The Engineer to Order (ETO) model is used by a significant number of manufacturers across multiple sectors. Indeed, ETO firms comprise approximately one fourth of all North American manufacturing and are growing at a rate of twenty percent (Cutler [10]). In the ETO environment, the engineering process is the largest controllable consumer of lead-time in ETO firms. Since one half of the total lead-time is typically consumed by the engineering process, it is a critical task to accurately set the due date and later sequence the jobs in queue. However, unlike other manufacturing models such as Make to Stock or Make to Order, the product for each order is unique. Hence the resulting design is not realized until after the engineering process has been completed an the only information available is limited to information which has been gathered during the quoting stage of the order fulfillment process. These facts drive uncertainty into the front-end process. Therefore, the question becomes how does one predict the job difficulty let alone the due date in a complex transactional process when the job has not even been designed yet? In regard to the state of the art for the topic of design complexity, due date setting and sequencing, there is an abundance of research. Unfortunately little of it is aimed at the ETO environment. Additionally, there is not an agreed upon way in the literature to define complexity nor is there one overarching methodology for assessing complexity. Therefore, this research investigates the topics of job complexity, due date setting and job sequencing in the context of the Engineer to Order model. Analytical research is conducted with in conjunction with multiple ETO firms and several common factors are identified which drive complexity in the ETO engineering environment. These complexity factors are can be used is as an input to the accurate prediction of flow times for the ETO engineering process as well as sequencing. The research results in new innovative approaches for complexity assessment, due date setting and sequencing which outperform existing approaches.

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The National Research Council (2010) reports that minorities and women are consistently overlooked as a critical source of STEM talent and expertise, and are a segment of the population that must be sought after if the U.S. is to meet the educational, industry and military demands of tomorrow. These three entities (education, industry and military) are key stakeholders in the preparation of a strong STEM workforce, and each is heavily vested in the recruitment of the most talented individuals. Despite the military's ongoing efforts, specifically those of the Department of the Air Force (DAF), the armed forces continue to fall short in recruiting and retaining women and minorities in engineering (National Research Council, 2010). This qualitative, phenomenological study is informed by Gee's (2000) theory of four interconnected perspectives of identity, Erickson's (1962) Psychosocial Theory of Development, Godwin's (2016) engineering identity development, Kummel's (2018) military identity, and Lent et al.'s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and sought to answer the following research question: How do Department of the Air Force (DAF) Women Of Color (WOC) Developmental Engineers (DE) describe the lived experiences that have affected and shaped their engineering identity development and enabled them to become DAF WOC DEs? The current state of knowledge about and understanding of the many ways in which WOC become DE in the DAF and develop their engineering identity are complex but amenable to further review and intervention solutions. Many of the issues addressed in the literature review remain unaddressed or insufficiently addressed: the need for self-belief, competent and compassionate educators, science learning experiences with engineers, role models, STEM motivation and identity, shared military meaning for engineers, affiliations with minority engineering programs, and a range of support including family, financial, emotional and educational. Purposeful sampling was used to intentionally find the people who have experienced the phenomenon of being a WOC Developmental Engineer (DE) in the DAF to best articulate their lived experiences and inform the research study (Creswell and Poth, 2018). Criteria for participation included identifying as a woman or female, being a member of the DAF (USAF or USSF), carrying the 62E Developmental Engineering Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC), and belonging to one of the following ethnic or minority groups: American Indian/Native Alaskan, Asian, Black or African American, identified as more than one race, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Island, Hispanic or Latino. Six women responded to the solicitation and were interviewed. The research participants for this study are adult female members of the DAF, active duty or retired. DAF comprises both the United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Space Force (USSF). The key points from the findings suggest four major themes, closely aligned with the work of Gee (2000), in understanding the dynamic nature of identity as an important analytic tool for how people perform or see themselves in society, in school, in learning, and in life. The four major perspectives/themes are nature identity e.g., female; institutional identity e.g. DAF; discursive/discourse identity e.g. recognition; and affinity identity e.g. developmental engineering. Based on the experiences of these women, developing an interest in STEM or engineering along with setting a goal early in life is key to becoming an engineer. Additionally, various