Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technology and Policy Program, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-91). / In today's corporate world, successful technology management is separating market leaders from laggards. Because technology is in constant change and what is state-of-the-art today will be obsolete tomorrow, it is not companies with the best technologies that ultimately succeed. Instead, successful companies are those that succeed in institutionalizing and sustaining an efficient technology development process. Moreover, this process must be continuously improved by applying new techniques and concepts to cope with the increasing challenges of technology management. This thesis will explore the extent to which Lean principles can be applied in technology development and how they can contribute to achieving new technology development imperatives (fast cycle time, increasing number of technology introductions, etc.). In order to answer these questions, the thesis proceeds in a logical manner by decomposing the objectives of technology development into organizational solutions using Axiomatic Design. Then, Lean principles as they have developed within the Product Development Focus Team of the Lean Aerospace Initiative are mapped into the above decomposition. The research concludes that under some additional considerations, Lean principles do lead to the achievement of technology development objectives. More, the above theoretical research is applied to a real world case: Technology development at Ford Motor Company. After an assessment of the current process, opportunities of improvement are identified and a leaner process is proposed. Finally, issues and opportunities with OEMs-Suppliers partnerships for new technological systems development are studied. The objective was to formulate policies and make recommendations for a better management of technology supply. / by Salim Bouzekouk. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-159). / The demand for spectrum resources has increased in the past decade due to the flourishing wireless industry worldwide. This change requires Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to establish a transparent, fair and efficient spectrum allocation process that will enable it to select an optimal set of licensees to realize efficient spectrum use. This thesis proposes an auction system that assigns exclusive spectrum licenses to firms competing in the Japanese wireless industry. MIC currently uses a comparative examination system, which unfortunately lacks certain features the Ministry is required to address. An auction system is an alternative, already employed by many countries to allocate spectrum resources optimally, to secure a transparent and fair decision-making process, and to raise revenue for national coffers. The Diet's approval of legislation authorizing MIC to use auctions is one obstacle because it requires much time and effort to persuade political parties, incumbents, and newcomers of the value of the auction system over the current system. Another challenge to the effectiveness of the auction system is its design, which must be built-to-order based on the goals of each government and specific market conditions. / (cont.) This research covers four areas: (1) The development and transition of the Japanese mobile industry; (2) Analysis of stakeholders' attitudes toward the introduction of the auction system; (3) A proposed strategy for developing an auction design based on an analysis of English, Germany and Clock Auction Design; (4) The design of an auction system for Japan's specific cases. / by Hironori Matsunaga. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-183). / Lean enterprise transformation entails a complementary set of initiatives and efforts executed over a substantial period of time, in a consistent and coordinated manner, at all levels of the enterprise. It builds upon ordinary organizational change in that a broader set of people and functions will be affected, and non-traditional approaches and mental models will continue to be exercised. I have developed and proposed a set of capabilities that must be possessed by any enterprise in order for that enterprise to successfully transform and sustain a new way of doing business. These capabilities have been drawn and compiled from a combination of organizational change literature and models, as well as personal experience and observations. Between 2003 and the present, three US Air Force Air Logistics Centers (ALCs) initiated lean enterprise transformation efforts. This notion was beyond the activities these sites pursued in the past, as the ALCs were challenged to see their enterprises as a system that needed to be optimized. I have used the capabilities developed to assess each ALC and make suggestions regarding their future needs in executing lean enterprise changes. / (cont.) In particular, I have focused on two of the twelve capabilities (a leadership team with a shared mental model and a balanced and cascading system of metrics), and compared each ALC to an ideal state and utilization of these capabilities. Further, I have examined the Warner Robins ALC with respect to all twelve capabilities, in light of past work conducted at the site. The results of this research are two-fold. First, I have learned that there are certain conditions that must be met before lean enterprise transformation can be attempted and sustained. The readiness necessary can be assessed within a combination of the qualitative results derived from a comparison with the ideal capabilities I have defined, along with the quantitative results reported with the LAI Lean Enterprise Self Assessment Tool. Second, I have determined that there are special practices and cultural aspects of government enterprises that makes lean enterprise transformation particularly difficult for them. This is the result of policies in place, and a tradition of strategic direction being handed down from above. / by Jessica Lauren Cohen. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2004. / Page 95 blank. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-77). / The motivation for this work is to quantify the complexity of complex systems and to understand its sources. To study complexity, we develop a theoretical framework where the complex system of interest is embedded in a broader system: a complex large-scale system. In order to understand and show how the complexity of the system is impacted by the complexity of its environment, three layers of complexity are defined: the internal complexity which is the complexity of the complex system itself, the external complexity which is the complexity of the environment of the system (i.e., the complexity of the large- scale system in which the system is embedded) and the interface complexity which is defined at the interface of the system and its environment. For each complexity we suggest metrics and apply them to two examples. The examples of complex systems used are two surveillance radars: the first one is an Air Traffic Control radar, the second one is a maritime surveillance radar. The two large-scale systems in which the radars are embedded are therefore the air and the maritime transportation system. The internal complexity metrics takes into account the number of links, the number of elements, the function and hierarchy of the elements. The interface complexity metric is based upon the information content of the probability of failure of the system as it is used in its environment. The External complexity metric deals with the risk configuration of large- scale systems emphasizing the reliability and the tendency to catastrophe of the system. / (cont.) The complexity metrics calculated based on specific analysis of the ATC radar are higher than those calculated for the maritime radar for all the three levels of complexity indicating that the external complexity is the source for the internal complexity. Thus, not surprisingly it appears that the technical complexity of a system mainly stems from the socio-political complexity of the large-scale system in which it is embedded. More interestingly, the more rigorous and quantitative complexity metrics (Internal and Interface) are approximately linearly related for these two systems. This result is potentially important enough to be tested over a wider variety of complex systems. / by Pierre-Alain J.Y. Martin. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-82). / The strategy adopted for national energy supply is one of the most important policy choice for the US. Although it has been dismissed in the past decades, nuclear power today has key assets when facing concerns on energy dependence and global warming. However, reactor licensing regulations need to be changed to get all the advantages of the most promising technologies. After reviewing the well-known drawbacks of the current regulatory system, the ongoing reforms from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) are presented. We argue that full benefice of modem risk analysis methods could not be obtained unless adopting a more ambitious and risk-based regulatory framework. A risk-based licensing framework is then presented, based on previous research from MIT. Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) analyses are used to drive the design toward more safety, and serve as a vehicle for a constructive discussion between designers and the NRC. Mandatory multilevel safety goals are proposed to ensure that adequate safety and adequate treatment of uncertainties are provided. A case-study finally illustrates how this framework would operate. It is based on the Gas- cooled Fast Reactor (GFR) project developed at MIT. We show how PRA provides guidance for the design. Especially, PRA work makes designers consider otherwise overlooked uncertainties and find proper solutions. In a second phase, a simulation of the review by the regulator is conducted. Few new safety concerns are brought. The discussion shows that the proposed risk-based framework has been effective. However, it also highlights that improvements of PRA methodology and clarification over the treatment of key uncertainties are needed. / by Grégoire Jourdan. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 160-167). / Intelligent driver warning systems can be found in many high-end vehicles on the road today, which will likely rapidly increase as they become standard equipment. However, introducing multiple warning systems into vehicles could potentially add to the complexity of the driving task, and there are many critical human factors issues that should be considered, such as how the interaction between alarm alerting schemes, system reliabilities, and distractions combine to affect driving performance and situation awareness. In addition, there are also questions with respect to whether there should be any minimum safety standards set to ensure both functional and usage safety of these systems, and what these standards should be. An experiment was conducted to study how a single master alert versus multiple individual alerts of different reliabilities affected drivers' responses to different imminent collision situations while distracted. A master alert may have advantages since it reduces the total number of alerts, which could be advantageous especially with