look at literature and specific web services. Through this examination, it shows that many of the benefits of open source can be found as a result of other architectural characteristics of web services. / by Jeremy Lee Katz. / S.M.in System Design and Management

Thesis (S.M. in System Design and Management)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, June 2010. / "May 2010." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-144). / This thesis utilizes eight Enterprise Architecture views to analyze the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence's Flight School XXI Enterprise and provides recommendations to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of training aviators. The Enterprise Strategic Analysis and Transformation tool provides a guide for understanding the current state of the enterprise and identifying potential areas for improvement. Surveys of the enterprise stakeholders provided an analysis of the stakeholder values and the current enterprise value delivery. Historical data from the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence provided the remaining data for the analysis. A System Dynamics model applied the research to understand the dynamics of the AH-64 training process and conducted an analysis of potential courses of action to stabilize the process. By adding weather days to the Program of Instruction and increasing the daily flight window from 3 to 3.5 hours the enterprise can stabilize the training process. The principles of lean thinking provided a guide for the remaining recommended actions to improve the performance of the enterprise. These recommendations included reducing the batch size of students per course, achieving continuous flow by canceling initial course, and achieving customer pull by aligning aviator production to the aviation force structure. The thesis provides the leadership of the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence with a glide path to transform Flight School XXI into a lean enterprise and achieve the Army's current and future training requirements for aviators. / by James R. Enos. / S.M.in System Design 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 (p. 63-68). / The growth of healthcare costs in the USA, coupled with the desire for access to care in the developing world, is driving the need for low cost, high quality imaging services. The miniaturization of signal processing electronics continues to reduce the size and cost of ultrasound devices. This convergence of demand and technology has led to the rise of portable ultrasound products, disrupting the entire industry. Market share for conventional cart-based systems is being eroded by compact mobile devices. This threatens the large, multi-modality imaging companies as more focused competitors, such as SonoSite, rise to dominate the portable market. New companies continue to arrive with innovative portable products, while domestic companies in emerging markets arise with low cost devices targeting local demand. In the face of these changes, what should companies do to adapt their business strategies and compete? In short, the established companies need to disrupt themselves and develop a portfolio of portable products. GE seems to have already acknowledged this reality and embraced the disruptive trend. Products with modular architectures will help companies reduce product cost and increase cycle times, improving their competiveness in an increasingly crowded space. SonoSite will need to find a wealth of resources to maintain its advantage, ideally leveraging the strong brand name that it has established. Looking to the future of this disruptive cycle, companies need to embrace new business models for low cost products. Verathon's line of application specific products may be a glimpse into the future. In addition, in response to this need for, and trend towards, low cost devices, some companies, such as GE, have created a new segment of pocket portable ultrasound devices: a "visual stethoscope" that could be in the hand of every doctor. Will this type of device succeed? The reality is that they will find mixed success. Disintegrated health systems, the predominant type in the USA, present a challenging environment for value capture and will only embrace these products once they become significantly cheaper and demonstrate success as a process improvement tool. Integrated health systems, more common globally, will slowly embrace them as a screening tool. Companies in this product category need to be in it for the long haul and focus on the compelling applications in the EMT/paramedic market segment to achieve short-term success. / by Matthew Richard Thompson. / 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, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 101-104). / Pressing problems are facing the coastal waters of the world due to the growing human activity. Increasing population and economic development around coastal areas have left many embayments throughout the world severely impaired. Excessive nutrient enrichment in water bodies, also known as nutrient pollution, is one of the leading impairments in coastal waters. Algal blooms, dead zones, and fish kills are spreading because of the nutrient pollution. This thesis presents a systems analysis of the nutrient pollution problem in the context of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where the continuous degradation in coastal waters is considered as one of the greatest threats to the region's environmental and economic future. It proposes a system dynamics model created with a diverse stakeholder team to uncover the underlying system structure that has created the degradation in Cape Cod's