Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-129). / The automobile steering system can be thought of as a system within a system. The steering system has clear functions and requirements as well as many interrelated components and subsystems including the front tires, wheels, front suspension, steering gear, intermediate shaft, column and steering wheel. System decomposition is an important aspect of this system analysis. The scope of this thesis is the steering system and steering attributes of a particular new model program code named UXXX. An important element of this research is a case study where an error state called Nibble was discovered late in the program. The attempted resolution of the concern caused much turmoil and drove higher component costs, engineering costs, launch delays, warranty costs and decreased customer satisfaction. The main objective of this work was to execute good system analysis to understand key interactions within the system and to provide documentation and knowledge transfer of key discoveries. A requirement based Design Structure Matrix (DSM) was used as the primary methodology for system analysis. In order to construct the DSMs, Axiomatic Design's Design Matrix (DM) was used to develop Functional Requirements (FRs) and Design Parameters (DPs). The requirements based DSM was derived from the DM. DSMs were created from requirements based interactions, spatial interactions and Nibble relationships (Design Parameters influencing Nibble). Herein outlines an approach for synthesizing functional requirements to create a quality Design Matrix and then transform into a DSM. One key discovery is in the development of FRs using a left-to-right and then a right-to-left approach followed by synthesis. Another important development is a matrix comparison / (cont.) method where matrices of different types of interactions are compared through matrix addition. Discussion of key questions from the case are presented as well as conclusions, recommendations and proposed future work. / by Matthew R. Bagley. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, February 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-98). / by Michael J. Cuppernull. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70). / by Bruce E. Hoopes. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, June 2004. / "January 2004." / Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-168). / This thesis presents a framework that can be used to identify the flexibility attributes and determine the value of embedding flexibility in system architectures, from the context of network based wireless applications and wireless handset processors Flexibility is first defined and the three dimensions of flexibility - performance, capacity and functionality are explored. This analysis is used to formulate a general model of the dimensions of flexibility. The analysis to determine the value of embedding flexibility is then done using the example of a flexible handset processor. The Black-Scholes model and the Binomial model are presented as methods for computing the economics of financial options. These methods are then applied to computing the value of flexibility options. In order to determine the value of the underlying asset, which is one of the terms needed for the valuation of flexibility, two approaches are presented: conjoint analysis and concept engineering. The bounds of time to expiation are explored. The cost of embedding flexibility is then assessed. Finally, a few methods are proposed for determining the optimal flexibility design vector and implementing a portfolio of real option based flexibility strategy. / by Prithviraj Banerjee. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-85). / In the commercial industry, an investment in a new innovation can make or break a company. In order for the new innovation to succeed in a competitive marketplace, it must deliver value to its stakeholders. Companies are thus rewarded to assess the value an innovation will deliver to its customers early in the design process. This thesis provides a framework to measure the potential value a new innovation will deliver to consumers based on scoping the project. The framework provides details on creating a model based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) by establishing a hierarchy of customer objectives. The application of the framework is then applied to a large company developing two new innovations. Two interesting facts arose from the study. First, the value assessment model can be fractionated to evaluate how new products are valued by multiple market segments. A company can use this information to align a new innovation with a brand segmentation and develop an appropriate strategy to launch products. Secondly, this methodology has been shown to work on incremental innovation and non-traditional products which expand the customer base. The methodology does work when applied to radical innovation which overturns existing value structures and changes the market dynamics. / by Timothy N. Aykroyd. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-126). / Introduction: The amount of information available nowadays is staggering and increases exponentially. Making sense of this data has become increasingly difficult because of the two factors: · The sheer volume of data · The lack of interoperability between disparate data sources and models While one can do little about the former factor, the latter one can be mitigated by advancing solutions that make data easy to work with and ensure the interoperability among data sources and models in intelligent networks. One way to achieve interoperability is to force every entity involved in the data exchange to adopt the same standard. However, organizations have heavily invested in proprietary data standards and are unlikely to replace their existing standards with a new one. Therefore, another solution is to create a standard, through which organizations can translate their data sources and share them with their customers or general community. The MIT Data Center is spearheading an initiative to create M - a language that is capable to provide the much needed interoperability between divergent data sources and models with an ultimate goal of creating a new intelligent information infrastructure (Brock, Schuster and Kutz 2006). / by Marat Zborovskiy. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-99). / The objective of this thesis is to analyze the factors that create competitive advantage through global delivery of IT services. Research on this thesis consists of a review of IT services markets and globally distributed operating models for IT services. A simple framework is created to analyze global delivery models (GDM) used by IT services companies. A few companies, including Infosys, have pioneered the GDM and hence the framework created is used to analyze Infosys' global delivery model. Finally, recommendations are made, based on this analysis, to enable firms to gain competitive advantage by looking beyond the adoption of global delivery models for IT services. / by Binoy Cherian. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-71). / by Ebad Jahangir. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 48). / Uncertainty in the decision making environment complicates the decision making process because future events may change the effect of a particular decision or series of decisions. This thesis explores the possibility of applying robust engineering design techniques to the decision making process in order to limit the effects of changing circumstances. The intent is to identify solutions that will reduce the variation in the outcome of decisions that are made across many projects by analyzing projects that have been executed at the Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) over the past several years. A framework to relate past performance to match the requirements of experiments in a Design of Experiments (DOE) analysis is developed. The approach views factors that are considered in making decisions as controllable elements and factors that unexpectedly affect the outcome of the decisions as noise. The resulting framework is then organized such that the data can be analyzed using the Taguchi approach to DOE, which has been successfully used for analyzing engineering design and manufacturing processes. The analysis approach considers the robustness of the outcome based on the factors used to make the decisions about the various projects that have been conducted at DFRC over the past six years. The decision process performance is analyzed and recommendation are made to improve the performance of the decision making process at DFRC. The analysis indicates that projects providing large increases in technical knowledge were the most influential in reducing the effects from changes in budget and staffing resources that were beyond the control of the decision makers. / by Vince Chacon. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 82). / by Christine Miyachi. / S.M.