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<p> The United States Department of Defense (DoD) loses billions of dollars annually on cancelled or failed acquisition programs. Several DoD acquisition studies, Office of Management and Budget Studies, Government Accountability Office Reports, as well as other studies highlight the disturbing fact, of a plethora of programs that fail to meet full operational requirement capabilities, and therefore, are eventually cancelled. In these cases, the DoD loses billions of investment dollars without any return. Scholars, program managers, and systems engineers posit that there are a host of factors that influence whether a program is cancelled or allowed to continue. They include, but are not limited to political pressures, cost overruns, schedule overruns, and performance shortfalls. </p><p> The research here aims to add to the body of knowledge of systems engineering, program management, and the factors that influence acquisition program terminations within the United States Department of Defense (DoD). Specifically, this research surveyed the United States DoD acquisition program managers, defense industry program managers, and defense industry consultants, to evaluate and analyze the key program factors that influence DoD acquisition program terminations. The research also conducted a comparison of different attributes that would lead to project failure amongst various groups. This research used relatively important weight calculations and a chi-squared distribution analysis in order to compare the differences between DoD acquisition program managers, defense industry program managers, and defense industry consultants, with regards to the factors that lead to DoD acquisition program terminations. This research aims to further answer several interrelated research questions, in order to identify the factors that have the greatest influence on program and project cancellation from the expert&rsquo;s perspective, and capture any significant differences between DoD program managers, DoD industry personnel, and DoD consultants. The research questions include the following: </p><p> 1) Are there any statistically significant differences between what DoD program managers, DoD industry personnel, and DoD consultants personnel think influence program cancellation? 2) Are there statistically significant differences of the various DoD acquisition program factors between what DoD program managers, DoD industry personnel, and DoD consultants personnel think influence program cancellation? </p><p> An exhaustive literature review identified 11 critical factors that were associated with program management for examination. For this study, the examination and methodology used were the Relative Importance Weight technique, to analyze the attributes and factors. RIW methodology consisted of conducting a survey to identify and evaluate the relative importance of the signi?cant factors influencing program termination. Respondents of this survey included the following groups: 1) DoD program and project managers, 2) DoD Industry personnel, and 3) DoD consultants. The outcomes of this research serve three primary purposes: 1) identify the Relative Importance Weight of DoD acquisition program factors that influence program termination, 2) fulfill a system&rsquo;s engineering and program management&rsquo;s knowledge gap, by understanding and identifying the most critical factors within the unique DoD acquisition program management system, and 3) serve as a spring board for future research for DoD program management. The results of this research indicate that a statistically significant difference does not exist between the three groups with relative importance of 11 program management factors.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2007. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references. / This research examines the liability of storing CO2 in geological formations. There is a potential tortious and contractual liability exposure if stored CO2 is not fully contained by the geological formation. Using a combination of case study and survey methods, this research examines the risks confronted by CO2 storage, the legal and regulatory regimes governing these risks, and liability arrangements in other sectors where analogous risks have been confronted. Currently identifiable sources of liability include induced seismicity, groundwater contamination, harm to human health and the environment, property interests, and permanence. The risks of CO2 storage are analyzed in the context of several case studies: acid gas injection, natural gas storage, secondary oil recovery, and enhanced oil recovery. Methods for containing liability are considered in the context of regulatory analogs. This research finds that the current public and private mechanisms that would govern CO2 storage liability do not adequately address the issue. The analysis reveals six lessons learned: (1) the successful resolution of the CO2 liability issue will require combining our understanding of physical and regulatory analogs; (2) the prospect of CO2 storage liability will affect the implementation of predictive models and incentives to monitor leakage; (3) jurisdictional differences in liability exposure could affect where storage projects are eventually sited; (4) the development of liability rules is a function of an industry's emergence, but an industry's emergence, in turn, may affect the content of the liability rules; (5) regulatory compliance is not always a safe harbor for liability; and (6) statutes of limitation and repose mean that private liability is not necessarily "forever". A new liability arrangement is advocated where the current permitting regime is amended, long-term liability is managed by a governmental CO2 Storage Corporation with backing from an industry-financed CO2 Storage Fund, compensation for tortious liability occurs through an Office of Special Masters for CO2 Storage in the U.S. Federal Court of Claims, and the permanence issue is addressed on an annual ex post basis during the injection phase of CO2 storage operations and on an ex ante basis when sites are transferred to the CO2 Storage Corporation. / by Mark Anthony de Figueiredo. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2009. / "June 2009." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-139). / This thesis presents an innovative method for evaluating and dynamically planning the development of uncertain technology investments. Its crux centers on a paradigm shift in the way managers assess investments, toward an approach that incorporates uncertainty in the beginning phases of planning instead of first choosing a plan and then considering the effect of risk. By proactively identifying critical uncertainties and "purchasing" flexibility to handle them, management can increase the value of the start-up technology. The method builds on extensive literature in corporate venture capital (CVC), opportunity identification, and opportunity development, to present a new integrated approach that: 1. Explicitly identifies the synergies between an investing company and an opportunity, and articulates the new value network created through a Technology-Implement-Commercialization (TIC) linkage framework. 2. Develops the opportunities articulated in the TIC networks using a tool that identifies current and goal positions for a set of critical issues, and states the critical uncertainties. 3. Combines the outcomes of the TIC and opportunity development steps in a decision analysis of the possible development paths. The result is a recommended dynamic strategy that invests initially in some form of flexibility to enable program directors to avoid paths that eventually appear unproductive, while seizing opportunities that develop along the course of the project. The thesis demonstrates the approach by applying it to a start-up project in solar concentrators, done from the perspective of a corporate sponsor. / (cont.) The purpose of this case study is to provide a comprehensive guide to the process used in the new method. While extensive effort was dedicated to creating a representative and reasonably accurate assessment, the analysis and numbers are neither authoritative nor exhaustive. The goal, indeed a major contribution of the thesis, is to provide a teaching tool to aid future use of the innovative planning and valuation method. / by Samir Omar Mikati. / S.M.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 36-37). / Freight vehicle capacity, whether it be road, ocean or air transport, is highly underutilized. This under-utilization presents an opportunity for companies to reduce their vehicular traffic and reduce their carbon footprint through greater supply chain integration. This thesis describes the impact of ordering guidelines on the transport efficiency of a large firm and how those guidelines and associated practices can be changed in order to gain better efficiency. To that end, we present three recommendations on improving the guidelines based on the shipment data analysis. First, we discuss the redundancy of one of the company's fill metrics based on a scatter plot analysis and a chi-square independence test. Second, we explore the impact of using linear programming to allocate SKUs to different shipment, highlighting the reduction in the number of shipments through better truck mixing. Finally, we divide the SKUs into three groups: cube-constrained, neutral, and weight-constrained. Based on this segmentation, we present a basic model that mixes different SKUs and helps a shipment to achieve a much higher utilization rate. The application of the last two findings can be further explored to address under-utilization in freight carriers across different industries. / by Jaya Banik and Kyle Rinehart. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis (S.M. in Technology and Policy)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2013. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-110). / The Renewable Fuels Standard 2 (RFS2) is an important component of alternative transportation fuels policy in the United States (US). By mandating the production of alternative fuels, RFS2 attempts to address a number of imperfections in the transportation fuels market: US economic vulnerability to volatile prices; security and environmental externalities; and a lack of investment in alternatives to petroleum-derived fuels. Although RFS2 aims to reduce the climate impact of transportation fuels, the policy raises a number of additional environmental concerns, including the water and land resource requirements of alternative fuel production. These factors should be considered in order to determine the overall environmental viability of alternatives to petroleum-derived transportation fuels. Middle distillate (MD) fuels, including diesel and jet