coastal waters since 1960s. An important goal of this work was to support the development of a regional water quality management plan on Cape Cod by creating a shared understanding of the nutrient pollution problem across a wide range of stakeholders. Therefore, the proposed model was created with direct contributions of a diverse stakeholder team including representatives from residents, local municipalities, regional authorities, the state government, and the U.S Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to identifying the causal structure of the system through a set of qualitative diagrams, this thesis also proposes a formal simulation model and presents results of an in-depth policy analysis exploring how the degradation in Cape Cod's coastal waters could evolve under different future scenarios. Both the model-building process and the simulation experiments reveal several critical insights, including nonlinearity of the system behavior, delay in the system's response to interventions, and the importance of timely actions. / by Adem Delibaş. / 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. / The benefits of Cloud are quite well known and many companies are trying to harness its potential. They are doing so to increase productivity, deploy newer applications fast, reduce upfront costs and optimize resource utilization. However, some companies are still trying to realize its full potential while dealing with technical challenges such as legacy systems, complexities of integration and other operational implications. The goal of this thesis is to identify the top benefits that companies are gaining through Cloud adoption and the main challenges they are facing in light of this transition. Much has already been written and discussed about these issues in literature. This thesis attempts to seek answers by directly reaching out to top executives of companies to gain real insights and understand the management strategies and best practices that are enabling this transition. By comparing reviewed literature and information gathered through interview analyses, this thesis brings clarity to areas of overlap and the major issues in Cloud computing that were not emphasized or as clearly evident in the literature. Based on the findings, key recommendations are made to help companies effectively transition into the Cloud. / by Harish Doddala. / 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. 89-96). / The Internet has come a long way after the widely reported invention by Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack of the router, a device that can transmit data from one network to another based on certain protocols and principles. Despite a slow start in the mid 1980s, the Internet has emerged as one of the primary means of communication for people of all walks of life. Sophisticated, network-aware applications that integrate data, voice and video have helped fuel this growth. This thesis examines the latest technology trends and historical developments in various market segments of the Internet. Using technology trends as a backdrop, it analyzes business development at Cisco Systems, Inc., a major player in all Internet market segments. Well-known tools and concepts such as the Familiarity Matrix and Technology S-curve are used for case studies of business development at Cisco. Business Development is almost always a high-stakes endeavor requiring keen insight on both financial and strategy fronts. What are good strategies for corporate entrepreneurship? What are the challenges in business development by way of acquisitions? Will cyber anonymity continue to make us lonely and distanced, or will there be a new breed of Internet applications that will genuinely bring people closer? These are some of the questions this thesis explores, drawing on the wisdom and experience of industry experts. / by Devadas V. Patil. / 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, 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-71). / This thesis presents a study of data quality enhancement opportunities in upstream oil and gas industry. Information Product MAP (IPMAP) methodology is used in reservoir pressure and reservoir simulation data, to propose data quality recommendations for the company under study. In particular, a new 4-step methodology for examining data quality for reservoir pressure management systems is proposed: 1. Trace the data flow and draw the IPMAP; 2. Highlight the cross-system and organizational boundaries; 3. Select data quality analytical questions based on data quality literature review; 4. Apply the analytical questions at each boundary and document the results. This original methodology is applied to the three management systems to collect a pressure survey: using a spreadsheet, a standardized database and an automated database. IPMAPs are drawn to each of these three systems and cross-system and organizational boundaries are highlighted. Next, data quality systematic questions are applied. As a result, three data quality problems are identified and documented: well identifier number, well bore data and reservoir datum. The second experiment investigates the data quality issues in the scope of reservoir simulation and forecasting. A high-level IPMAP and a process flow on reservoir simulation and forecasting are generated. The next section further elaborates on the first high level process flow and drills into the process flow for simulation. The analytical data quality questions are raised to the second simulation process flow and limited findings were documented. This thesis concludes with lessons learned and directions for future research. / by Paul Hong-Yi Lin. / S.M.in Engineering and Management