Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-58). / High-tech firms are among the fastest growing in the United States. The four industries with the most rapid growth -internet, software, semiconductors, and technology hardware - have almost doubled their share of industry output in the United States over the last decade. These firms are not only an important stimulus to the national economy but also have spawned new industries and spearheaded the development of innovative products and services. It is for these reasons that these firms are of particular interests to managers, investors, and academics. By examining these firms, researchers can help managers, investors, and academics better understand the attributes associated with firm growth. The purpose of this study was to determine whether any correlations existed between the size of the pre-IPO (initial public offering) venture fund and founder characteristics with firm growth. Twenty different high-tech firms were studied. These firms were divided into two different samples. One sample consisted of 10 firms that went public well before the 2000 recession and the other sample consisted of 10 firms that went public close to the 2000 recession. A 5 year time period beyond an IPO was used for calculating the firm's average growth rate. The results showed a negative correlation between the size of the pre-IPO venture funds and firm growth. No significant correlation between founder age and prior entrepreneurial experience of the founder with firm growth was found. / (cont.) As far as the prior relevant industry experience of the founder is concerned, an average experience of 6+ years was found to be positively correlated with firm growth. Even though, no correlation was found between founder education and firm growth; founders having a masters or a PhD degree outperformed those with a bachelor's or even a high-school degree. The results serve to provide contextual information to managers, investors, and academics who wish to consider their firm's growth potential or in general invest in high-tech firms. In addition, the study adds to the rich literature on the impact of pre-IPO venture funds and founder characteristics on firm success. / by Safwan Zaheer. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 68). / Manufacturers, product designers and developers of products that have a large and diverse user base are consistently trying to produce products that satisfy as many users as possible. Manufacturers and product developers have found that it is extremely difficult to do so. The closer the manufacturer or developer gets to meeting all user needs, the higher and more prohibitive the cost gets. The Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Program Office, within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has the task the do just that. To its credit the TFM program office has come quite close to achieving this. The goal of this thesis is to identify and document the practices that have made the TFM program office successful and to find ways that can help them achieve even greater end user satisfaction. To do this TFM's complete product development cycle was analyzed. Special attention was given to user interaction and user innovation. / (cont.) The research found that the TFM program office does a good job of identifying user requirements, it also does a good job in incorporating user innovations but despite this, they are not able to meet all the user needs. The toolkit model is then used to demonstrate how the TFM program office can overcome some challenges that are inherent to the processes it currently follows. / by Vaynu Osuri. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, February 2001. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 102). / by Ronald Sadownick. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-131). / by Weic S. Whitman. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-318). / The research presented in this thesis presents a methodology compatible with the Department of Defense (DoD) Capability-Based Assessment (CBA) process for analyzing and recommending appropriate enterprise architectures for the challenge of integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the national airspace system (NAS). Thesis organization is sub-divided into four sections. Section I provides the introduction, context, and recent efforts of the UAS airspace integration challenge and the underlying motivations driving the increased desire to see UAS better integrated into the NAS. Section II details the methodology used in the analysis by extending various value-focused, lean enterprise constructs using rigorous object process methodology (OPM) to describe and build alternative enterprise architectures. Section III applies the methodology to the UAS airspace integration problem specifically with the development and selection of a preferred enterprise architecture and a recommended transformation plan. Section IV concludes with a discussion on extending the methodology for specific application back into the CBA process, the issues involved in creating an executable model for enterprise architecting, and final thoughts on the iterative nature of the methodology and the need to further refine the initial results with the UAS airspace integration enterprise decision makers. / by Luke C. G. Cropsey. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-90). / The fundamental goal of Robust Design is to improve the quality of a product by minimizing the effects of variation. A key contributor to robustness over the long term is R&D. Therefore, a framework is desired to help managers to identify promising improvement paths that a system may undergo, thus helping out in deciding R&D resource allocation. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to a framework for robustness inventions. This contribution is sought by analyzing the evolution in robustness of a single component in a particular engineering system - the engine cylinder head. By analyzing a series of patents related to reliability and robustness of engine cylinder heads, the author identified generalizable inventive strategies for robust design. / by Luz de Lourdes Gómez de la Mora. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / By the end of 2008, there are over 4 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide, translating into a penetration rate of 61%. In developed economies like the United States, the penetration rate has reached over 85%. Even though the subscriber numbers are reaching saturation levels, the revenues of mobile operators continue to grow at a double-digit rate. This is primarily because of an increase in data usage over cellular networks. Mobile handsets have become increasingly powerful and rival the capabilities of personal computers from just a few years ago. These devices can be used to run a variety of applications and are fast becoming the medium of choice for accessing the Internet. Cellular networks are also becoming increasingly powerful in their ability to carry large amounts of data. This evolution in capabilities has attracted a variety of new players to the wireless ecosystem changing the nature of interaction within the ecosystem. The central role played by the wireless operators is increasingly challenged by these new entrants creating both new opportunities and new threats for all the participants in the ecosystem. This thesis will explore the structure of the wireless ecosystem as it exists today and analyze how competition between various layers and within each layer has played out. Further, it will look at the new ways in which the participants are competing with each other and how this results in emergent opportunities and threats. Finally, the thesis will draw lessons from the Internet revolution and the personal computing ecosystem to predict how the platform wars are likely to play out and who has the opportunity to become the dominant player in the new ecosystem. / by Nagarjuna Venna. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-181). / As complexity and ambiguity in products and customer needs increase, existing companies are being forced toward new organizational models. New products require integrating knowledge across technologies, architectures, and functions in new ways, building product platforms that can adapt to changes in markets and product design throughout the product development process. In particular, the wireless telecommunications industry is plagued by multiple incompatible dominant second-generation standards, with each with separate migration paths to future third generation functionality. The high initial investments in spectrum and infrastructure, and corresponding switching costs, call out for a technological solution that can both evolve with the rapid advances in technology and potentially operates seamlessly across multiple incompatible networks to unify a highly fragmented system. In a system engineering context, this thesis investigates the use of software define radio technology (SDR) as a potential replacement for hardware solutions to the multiple air interface standard problem. This thesis investigates the role of product platform architectures in product market diffusion by studying the selection of appropriate system and product architectures, product market diffusion, and the formation of a system dominant design. Using software defined radio (SDR) technology in the wireless telecommunications industry as a case study, the emergence of SDR as a potential replacement for multiple mobile phone standards is investigated. Compared with interim compatibility solutions that combine multiple air interfaces through hardware. SDRs are an emerging technology that promises to combine multiple air-interfaces into a single wireless phone platform though software configuration. Market and organizational disruptions are determined, and how platform architecture concepts can be used to mitigate these disruptions. The history of the wireless telecommunications industry is presented to highlight the determinants of product and standards success in the wireless industry. The transition between first-generation (1G) wireless, second-generation (2G) wireless, and the interim high data rate second-generation (2.5 G) system currently being rolled out is discussed. Geographical differences in standards acceptance and the role of government policies are discussed. The strong network effects in the industry are illustrated by the late success of GSM technology in the United States market. The mode of technological standard interaction or competition is determined through the use of the Lotka-Volterra model of technological interaction and lessons learned applied to third generation systems. Plans for third generation (3G) wireless are presented, and the various transition paths from 2G to 3G are discussed. The challenges of transitioning between technologies (technological discontinuities) are highlighted through a discussion of the installed base of legacy equipment. Software defined radio (SDR) technology is presented, and a platform architecture is developed in the context of 3G market penetration. The use of appropriate flexible SDR system architectures in light of rapidly changing technological and market innovations is discussed. / by Moise N. Solomon. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, September 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-126). / Computational design optimization is challenging when the number of variables becomes large. One method of addressing this problem is to use pattern recognition to decrease the solution space in which the optimizer searches. Human "common sense" is used by designers to narrow the scope of search to a confined area defined by patterns conforming to likely solution candidates. However, computer-based optimization generally does not apply similar heuristics. In this thesis, a system is presented that recognizes patterns and adjusts its search for optimal solutions based on performance associations with these patterns. A design problem was selected that requires the optimization algorithm to assess designs that evolve over time. A small sensor network design is evolved into a larger sensor network design. Optimal design solutions for the small network do not necessarily lead to optimal design solutions for the larger network. Systems that are well-positioned to evolve have characteristics that distinguish themselves from systems that are not well-positioned to evolve. In this study, a neural network was able to recognize a pattern whereby flexible sensor networks evolved more successfully than less flexible networks. / (cont.) The optimizing algorithm used this pattern to select candidate systems that showed promise for successful evolution. In this limited exploratory study, a genetic algorithm assisted by a neural network achieved better performance than an unassisted genetic algorithm did. In a Pareto front analysis, the assisted genetic algorithm yielded three times the number of optimal "non-dominated" solutions as the unassisted genetic algorithm did. It realized these results in one quarter the CPU time. This thesis uses a sensor network example to establish the merit of neural network use in multi-objective system design optimization and to lay a basis for future study. / by Michael K. Nolan. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design & Management Program, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 65). / In today's global economy, enterprises must develop higher-quality products at -an ever-increasing pace to remain competitive. This need drives project managers to seek new ways to organize and manage their development projects. Two means by which the cycle time of projects may be reduced are the Design Structure Matrix and Critical Chain methodologies. The Design Structure Matrix is a representation that makes explicit the dependencies between project tasks and in so doing clarifies how the tasks may be sequenced to avoid unnecessary, time-wasting iterations. The Critical Chain is a project-scheduling and -management methodology that recognizes that each project task is subject to uncertainty and accommodates that uncertainty in a way that protects the completion date of the project and hence minimizes its duration. While application of these techniques individually to product-development . projects has been reported in the literature, there are no reports of their application either together or to technology-development projects. That they have not been applied together is surprising, because the two methods complement each other. That they have not been applied to technology-development projects is surprising, too, because such projects have many similarities to product-development projects, and the same modern needs for cycle-time reduction. Accordingly, this thesis examines the feasibility of the application of the Design Structure Matrix and Critical Chain methodologies together to a technology-development project. The project is a four-month-long subproject of a magnetic-recording technology-development project, involving five people from two different organizations in the same company and an extern.al supplier. The major finding of the thesis work is that it is feasible to apply the two techniques together to a technology-development project-but to do so requires a high level of flexibility on the part of the Project Manager. Additional findings include guidelines for: creating the Design Structure Matrix as a team; choosing team members on the basis of their ability to implement the Critical Chain principles; and dealing with the constant flux in the task list that is inherent in technology development. / by David C. Markham. / S.M.