Software is one of the core elements that drive the modern economy, with visible use in areas such as personal computing, telecommunications and banking, and background use in areas such as aircraft traffic management, nuclear power generation, and automotive control systems. Organizations that build software are unique in that they span industrial domains, and at their core of what they do is codifying human knowledge. When we talk about software organizations, we think of organizations that work in the three broad areas of shrink wrapped application software, software-intensive systems, or software services.  By shrink wrapped application software, we refer to the software that one can buy in a retail store for use on his or her computer. Software-intensive systems are part of a larger system such as air traffic management, and software services focus on making software work for other organizations. This thesis uses studies of eight software organizations to understand how these organizations are able to identify changes to their environment, and create the required capabilities to meet those changes – in other words, how these organizations gain enterprise agility. To understand enterprise agility, we ask three simple questions, namely how does the organization improve what it currently does? What does the organization do? and Who does the work that the organization chooses to do? By answering each of these questions in the context of software organizations, we identify the three mechanisms of Software Process Improvement (SPI), Creating Systems of Innovation (CSI), and Leveraging Globally Available Capabilities (LGAC). These three mechanisms are interconnected and interdependent. By creating rich descriptions of how these mechanisms are implemented in the organizations that we studied in the thesis, we are able to build confidence that these mechanisms are an accurate representation of the approaches that organizations use. In addition to identifying the mechanisms, by analyzing across the cases, we identify the four organizational enablers of stakeholder alignment, employee empowerment, group & organizational learning, and governance. Organizations can create enterprise agility by ensuring the presence of the four organizational enablers and leveraging some combination of the three mechanisms. While it is possible for the organization to create enterprise agility in the absence of these mechanisms, we believe that the agility generated is not sustainable. To survive in the tough economic conditions of today, software organizations need to be aware of, and actively manage both the enablers and the mechanisms for sustained success. This thesis is a first step in finding more effective ways to manage software organizations as a whole, rather than as a collection of individual projects. It presents a philosophy of thinking about software organizations that addresses the uniqueness of these organizations while at the same time leveraging best practices and thought leadership from the disciplines of software engineering, quality,  knowledge management, strategy, organizational theory, and stakeholder theory.

Despite documented best practices and specialized tools, software organizations struggle to deliver quality software that is on time, within budget, and meets customer requirements. Managers seeking improved software project outcomes face two dominant software paradigms which differ in their emphasis on upfront planning, customer collaboration, and product documentation: plan-driven and agile. Rather than promoting one approach over the other, this research advocates improving software management practices by developing the organization’s ambidextrous capability. Ambidextrous organizations have the ability to simultaneously succeed at two seemingly contradictory capabilities (e.g. discipline and agility) which leads to enhanced organizational performance. Overall, this study asks the question: How can an ambidextrous perspective facilitate improvement in software practices? Driven by this question, and based on a two year action research study at a small software firm, TelSoft, the objectives of this research are to: 1. Identify dualities involved in improving software practices 2. Design interventions based on these dualities to improve software practices 3. Explore the process of becoming an ambidextrous software organization The resulting dissertation consists of a summary and four papers that each identify and address particular dualities encountered during software process improvement. The first paper asserts that both process-driven and perception-driven inquiry should be used during assessment of software practices, presents a model that shows how this combination can occur, and demonstrates the use of this model at TelSoft. The second paper explicates two theories for understanding and resolving issues in requirements engineering practice – repeat-ability and response-ability – and argues for the need to negotiate between the two. The third paper identifies a tension between managing legacy and current processes and proposes a model for software process reengineering, a systematic process for leveraging legacy processes created during prior SPI efforts. Finally, the fourth paper applies the theoretical lens of ambidexterity to understand the overall change initiative in terms of the tension between alignment and adaptability. The study used a variety of data sources to diagnose software practices, including semi-structured interviews, software process documents, meeting interactions, and workshop discussions. Subsequently, we established, facilitated, and tracked focused improvement teams in the areas of customer relations, requirements management, quality assurance, project portfolio management, and process management. Furthermore, we created and trained two management teams with responsibility for ongoing management of SPI and project portfolio management respectively. We argue that these activities improved software practices at TelSoft and provided a stronger foundation for continuous improvement. Keywords: Ambidexterity, software process improvement (SPI), action research, requirements engineering assessment, action planning, software process reengineering, software management.