fuel, are of particular interest because they currently make up almost 30% of liquid fuel consumption in the US, and alternative MD fuels could potentially satisfy 21 of the 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels mandated by RFS2 in 2022. This thesis quantifies the lifecycle blue (surface and ground) water consumption footprint of MD from conventional crude oil; Fischer-Tropsch (FT) MD from natural gas and coal; fermentation and advanced fermentation (AF) MD from biomass; and hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) MD and biodiesel from oilseed crops, in the US. FT and rainfed biomass-derived MD have lifecycle blue water consumption footprints between 1.4 and 18.1 lwater/lMD, comparable to conventional MD, between 4.1 and 7.5 lwater/lMD. Irrigated biomass-derived MD has a lifecycle blue water consumption footprint potentially several orders of magnitude larger, between 2.5 and 5300 lwater/lMD. Results are geospatially disaggregated, and the trade-offs between blue water consumption footprint and areal MD productivity, between 490 and 3710 lMD/ha, are quantified under assumptions of rainfed and irrigated biomass cultivation. / by Mark Douglas Staples. / S.M.in Technology and Policy

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2010. / Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-80). / The objective of this thesis was to determine if line-haul rates are impacted by bid type, and if aggregation of bidding lanes can reduce costs for both shippers and carriers. Using regression analysis, we developed a model to isolate and test the cost effects that influence line-haul rate for long-haul shipments. We have determined that aggregation of low-volume lanes from point-to-point lanes to aggregated lanes can provide costs savings when lanes with origins and destinations in close proximity to each other can be bundled. In addition, bidding out region-to-region lanes can supplement point-to-point lanes by reducing the need to turn to the spot market. The model shows that bundling lanes can provide significant cost savings to a shipper because contract lanes of any type are on average less costly than spot moves. This thesis provides guidelines and suggestions for aggregation when creating bids during the first stage of the truckload procurement process. / by Julia M. Collins and R. Ryan Quinlan. / M.Eng.in Logistics

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 477-498). / This inquiry started with the simple question, "Who manages the Internet infrastructure and how?" Since, this question evolved into an evaluation of the routing system and the institutions that manage it. This institutional complex is referred to as the number resource system (NRS). NRS authority is contingent, rooted in consensus based knowledge assessment necessary to adapt apace with Internet growth. The efficiency with which observable negative externalities are remediated is a compelling entry point to this work. The Pakistan-YouTube story is a halcyon parable of "self-repair." Network operators recognized a global negative externality, traced it to the origin, and remediated the complicit networks in approximately three hours. To the casual observer, organic cooperation surfaced to remediate damages, then dissolved into the background noise of "normal operations." Remediation is far from organic; rather, it is a consequence of distinct rights and obligations amongst, and enforced by, NRS participants. Explaining the rationale and mechanics of "ad hoc" crisis management is the first contribution of this work. The early NRS comprised "close-knit yet loosely organized" communities created to 1) share operational knowledge (network operator groups, NOGs); 2) delegate unique network identifiers (Regional Internet Registries, RIRs); 3) create neutral markets for exchanging routes and traffic (Internet eXchanges, IXes); and 4) limit abusive messaging (anti-spam, later anti-abuse). Alongside Internet growth, NRS norms evolved into distinct institutions, replete with function-specific constitutional, collective choice, and operational rules for managing the knowledge commons and facilities supporting routing system function. The NRS institutions form a contingent social order, rooted in shared, authoritative images of system function and externalities management. NRS institutions collectively ensure participants common interests in the jointly provisioned routing system stability. The second contribution of this work explains NRS institutional structures and how the attendant rules keep pace with a high clockspeed Internet infrastructure. NRS institutions are characteristically, and necessarily, adaptive: each comprises a unique consensus process, animated by a diverse set of nominal competitors, that creates and adapts function-specific rules and processes contributing to routing system integrity. Consensus processes evaluate the performance of common resource management rules and, when-not if-necessary, adapt these rules to satisfy changing resource demands and patterns of use in the broader Internet infrastructure industry. Anticipation and evaluation in the consensus process are essential to adaptive capability, framed as a form of joint knowledge assessment. Moreover, diverse representation, comprising experts across industry sub-sectors, animated by constructive conflict amongst these experts, mediated by consensus processes, makes for a durable family of credible