learning experiences supported by a strong math foundation played a role in developing an interest in engineering, especially hands-on experiences. Having a strong math foundation was important to developing engineering identity. Math helps students think abstractly, develop critical thinking skills, and enables them to deal with hard, ill-defined problems. Math is also an area where students need encouragement and are likely to struggle and need help. Connecting math to real world situations and applications helps with interest and as Alma puts it, math can "activate the curiosity of the mind". Critical choices were made to get scholarships and to join ROTC enabling them to earn an engineering degree and providing a pathway to the DAF. Essentially, learning experiences including having a strong math foundation, interests/goals, support/self-belief, and critical choices supported these women in developing their engineering identity. Having the support of family and teachers and encouragement are also keys to self-belief and perseverance. Within this, conscientiousness is also seen because the women set a challenging goal and then took the necessary steps to achieve that goal. They were diligent in their learning experiences and very achievement oriented. The women valued having a cohort for encouragement and support. Recognizing that both the military and engineering will enable a career and not just a job seemed critical to these women. There was a need to be financially independent so engineering and the military provided this. Whether it was deciding to be an engineer or deciding to be an engineer in the DAF, seeing minority women in leadership roles was critical for pivotal decisions. Seeing women of color in the military in leadership roles served as a source of inspiration for some of the participants and fostered certain decisions. Once into their career, the desire to stay technical served as a recognition of who they are as engineers and led to new goals and decisions. The participants did not allow the military to strip them of their identity but they fought to have impressive careers. Several implications and recommendations are presented for how to get more Women of Color into the engineering career field and into the DAF. Recommendations were distilled to recruiting, encouragement and mentoring, exposure, utilizing various platforms to showcase representation, developing partnerships with ROTC and local schools, and ensuring visuals on television and in movies. / Doctor of Philosophy / The National Research Council (2010) reports that minorities and women are consistently overlooked as a critical source of STEM talent and expertise, and are a segment of the population that must be sought after if the U.S. is to meet the educational, industry and military demands of tomorrow. Despite the military's ongoing efforts, specifically those of the Department of the Air Force (DAF), the armed forces continue to fall short in recruiting and retaining women and minorities in engineering (National Research Council, 2010). This study sought to better understand how six DAF Women of Color (WOC) Developmental Engineers (DE) describe the lived experiences that have affected and shaped their engineering identity development and enabled them to become DAF WOC DEs. Understanding how these WOC developed their engineering identity will provide insight into improving DAF recruiting strategies for this demographic. Each woman agreed to meet for a semi-structured interview via zoom. This qualitative, phenomenological study is informed by Gee's (2000) theory of four interconnected perspectives of identity, Erickson's (1962) Psychosocial Theory of Development, Godwin's (2016) engineering identity development, Kummel's (2018) military identity, and Lent et al.'s (1994) social cognitive career theory (SCCT). Recommendations are directed to DAF and are heavily weighted toward education/learning experiences and mentorship.

This thesis presents a qualitative study of the role of devices in the technological innovation phenomena of two venture medical equipment companies located in the Midlands, UK. The inquiry takes an empirical and non-foundational approach based on post-ANT and process philosophy. In particular, the thesis employs the theoretical lenses of both ANT and post-ANT concepts, Deleuze’s and Guattari’s machinic thought and Michel Serres’ parasitic philosophy. The data for this thesis comes from a fieldwork study lasting around one year. The methodology is mainly based on interviews and observations of engineers, technicians and managers working in venture companies. The central argument of this thesis shows that the venture organizing process of technological innovation is the product of discursive and non-discursive elements that act in several forms, keeping the venture company working but crucially reorganizing it. The present thesis offers a conceptualization of the device as a parasite-selector that reorganizes the venture company’s work activities and brings novelty to their operation. Equally, the mediational power of diagrams - which presents constitutional indifference - participates in the definition and production of the engineers’, managers’ and technicians’ professional identities. The thesis shows how the ideas regarding innovation in use at Med Dialysis and Med Diabetes bring forth the necessity of a life that embraces the uncertainty and ambiguity of the market. As a consequence, engineers and technicians build their professional identities by embracing the uncertainty of the venture company. This thesis names this process ‘engineering the engineer’. This is a process that leads to the emergence of a professional identity that this thesis tentatively calls the ‘venture engineer’.

