Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-105). / Architectural innovation is achieved using architectural knowledge to reconfigure an established system to link together components in a new way that provides a competitive advantage. Components in professional service firms are the expertise areas in which the firms have developed proficiency or those in which they plan to develop it. Competitive advantage in professional service firms is related to the capacity of the firm to add continuing value to a dynamic set of clients and to itself. In order to add value, professional service firms, being knowledge intensive, must develop capabilities that enhance the knowledge capital they possess, which is valuable to both its clients and to the professionals they employ. This knowledge capital can be classified into Human Knowledge, Relational Knowledge and Structural Knowledge. The first two types are comprised mainly of tacit knowledge, while the third one consists of explicit knowledge. Architectural innovation modes result from the reconfiguration of these knowledge types in ways that enhance the value creation processes of professional service firms. This work explores the ways professional services firms achieve these reconfigurations and offers insights into the key characteristics of successful practices. / by Fernando Espinosa Vasconcelos. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-60). / The medical care of space crews is the primary limiting factor in the achievement of long-duration space missions. (Nicogossian 2003) The goal of this thesis was to develop a model of long-duration human space flight astronaut health and a medical supply demand model in support of such missions. This model will be integrated into an existing comprehensive interplanetary supply chain management and logistics architecture simulation and optimization tool, SpaceNet. The model provides two outputs, Alphah and Mass, for each set of input variables. Alphah is an estimate of crew health and is displayed as a percentage. Mass is a measure of medical consumables expended during the mission and is displayed in kilograms. We have demonstrated that Alphah is a function of three scaling parameters, the type of mission, duration of mission, and gender of crew. The type of mission and gender are linked to radiation fatality data published by NASA and mission duration correlates to predicted incidence of illness and injury and linked to the model through published US Navy submarine crew medical data. The mass of medical consumables (MMC) expended increases with the number of crew, the duration of the mission and the distance of the mission away from the earth. The degree of medical expertise on-board is not necessarily related to a change in consumption of medical supplies but perhaps to a better outcome for the individual infirmed crew member. / (cont.) We have determined that there is no information to incorporate gender into this aspect of the model and that the ages of the crewmembers would also have a negligible effect. Risk was investigated as an additional independent driver in the calculations. This parameter defined as likelihood of a medical event multiplied by impact to the mission, is in line with current NASA planning processes. Although the equations don't currently incorporate this parameter, implementation in subsequent versions of the model would allow for a more granular description of medical supply mass (i.e. laboratory and diagnostic, imaging, medications, surgical supplies, telemedicine and expert systems equipment) needed to support long-duration human operations in space. The framework of SpaceNet does not currently allow for this level of detail but future version of the software would likely develop and integrate this capability. / by Albert Assad. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / "November, 1988." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-90). / The aircraft gas turbine product architecture and manufacturing infrastructure are used to show the importance in the relationship between the organizational architecture and product architecture. The product complexity, organizational complexity and new product development costs are compared for three major aircraft gas turbine producers spanning the market from 2500 pounds to 100,000 pounds of thrust. It is found that organizational response to product complexity varies widely, resulting in a factor of 2 to 3 in both cycle time and cost for new product development, depending on the enterprise. A relationship between the product complexity and organizational complexity is established based on the documented product development procedures within these companies, and a proportionality is observed between the product complexity derived from the procedures and the expended resources required to develop new products. / by John P. Sullivan. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-137). / An architecture for a new customer interface tool is proposed ·which facilitates the customer's participation in the conceptual design of new products. Customer design activities including geometry manipulation, feature selection, allocation of constrained attributes and design comparison .:ire combined to enable customers to explore a defined solution space to identify solutions which maximize their utility. The tool provides a means of communication between a customer with a rich knowledge of need'i but having weak design skills and a new product designer armed with strong design skills but a knowledge of only the most codified of customer needs. When provided with an easy to use design tool based on use relevant language, the customer can perform a large number of the design iterations typical of the multi-attribute, high bandwidth conceptual design phase. Conjoint analysis is proposed to expand understanding of customer needs at design points surrounding the maximum utility solution idemified by customer design activities. The Internet with rapidly expaning bandwidth and new graphical tools is shown to be a very effective medium for customer design. the assitability of customer design across differential product and customer types is explored. Customer design is identified as a tool to support the rapidly growing trend of mass customization. / by Christopher Van Buiten. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / "December 1998." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-92). / Software Development projects have a long history of being notoriously difficult to manage. From early experiences with the IBM OS/360 Operating System over 20 years ago to more recent experiences with the IBM OS/390 Operating System, the Project Management challenges remain. This phenomenon exists despite the wide spread availability of well-developed Project Management techniques such as the Critical Path Method (CPM) and the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). The challenges also transcend the introduction of ever more powerful programming tools and techniques such as structured programming, high-level languages, source-level debuggers, and object-oriented programming. As in many industries, a key challenge in the Software industry is the reliable delivery of products in an environment of ever decreasing product cycle times. Recent work by Eliyahu M. Goldratt suggests that the struggle with on-time delivery may well lie with the underlying Project Management techniques that have become so widely accepted. These techniques foster behavior patterns that are counter-productive to the shortening of product cycle times. They fail to focus the organization on the Project Management system at large and can encourage dysfunctional decision making [l ]. Work in the field of System Dynamics has independently reached similar conclusions. The traditional Project Management techniques offer little to help the Project Manager cope with issues at the strategic level. Without strategic guidance, the Project Manager is left to make poor, informal judgments and may not make adequate allowances for factors that negatively impact project performance [2]. Goldratt offers a new, alternative project scheduling approach called Critical Chain as a mechanism for improving an organization's underlying Project Management structure. Critical Chain is based on principles developed a decade earlier in Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. The Theory of Constraints changed the way organizations think about Manufacturing processes. Likewise, Critical Chain requires that organizations reformulate their approach to managing development projects. This thesis will study the successful results of applying Critical Chain on two actual Software Development projects in IBM's System 390 Division. Each of these projects achieved commitments on time. Critical Chain's contribution to these results will be discussed. The experiences gained along with potential pitfalls of Critical Chain will also be considered. In particular, the issues involved with applying this approach to a Software Development environment in which traditional methods are in widespread use will be emphasized. A discussion of the potential limitations of the Critical Chain approach will also be provided. / by Theodore R. Maeurer. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-81). / This research involves the identification and definition of"Endangered Knowledge" and outlines a tool that a firm can use to identify, capture, and reutilizes endangered knowledge. Endangered knowledge (EK) is valuable knowledge firms acquire during product development that has a high potential to be erased from a firm's memory. Two primary factors contribute to endangered knowledge. First, the firm does not believe the knowledge has future value, or does not take the time to correctly assess the value of the knowledge. Product development teams are usually under a great deal of time and financial pressures, and once a particular piece of knowledge has been acquired and applied to a specific process, it is quickly discarded. Second, an individual in a firm may realize that a piece of knowledge could have value to their team or another team in the future, but have no system in place which will enable them to effectively store and communicate that knowledge. In both cases, the knowledge is lost, ultimately costing the firm time and money to replace the lost learning. This paper can be broken up into four sections. The first section includes an introduction to endangered knowledge and provides two case studies where different product development teams wasted time and money because they were unable to access knowledge acquired by other members in their firm. The second section defines the terminology, (knowledge vs. information, learning vs. teaching, transfer vs. transform) and highlights knowledge management (KM) initiatives in existence today. The third section outlines five essential steps a knowledge management system must address in order to be effective. The final section introduces a new methodology product development teams can use to capture and reuse, or "rescue" endangered knowledge. / by Shawn W. Ritchie. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 130-135). / Make-buy decisions, and their associated strategic sourcing activities, define the very identity of £inns, shape their competitive advantage, and determine their long-term survival and success. Conceptually, make-buy decisions reflect a firm's overarching strategic directions and are grounded in its clearly-articulated core competencies. This thesis critically examines two analytical frameworks in the literature that have been advanced to explain or guide make-buy decisions by firms. The case study focuses on a commercial helicopter development program that has prompted the case study firm to undertake a fundamental rethinking of its long-standing make-buy policies, sourcing strategies, and supplier integration practices. The objective of the study is not only to assess the applicability and generalizability of these analytical frameworks but also to gain new insights into the dynamics of make-buy decisions. The thesis also examines the firm's new sourcing strategy, linked to its make­buy decisions, resulting in long-term collaborative and partnering relationships with its significant subsystem suppliers, both domestically and internationally. The ex post case study analysis, concentrating on the nose section of the development helicopter, generally confirmed at a fairly high level the usefulness of applying these analytical frameworks to key make-buy decisions before such decisions are made. However, at a more detailed level of analysis, focusing on specific subsystem components and the pacing technologies underlying them, the analysis also raised sufficiently important issues on whether their outsourcing ("buy" decision) may have been consistent with maintaining the firm's core competencies and longer-term competitive advantage. The analysis also pointed out that higher-level strategic considerations may override make-buy and supply chain design strategies that may be suggested by a technical decomposition of the product system architecture. / by Rudy G. Prudente. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 1999. / 10912289 / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-94). / In this thesis we develop and demonstrate a method, called a System Integration Analysis, to produce a comprehensive understanding of the activities Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) perform in designing and developing a large complex product or system. The methodology is applied to an existing product or system whose physical architecture can be partitioned into comparable sections, or chunks, as the IPTs who design and develop it. Its goal is to identify specific integrative mechanisms to better align the Integrated Product Development (IPD) process and the organization with the product architecture. These mechanisms are then developed into specific recommendations in consideration of a strategic and tactical framework for achievement of the desired future state of the organization and its IPD process. Implementation of the initiatives is directed to a comprehensive change process defined to address the cultural, structural, and political reality of the company. The methodology uses two distinct applications of a Design Structure Matrix, and several complimentary approaches to the analysis of the data. The methodology is demonstrated with a world-class commercial high bypass-ratio turbofan engine, the Pratt & Whitney PW4098. This product is a derivative design of an existing configuration, or family of engines. Recommendations based upon the PW4098 application include specific interface management and system integration improvements, a minor organizational re-alignment, stronger discipline management, and clearly defined roles and responsibilities of key players. / by Craig M. Rowles. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-93). / The North Berwick Engine Services (NBES) Business Unit at the Pratt & Whitney (PW) facility in North Berwick, Maine has identified the need to develop new for cleaning/stripping parts in the overhaul and repair cycle of jet engine components. I investigate the issues that must be answered for the introduction of a new cleaning technique. The new method uses a waterjet in place of a wet abrasive blast using a novaculite slurry solution. The process used to develop high-pressure waterjet cleaning procedures was based on Robust Design methodology. Robust Design uses orthogonal arrays which allow a large number of variables to be studied with a small number of experiments. This requires selection of key input factors that affect the output characteristics of the product. A set of experiments with seven control factors were run in order to determine the response to two quality characteristics: material erosion and increase in surface roughness. Optimum settings for each one of these seven control factors were established. A verification experiment was run in order to validate predictions made based on the optimum settings. It is estimated that this new cleaning method will yield $1,730,000 of savings over the next five years, eliminate four hours of labor per part, and increase production capacity by two additional person-­years. / by Hernando Alejandro Sanchez. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, February 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 62). / System architecture is driven by numerous upstream influences. Regulations, market forces, cultural biases, and a variety of other influences can significantly affect whether architecture is successful or not. To be successful the architect must include upstream influences in the design. Few if any architectural methods are available to systematically account for upstream influences. A new method, Evaluation by a Single Metric (ESM), is presented. It is based on fundamental design principles. It enhances the system architectural process by organizing upstream influences that drive architecture. The ESM method is concept independent and used before concept focused system architectural methods. Specifically, system boundaries, salient upstream elements. and functional connections thereof are systematically determined. The ESM process provides a concept neutral framework used to evaluate candidate architectural concepts. The ESM method is very general. It can be used for the design of nearly any kind of system or process. The thesis makes extensive use of a diverse set of examples which highlight ESM advantages and flexibility. / by Mark W. Scott. / S.M.