knowledge assessment processes that are rare amongst conventional regulatory arrangements. Processes described thus far are largely endogenous to the NRS and its constituencies. Historically these institutions have operated quietly underneath the hood. Adaptation and the resulting policy is scoped to common interests, explicitly avoiding impinging on public policy. In contrast to conventional international regimes, the NRS self-limits to the scope of its authority, namely supporting and enhancing routing system function. Thus far, the NRS's common interests have not run counter to the public interest. Nonetheless, a path-dependent history of harmonious alignment between a common and the public does not carry the assurances of alignment resulting from explicit coordination and cooperation. Some states and state-sanctioned international governance organizations see control of NRS facilities as critical to preserving their own authority. Predatory claims to stewardship of routing system resources further complicates the alignment problem. To better frame and understand this alignment problem, the concluding chapters of the dissertation explore the question: 'Are the incentives and resources of NRS institutions commensurate with the aggregate social loss due to a partial, or worse yet, systemic, failure?" Simply put, absent the progress on the explicit assurances above, the answer is no. Would-be state principals also fall short. State-based authorities are severely deficient in basic operational capacity that form the foundation of knowledge assessment capabilities and subsequent adaptive capabilities in the NRS. States' deficiencies correspond to those capabilities engendered by the NRS. Adding NRS stewardship to a state's portfolio of domestic regulatory interests will expose management processes to powerful short-term interests that will inevitably weaken, if not eliminate, extant credible knowledge assessment and adaptive capabilities. In effect, aggressive predatory rule would likely eliminate precisely the characteristics that make the NRS a valuable steward of a high clockspeed infrastructure. This initial conclusion is not a prediction of adaptive management doomed to failure. Although neither the NRS, nor state authorities, have sufficient capabilities and modes of authority to manage an Internet underpinning an ever-increasing array of public, private, and social goods on their own, a mix of their capabilities is sufficient. Rather, the conclusion frames a discussion of what explicit assurances will look like and the barriers to developing those assurances. The last part of this dissertation lays out the challenges for establishing such a comity, a mutual recognition of the norms and authority between the NRS and state authorities. In the global political arena, the NRS's political capital is credible knowledge assessment and adaptive capacity as the roots of authoritative policy advice. Barriers to explicit assurances draw lessons from the deconstruction and reconstruction of scientific knowledge in political environments, instances of international epistemic consensus, and characteristics of elusive, but effective, adaptation that has survived in conventional regulatory environments. Analytically, the dissertation argues the NRS and state authority need not be competitors-the two can be quite complementary. If these two sets of institutions can avoid the pitfalls of previous efforts, in particular short-term usurpation of the others' authority, the global, nondiscriminatory character of the Internet may be sustainable. / by Jesse Horton Sowell, II. / Ph. D.

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2004. / "June 2004." / Includes bibliographical references. / As economies grow and companies seek increasing market shares, they must also build the infrastructure within their organization to support that growth. In the grocery business in particular, there are many challenges associated with fleet management and the opportunity to centrally manage the entire fleet is viewed as a cost and time-savings opportunity. This project was conducted in partnership with a grocery retailer with the goal of examining several elements of the companies transportation system and processes with two goals in mind. The first goal was to look for opportunities to reduce cost, total miles traveled, and total empty miles traveled by the fleet. The second goal was to examine current processes and start to determine what changes or approaches should be recommended in pursuit of a central dispatching function to coordinate all movements within the transportation network. For this particular retailer, several areas were identified as potential stepping stones in its plan to begin a central dispatching operation. These areas of opportunity include using third party carriers for store deliveries, planning routes to increase the level of coordination between inbound and outbound transportation, and using the retailer's private fleet to provide carrier service for other shippers. Analysis projected that using third party carriers for outbound store deliveries could save the organization a significant sum of money, more than 1% of annual freight costs. Overall, there are many opportunities to take advantage of network characteristics to improve overall efficiency, reducing total cost and total empty miles traveled; they are discussed in detail. / by Nancy June Archambault. / M.Eng.in Logistics