<p>Denna uppsats skrivs som examensarbete under sista terminen på officersprogrammet på Försvarshögskolan. Uppsatsens syfte har varit att undersöka om det finns någon skillnad i hur fältarbetsförmågan används i en nationell insats i Sverige och i en internationell insats i Afghanistan och om det finns några slutsatser att dra om eventuell skillnad. Genomgående i uppsatsen har de fyra inriktningarna; fältarbeten för rörlighet, fördröjandefältarbeten, fältarbeten för överlevnad och övriga fältarbeten används för att förklara fältarbetsförmågan. De resultat som visade sig efter jämförelsen var att det finns ett litet behov av broresurser och fördröjande fältarbeten i Afghanistan jämfört med Sverige. De dragna slutsatserna är att fältarbetsförmågans storlek i Afghanistan är beroende av den totala insatsens storlek. Men ett ökatbidrag från ingenjörsförbanden är möjlig genom att förändra utbildningen och hur ingenjörsförbanden kan komma att användas.</p> / <p>This essay is written as thesis during the last term of the officer program at the National Defense College. The purpose of this essay was to investigate whether there is any difference how the engineer ability are used in a national operation in Sweden and an international operation in Afghanistan, and if there are any conclusions to draw about the difference. Throughout this essay has the four classification engineering for movability, delaying engineering, engineering for survival and other engineering been used to explain the engineering ability? The results showed after the comparison was that there is little need for the ability to lay bridges and delaying engineering in Afghanistan compared with Sweden. The conclusions drawn are that the engineer forces size in Afghanistan is dependent on the overall scale of the operation. But a increased contribution from engineer forces is possible by changing the training and how the engineer forces may be used</p>

Denna uppsats skrivs som examensarbete under sista terminen på officersprogrammet på Försvarshögskolan. Uppsatsens syfte har varit att undersöka om det finns någon skillnad i hur fältarbetsförmågan används i en nationell insats i Sverige och i en internationell insats i Afghanistan och om det finns några slutsatser att dra om eventuell skillnad. Genomgående i uppsatsen har de fyra inriktningarna; fältarbeten för rörlighet, fördröjandefältarbeten, fältarbeten för överlevnad och övriga fältarbeten används för att förklara fältarbetsförmågan. De resultat som visade sig efter jämförelsen var att det finns ett litet behov av broresurser och fördröjande fältarbeten i Afghanistan jämfört med Sverige. De dragna slutsatserna är att fältarbetsförmågans storlek i Afghanistan är beroende av den totala insatsens storlek. Men ett ökatbidrag från ingenjörsförbanden är möjlig genom att förändra utbildningen och hur ingenjörsförbanden kan komma att användas. / This essay is written as thesis during the last term of the officer program at the National Defense College. The purpose of this essay was to investigate whether there is any difference how the engineer ability are used in a national operation in Sweden and an international operation in Afghanistan, and if there are any conclusions to draw about the difference. Throughout this essay has the four classification engineering for movability, delaying engineering, engineering for survival and other engineering been used to explain the engineering ability? The results showed after the comparison was that there is little need for the ability to lay bridges and delaying engineering in Afghanistan compared with Sweden. The conclusions drawn are that the engineer forces size in Afghanistan is dependent on the overall scale of the operation. But a increased contribution from engineer forces is possible by changing the training and how the engineer forces may be used

Im Optimierungsprozess einer Konstruktion und zur Variantenbildung ist die Nutzung der Parametrik für den Konstrukteur zum Standard und unverzichtbar geworden. Auslegungen und speziell die Festlegung von Abmessungen werden im Maschinenbau über die Umstellung von Analysegleichungen oder durch iterative Analysen, wie bspw. die numerische Optimierung durchgeführt. Die Mechanismenlehre ist eines der wenigen Fachgebiete, in denen speziell für die Auslegung klassische Syntheseverfahren entwickelt wurden. Im Zeitalter vollparametrischer CAD-Systeme erscheinen diese Verfahren in einem neuen Licht. Einfache getriebetechnische Kenntnisse sind für die Lösung von Führungs- und Bewegungsaufgaben zwar erforderlich, sind in Lehrbüchern, VDI-Richtlinien, TGL-Blättern usw. aber auch gut nachzulesen. Anhand einiger Beispiele soll hier gezeigt werden, wie diese klassischen grafischen Konstruktionsvorschriften auf einfache Weise in das CAD-System Pro/Engineer Wildfire integriert werden können. Der Konstrukteur kann seine Auslegung dynamisch interaktiv variieren und sogar verschiedene Gütewerte seines Getriebes dabei beobachten. Durch diese assoziative Komponente wird eine mehrparametrige Optimierung realisierbar. Im Vortrag wird an Beispielen gezeigt, dass ein CAD-Konstrukteur diesem Vorschlag folgen und das Verfahren anwenden kann, um einen ersten Entwurf vorzulegen. Eine weitgehende Verwendung von Zusatzmodulen, wie zum Beispiel Pro/Mechanica oder Pro/Mechanism, würde erst bei zusätzlichen Untersuchungen der Konstruktion erforderlich.

