Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, June 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 66). / Deciding on which reliability & performance improvement projects to launch or to reject has historically been an extremely challenging responsibility of Teradyne management. Incorrect decisions can lead to major customer dissatisfaction, which may subsequently lead to loss of market share. Teradyne Engineering and Marketing team have been trying to develop a tool that would assist in their reliability improvement project decision making. The challenge is the dynamic aspects of the reliability improvement projects. Like most engineering projects, reliability improvement projects have variables such as internal workforce, productivity, skill sets, customer expectations and many others that are in constant motion. These variables make the assessment of reliability projects extremely difficult in a static framework. This research will incorporate these key variables into a dynamic framework to help assess individual reliability improvement projects. / by Paul Devine. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72). / Product development success is an important strategic factor in today's business environment. The ability to accurately predict the outcome of product development projects would be a useful strategic tool. This research will use a product development process assessment survey called "Perform" to evaluate project success and also evaluates the effectiveness of the "Perform" survey. Two abilities of the survey are evaluated. The first is the consistency of the responses from different members of the development team. The second is the ability of the survey to predict the outcome of the project. The survey is evaluated by applying the survey to two projects that have been completed. The results of each respondent are compared for consistency. The results of the project are also compared to the results of the survey to gauge the predictive ability of the survey. Perform was found to provide fairly consistent responses from members of the development team. The survey did a good job of predicting project outcome. / by Benjamin A. Kellam. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70). / Grid computing has a potential market opportunity of $12 billion by 2007 [6] and recent business strategy alignment to support Grid Computing by the major vendors like IBM, SUN, Oracle and others has resulted in high interests in numerous 'Grid Computing' products and solutions offered. The different frameworks and standards have also led to confusion in the industry as to the 'right' way of implementing Grid Computing. There is a tremendous need today for massive computing cycles to evaluate various business and engineering decisions and businesses are under continuous pressure of high infrastructure costs and lack of flexibility and reliability [4]. There are already various solutions that have evolved over decades to meet these needs but there is no overwhelming adoption of such technologies by corporations unlike in academia. The thesis is derived from this need to attempt to clarify the current and future state of Grid Computing by evaluating the various standards and implementations available. A hierarchy of Types of Grid is also presented. Several case studies are also used to illustrate the effect of current technology implementations and their benefits. Future predictions of the market and technology drivers are also presented based on interviews and available research data. / by Mesbah Haque. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [126]-128). / The need for robust systems engineering in product development has been understood by those developing product in the aerospace and defense industries since the days of the Atlas ballistic missile program. In recent times industries developing systems of similar complexity have come to respect the value of systems engineering. Systems engineering is the glue which binds a large technical team and focuses the engineering effort towards satisfying a set of realizable customer needs. EIA/IS-632 definition of systems engineering is as follows; "Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary approach encompassing the entire technical effort to evolve and verify an integrated and life-cycle balanced set of system people, product and process solutions that satisfy customer needs."To control and improve a process a viable set of measures must be in place. Existing measures of the strength of the systems engineering process in a specific project address only project execution (e.g. earned value) and technical performance. When applied properly these metrics provide valuable insight into the status (cost and schedule) of a project and a products ability to meet customer needs. However, few of these existing measures are progressive in nature and as such fail to provide early warnings of systems engineering process failure. What are needed are prognostics for the systems engineering effort; gauges to provide predictions of future events which impact product cost, schedule and/or performance. The Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI), working with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), released a guide (in Beta form) in December of 2005 outlining a progressive set of thirteen leading indicators to address this need. This set of metrics has yet to be been verified against an active or historical project but provides a starting ground for additional research. / by Timothy Daniel Flynn. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116). / by Michelle T. Beckert. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 96). / Companies heavily and successfully invested in traditional technologies (defenders) often find it difficult to make the transitions to new disruptive technologies, in spite of technological competence and clear opportunity to do so. The core competencies that enabled the firm to excel under the old paradigms become core rigidities when faced with the need to address technological discontinuities. Products like digital still cameras, DSCs, represent the convergence of multiple rapidly changing technologies in electronics, optics, computers, networks, and software. The emergence and adoption of digital still photography both accompanies and defines a new paradigm in the sharing of images as it attempts to both emulate and replace the previous modalities while creating new market-expanding opportunities. The emergence of digital still photography has been predicted and promised for several decades. Indeed, it has already managed to replace silver halide altogether in certain market segments previously relied upon by conventional photography firms, and is at present extending beyond the early adopter stage in the broader consumer market. It is a current example of innovation and technological discontinuity, and one that has enough history to permit analysis. It poses a real potential disruptive threat to the incumbent players, some of which have succumbed while others apparently succeeded. This thesis studies the relationships between the development of the composite technologies in digital photography, the environment in which they operate, the emergence of dominant designs, market diffusion, and the strategies for success employed by leading participants. In the process of studying patterns of entry and exit firms and a detailed look at their products, evidence of a dominant design and support in this industry for the Abernathy and Utterback model of industrial innovation is uncovered. Also revealed is a second wave of innovation in the DSC industry that is firmly established and suggests the onset of a Christiansen-style disruptive dynamic. By studying this specific technological discontinuity in the context of the broader patterns, lessons in adapting to technological change in general are learned. / by J. Peter Zelten. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, leaves 340-342). / by William L. Blake, Jr. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-95). / by Pei Wang. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-118). / Automobiles are complex products. High product complexity drives high levels of design and process complexity and complicatedness. This thesis attempts to reduce complicatedness in the automotive vehicle design and development process utilizing systems engineering tools including the design structure matrix (DSM) and axiomatic design concepts. The title of the thesis is a misnomer; complexity in automotive design and development is not "going away", but through the use of system engineering tools it is believed that the complicatedness of automotive design can be reduced and the consequences of decisions can be better understood at earlier stages in product development. A holistic view of the complexity and complicatedness challenge is considered, in order to identify high leverage points and generic insights that can be carried forward to future product development efforts. The goal is to translate generalized learning and systems thinking to the application of systems tools and processes that enable an understanding of complexity, in order to design better operating policies that guide positive change in systems. The analysis starts with considerations across the automotive enterprise, then the focus sharpens to the early stages of the product development process. Then a more detailed level of abstraction is considered when the automotive chassis tuning process and the interactions between the vehicle dynamics and noise and vibration (NVH) attributes are considered. The automotive rear suspension design is used to illustrate the concepts at the detailed level of abstraction. A rear suspension system case study is included, as it met a number of the challenges inherent in large-scale systems; it provides the elements of a technical challenge / (cont.) and the integration of business and engineering issues, while encompassing detailed and broad issues that across different parts of the organization. The analysis demonstrates that the complicatedness of systems can be reduced and complexity can be managed through the use of the design structure matrix and axiomatic design concepts. Recommendations are made to foster improved decision-making that will result in improved automobiles and include the following: start simply with the application of these concepts on the critical few interactions that drive system performance, manage information explicitly, account and provision for risks in the development process, and reduce complexity and complicatedness through reuse. / by Ronald J. Ziegler. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-72). / The objective of this Thesis was to strategically redesign and transform the supply chain of a series of detonators in a leading Company serving the oil and gas industry. The scope of the Thesis included data gathering and analysis, and the proposal and implementation of possible solutions. The issues addressed included sourcing and partnership strategies and development of systemic inventory management policies. We optimized the inventory policies to minimize the ordering and holding costs while improving the customer service level. For this purpose, we considered the entire supply chain starting from the Company's internal and external suppliers and Subcontractors all the way to the end-customers. By considering all these players we were able to globally optimize the supply chain. The inventory policy used was a periodic review policy for which we optimized the reorder, order-up-to level and Safety Stock levels. We analyzed the effects of the forecasting error and the potential benefits of risk pooling. / (cont.) We also identified and recommended a new push-pull boundary for the Company's detonator products and provided a generic platform to identify this boundary for other products within the Company. The supply chain management system and managerial insights developed from this project can potentially be extended to other products and divisions within the Company. / by Konstantinos F. Zafiriou. / S.M.