the proliferation of intelligent warning systems. However, a master alert may also confuse drivers, since it does not warn of a specific hazard, unlike a specific alert for each warning systems. / (cont.) Auditory alerts were used to warn of imminent frontal and rear collisions, as well as unintentional left and right lane departures. Low and high warning reliabilities were also tested. The different warning systems and reliability factors produced significantly different reaction times and response accuracies. The warning systems with low reliability caused accuracy rates to fall more than 40% across the four warning systems. In addition, low reliability systems also induced negative emotions in participants. Thus, reliability is one of the most crucial determinants of driving performance and the safety outcome, and it is imperative that warning systems are reliable. For the master versus distinct alarms factor, drivers responded statistically no different to the various collision warnings for both reaction times and accuracy of responses. However, in a subjective post-experiment assessment, participants preferred distinct alarms for different driver warning systems, even though their objective performance showed no difference to the different alerting schemes. This study showed that it was essential to design robust and reliable intelligent warning systems. However, there are no existing safety standards today to ensure that these systems are safe before they are introduced into vehicles, even though such systems are already available in high-end cars. / (cont.) Even though there are tradeoffs in having standards, such as increased time-to-market and possible loss of innovation, I recommend that safety standards be set nonetheless, since standards will ensure the safety performance of warning systems, to an extent. In terms of functional safety, safety standards should be performance-based, and should specify a minimum level of reliability. In terms of usage safety, the standards should also be performance-based, where driving performance can be indicated by measures such as reaction time, lane position, heading distance and accuracy of responses. In addition, multiple threat scenarios should also be tested. In terms of design guidelines, the various human factors guidelines from different countries should be harmonized internationally to ensure that manufacturers have access to a consistent set of guidelines. Finally, it is also important that these standards, especially for usage safety, specify tests with not just the average driver, but also with peripheral driving populations including novice and elderly drivers. / by Angela Wei Ling Ho. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. / Emergency responders have suffered from a lack of cross-agency radio communications for the past three decades. After numerous firefighters died in the terrorist attacks of September 11, partially due to a lack of interoperability with police officers on the scene, the federal government began implementing policies, programs, and funding to improve interoperability amongst state and local first responders. This thesis explores the scope and the effectiveness of many of the federal efforts towards interoperability that have occurred between 2001 and 2006. Since 2001, the federal government has made progress in a number of areas relating to the national interoperability of first responders. These include: creating and reorganizing interoperability programs, such as SAFECOM within DHS; promoting open standards for equipment manufacturers; freeing radio spectrum for first responder use; and partially funding the purchase of new, interoperable communication equipment through grant programs and national initiatives. However, these efforts were slow to start, with the majority of progress only occurring within the past two years. Furthermore, the government has not set broad interoperability goals, and there are continuing questions about the amount of financial support that the government has offered and will continue to offer towards the problem. / (cont.) The European Union and the U.S. military have both dealt with interoperability as well, and comparisons between these two entities and the U.S. federal government show that a lack of interoperability is both complex and has some possible solutions that remain untested in the United States. Five recommendations are presented to help the federal government forge a path forward. The government, through both the Department of Homeland Security and Congress, should: encourage collaboration between local public safety agencies; encourage better industry participation through equipment endorsements and public/private partnerships; create an interoperability grants program within DHS; prepare for a large increase in funding requests by 2009; and, establish a National Interoperability Goal with measurable results. / by Tristan Weir. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Technology and Policy Program, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-113). / Users have been shown to be a significant source of technology based innovations. Over the last seven years developments on the Internet have demonstrated the viability of software products that are designed, developed, distributed and supported by Users. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how and why user developed software is supported on the Usenet newsgroup discussion service of the Internet. The context of this research was the Usenet newsgroup based user support mechanism for Apache web server software. Over 55% of all World Wide Web sites on the Internet are hosted on Apache web server software. The research for this thesis was based on an analysis of four weeks of Usenet help postings for Apache software and a survey questionnaire regarding outcomes and motivations that was sent to the individuals that participated on the Usenet. Newsgroup analysis indicates that over 70% of all queries on the Usenet get at least one public reply. A majority of the replies are in the form of technical opinions. A majority of information seekers receive their first public Usenet reply within the next day of the original posting. Survey results indicate that the technical help provided is relatively low-cost to the provider, and typically involves transferring information that is already known to that help-provider rather than conducting new problem-solving at the behest of a help seeker. Typical time spent on providing help is less than five minutes. Seventy one percent of information seekers noted that they had received full or partial help in their problem solving process through their Usenet posting. Frequent helpers indicated the following were the top three reasons for their motivation to help; 1) Knew related information already, 2) Answering problems is fun and 3) Obligation - they have been helped before and now want to reciprocate. The research results are framed within the literature of technology innovation and virtual communities in cyberspace. The implications for Open Source software development and further research recommendations are provided. / by Karim R. Lakhani. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-61). / Motor vehicle travel is the primary means of transportation in the United States, providing freedom in travel and enterprise for many people. However, motor vehicle accidents are the largest component of unintentional injuries and contribute to a high degree of morbidity and mortality for all ages. This thesis analyzes the relationship between feedback technologies and driver behavior. Based on the findings, policy recommendations were made to help ensure that the privacy and trust of the public are not compromised, as ubiquitous technologies become a reality in automobiles. The thesis provides an overview of the most modem mechanisms available in cars today. Furthermore, this thesis takes the first steps to combining existing technologies into a single system that not only tracks driver behavior, but also provides feedback in the hopes of improving drive performance and safety. The qualitative discussion includes a stakeholder analysis of the prime interests and effects of all parties that are impacted by ubiquitous technologies in the car. The qualitative discussion also contains the results of four focus groups that were conducted to gain first hand insights about the view of the drivers about monitoring technologies in the car. / (cont.) This study finds that most drivers have a symbiotic relationship with the technologies that exist in their car; however, drivers feel uncomfortable with a fully automated system. Their concerns rise from the belief that fully automated systems take control away from the driver. Drivers were also concerned about the privacy and security of the data collected and stored by these technologies in their vehicles. These concerns can be addressed within the existing legal framework, but additional regulations also need to be designed because as the technology changes so will the concerns. Therefore, it is important to design policies that are flexible, rather than completely depending on current regulations to address future concerns. / by Alex Fernando Narváez Bustamante. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, Technology and Policy Program, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-106). / This thesis studies the application of project finance as the most efficient financing method for the construction and operation of infrastructure projects such as motorways, airports, power plants, pipelines, wastewater/sewage plants, dams, landline or cellular networks, and natural resources mines. These are large-scale, complex, and capital-intensive engineering systems, which until recently, were developed and operated either by the public or the private sector. The latest model for the construction and operation of an infrastructure project is Public-Private Partnerships ("PPP"), a hybrid structure that is becoming widespread. PPP employ private companies to construct and then operate infrastructure assets, which historically have been financed with public resources and operated on a not-for-profit basis. Through PPP agreements such as concessions, governments shift construction and operating risks to the private sector, which is usually more efficient in building and then running the assets. Project finance is a large and rapidly growing subfield of finance, yet one where academic theory and research distantly lag current practice. Project finance relies on private capital sources for financing the PPP infrastructure project, as opposed to direct government financing or corporate financing. / (cont.) The thesis hypothesis is that project finance constitutes the most robust and sophisticated financial mechanism for maximizing return on investment and mitigating risk in PPP infrastructure projects. It is the goal of this thesis to provide the organizational methodology, financial application, risk management techniques, and explain all relevant aspects of project finance so that public policy makers, developers, bankers, contractors, and other decision makers will be in a position to holistically evaluate this financial instrument and accordingly proceed to its adoption for financing infrastructure projects. / by Theodoros Patramanis. / S.M.