I tillverkande företag kan inköpskostnaden stå för 60–80 procent av den totalaproduktkostnaden. Det framhäver vikten av att identifiera en kostnadseffektiv inköpsstrategi som reducerar totalkostnad för inköp. En sådan inköpsstrategi kan vara inköp av större ordervolym för att erhålla volymbaserat pris. Tidigare forskning om volymbaserat pris centreras kring inköp av standardkomponenter i stora volymer, således finns en bristande forskning om volymbaserat pris för organisationer som inte tillämpar denna typ av inköp. Studien syftar därför till att med en explorativ fallstudie, studera hur ökad ordervolym med samkoordinerade inköp påverkar totalkostnad för inköp hos en organisation med hög kundanpassning och låg årlig ordervolym. En organisation som arbetar enligt engineer-to-order (ETO) med storskaliga projekt, hög kundanpassning och låg årlig ordervolym har således använts som huvudsaklig empirisk kontext för fallstudien. Datainsamlingen har i fallstudien bestått av en metodkombination som inkluderar en dominerande kvalitativ fas följt av en underliggande kvantitativ fas. Insamlade data användes sedan i en kostnadsanalys för att utvärdera hur identifierade faktorer påverkade organisationens totalkostnad för inköp och huruvida samkoordinerade inköp kan anses som en kostnadseffektiv inköpsstrategi i denna kontext. Resultatet från studien visar att inköpspris reduceras och lagerkostnad ökar vid samkoordinerade inköp för organisationer med hög kundanpassning och låg årlig ordervolym. Den köpande organisationen kan påverka faktorerna: ordervolym och utformning av artiklar, vilket skapar en kostnadsförändring för leverantörernas faktorer: tillverkning, material, transport och administration. Kostnadsanalysen visar att kostnadsreducering uppnås vid samkoordinerade inköp för den studerade organisationen. Viss osäkerhet kring resultatet uppstår då samkoordinerade inköp skapar en ny situation för lagerhantering där kostnadsuppgifter saknas. Enligt studien kan synergierna av samkoordinerade inköp förstärkas genom ett skifte mot single sourcing, centraliserade inköp och ökad grad av standardisering. Studiens främsta bidrag är en identifikation av de faktorer som påverkas i leverantörernas verksamhet vid en kombination av samkoordinerade inköp och karaktäristiken av ETO, samt hur dessa genererar volymbaserat pris. / In manufacturing companies, the purchase cost can account for 60-80 percent of the total product cost. The high purchase cost emphasizes the importance of identifying a cost-effective purchasing strategy that reduces the total cost of purchasing. Such a purchasing strategy can be to purchase larger order volumes in order to obtain quantity discounts. Previous research on quantity discounts is centered on the purchase of standard components in large volumes, thus a lack of research on quantity discounts for organizations that do not apply this type of purchase exists. Therefore, this study aims to examine how a larger order volume with coordinated purchases affects the total cost of purchasing for an organization with high customer customization and low annual order volume. It was done with an exploratory case study of an organization that operates according to engineer-to-order (ETO) with large-scale projects, high customer customization and low annual order volume. The data collection in the case study consisted of a mixed-method approach that includes a dominant qualitative phase followed by an underlying quantitative phase. The collected data was further used in a cost analysis to evaluate how identified factors affected the organisation's total cost of purchasing and whether coordinated purchases can be considered a cost-effective purchasing strategy in this context. The result of the study shows that the purchase price is reduced, and the inventory cost is increased by coordinated purchases for organizations with high customer customization and low annual order volume. The purchasing organization can affect the factors: order volume and design of items, which results in a cost change for the supplier’s factors: manufacturing, materials, transport and administration. The cost analysis shows that a cost reduction is achieved through coordinated purchases for the studied organisation. Some uncertainties about the result arises as coordinated purchases create a new situation for inventory management where cost data is missing. The synergies of coordinated purchasing can further be enhanced by a shift towards single sourcing, centralized purchasing and increased degree of standardization. The main contribution of the study is the identification of factors in the suppliers' operations that are affected by the combination of coordinated purchases and the characteristics of ETO, and how they generate quantity discounts.

Reverse engineering (extracting information about a product from the product itself) is a competitive strategy for many firms and is often costly to innovators. Recent research has proven metrics for estimating the reverse engineering time and barrier and has shown that products can strategically be made more difficult to reverse engineer, thus protecting the innovator. Reverse engineering, however, is only the first phase of attempting to duplicate a product. Imitating – the process of discovering how to physically reproduce the performance of the reverse engineered product in one or more of its performance areas – is the second and final phase. This thesis presents metrics for the time and barrier to imitating and shows how they can be joined with reverse engineering metrics to estimate a total time and total barrier to duplicate a product. As there is a cost associated with the design of barriers to reverse engineering and in imitating it is important that a return on investment analysis be performed to ensure a profitable endeavor. Details of such an analysis are presented here. To illustrate the methodology, two case studies are presented. The first is an analysis of KithcenAid's Stand Mixer. The second is an analysis of a cantilevered "L-beam" that has been structurally optimized under four conditions to achieve a specified mechanical performance. Additionally, anecdotal solutions to creating barriers to reverse engineering and imitating are discussed throughout.

A capacidade de customização de produtos é considerada atualmente um fator de competitividade muito importante para a sobrevivência das empresas. A interferência dos clientes na concepção e na fabricação dos produtos está cada vez mais intensa. Dentre as várias estratégias de customização, a tipologia de produção Engineer to Order (ETO), na qual o cliente é envolvido nas fases de design e desenvolvimento do produto, é considerada a mais complexa e ineficiente. Embora o número de organizações classificadas como ETO seja bastante elevado e os problemas associados a esta tipologia sejam bem conhecidos, não existem registros consolidados na literatura sobre qual é a melhor abordagem de gestão das cadeias produtivas destes ambientes. Além disso, as práticas de gestão sugeridas por alguns pesquisadores consideram a tipologia ETO um sistema homogêneo, no qual todas as empresas recebem as mesmas abordagens. No entanto, dentro do universo ETO existem empresas com diferentes tipos de customização. Algumas empresas fabricam produtos completamente novos, desenvolvidos para clientes específicos. Outras empresas fornecem produtos com estrutura híbrida, na qual alguns componentes são padronizados e outros são customizados. A grande diferença entre os sistemas produtivos ETO exige que cada ambiente receba uma abordagem específica para o seu modelo de negócio. Com o intuito de preencher esta lacuna, o presente trabalho propõe uma classificação da tipologia ETO com recomendações das melhores práticas de manufatura para cada subtipologia ETO definida. A classificação proposta foi baseada em estudos de caso com implementações de projetos de melhoria em diferentes ambientes ETO. / The ability of customizing products is considered a very important competitive factor for the survival of nowadays companies. The power of customers influence on products conception and manufacturing is increasing. Among the various customization strategies, the Engineer to Order (ETO) production typology, in which customers are involved at product design and development stages, is considered the most complex and inefficient. Although there are many organizations classified as ETO and the problems associated with this typology are very known, there is a lack of agreement in literature about the best practices for the value chain management of these environments. Furthermore, the practices suggested by some researchers consider the ETO typology as a homogeneous system where all the companies receive the same approach. However, the companies of the ETO universe show different customization approaches. Some companies produce products completely new and designed for specific customers. Other companies provide products with a hybrid structure which is formed by standardized and customized components. The big difference found between all kinds of ETO production systems implies that specific approaches have to be applied for each business model. In order to fill this gap, this work offers a classification for the ETO typology with some recommendations of the best manufacturing practices for each ETO sub typology defined. The proposed classification was based on cases of improvement projects implemented in different ETO environments.