<p>This report generally focuses on the process of getting medicine from the pharmacy in the hospital. The processes are different in Sweden and in China due to the different concrete conditions. Compared with the Swedish process the Chinese flow lags fairly far behind. To optimize the Chinese process by taking advantage of the Swedish process is the intention of this report; it also gives the advice on how to improve the performance for the Swedish process. By comparing the multiple theories for process improvement, I used Business Process Reengineering (BPR) theory to reengineer the Chinese process and used Continues Process Improvement (CPI) theory to ameliorate the Swedish process. The differences between BPR and CPI are also revealed in this report.</p>

The intention of the programme was to evaluate Product Development (PD) strategies within the automotive industry and to identify areas in which improvements could be made in PD project performance that would also provide a business opportunity for the author's employer RLE International (RLE). The research is principally concerned with the automotive industry but also has broader applications within similar industries. The research was undertaken via three projects. Project 1 involved a study of the structure, drivers and trends within the automotive industry. The aim was to assess the implications for PD in the automotive industry and identify significant issues where opportunities for improvement existed. The outcome was a portrayal of an industry under extreme competitive pressure and waiting for something to change but without a clear future state. What was apparent was that the competitive pressures, and thus the need to deliver more products without significantly increased resources, were not going to abate in the near future. PD has to 'deliver more with less' but a definition of success and its associated measures in terms of the PD process is difficult to frame. Therefore, the aim of project 2 focused on performance measurement of the PD process by assessing four internationally diverse development projects carried out by the author's employer with four discrete customers. The projects were all different in their content and were carried out in different countries, i.e. USA, Germany, India and Sweden. Whilst customer specific and cultural aspects of the projects differed, the significant issue identified via the research was common across all the projects. Traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of cost, time and scope were used but failed to predict issues in project delivery. The key finding was that if project information did not flow as originally planned then resources were wasted resulting in time and cost over-runs. Project 3 researched alternative solutions to the issue of monitoring information flow and proposes a specific method of indicating the likelihood of success in a project by identifying new PD measurement techniques to be used within the automotive PD process. This new measurement criterion of information flow provides a predictive tool that significantly enhances the project control process. The predictive method of information flow tracking developed is new to the automotive PD profession. It was trialled on an existing project and was shown to identify specific issues with the Work-in-Progress (WIP) not found by traditional project management methods. The resulting indication of issues enabled the organisation's management to have a substantially different insight and understanding of project performance at a given point in time and therefore enabled immediate changes in resource allocation to improve project performance. The implementation of these changes as a result of the adoption of information flow monitoring resulted in significantly improved project KPI performance. The contribution of this new PD management method has the potential to significantly impact the competitiveness of any company involved in the design and development process. Its benefits include improved understanding of project performance indicators, powerful predictive attributes resulting in better utilisation of company resources and reductions in both project costs and lead times.

For many firms, particularly those operating in high technology and competitive markets, knowledge is cited as the most important strategic asset to the firm, which significantly drives its survival and success. Knowledge management (KM) impacts the firm's ability to develop process features that reduce manufacturing costs, product designs with the features and functionality to match consumer demand, and time to market. Unfortunately, many firms lack an understanding of how to develop and exploit knowledge capabilities for success. In this thesis I develop a rich and multifaceted understanding of how KM strategies lead to successful outcomes for a firm. The thesis comprises three essays, described below. The first essay (Chapter 2) examines how volume-based learning influences the relationship between a buyer and supplier in a two-period Stackelberg game. Three types of knowledge management practices are considered. First, in contrast to the literature, I recognize that knowledge accumulated from current in-house production contributes to the buyer's future product and process development efforts. Second, I allow the supplier to invest in integration process improvement (a form of knowledge development) to reduce the buyer's integration cost. Therefore, the supplier has two mechanisms to impact the buyer's demand: price and process improvement. Lastly, both the buyer and supplier benefit from volume-based learning that reduces their respective production costs. I provide conditions under which the buyer partially outsources component demand as opposed to fully outsourcing or fully producing in-house. In addition, I identify conditions for which the supplier's price and investment in integration process improvement can serve either as substitutes or complements. In the second essay (Chapter 3), I consider knowledge development (KD) strategies in a new product development (NPD) project with three stages of activities conducted concurrently: prototyping, pilot line testing, and production ramp-up. I capture the link between successive stages of engineering activities by recognizing that knowledge accumulated in one stage and transferred to another stage improves the efficiency of knowledge development in the recipient stage. A Base Model and two extensions are introduced that differ in the manner in which knowledge transfer (KT) occurs. I find that the NPD manager pursues different dynamic strategies for KD in each stage of the project. In addition, I explore how the effectiveness of KD and the returns to KT impact the optimal strategies adopted in each stage. In the third essay (Chapter 4), I introduce a dynamic model to explore the impact of KT on a manager?s pursuit of an existing product improvement project and a new product development project. These two projects consume costly knowledge development resources. A key feature of the model is the characterization of the knowledge transfer process from the new product development project to the existing product improvement project. As a result of KT, the ability of the existing product improvement project to generate new knowledge is enhanced. However, the ability of the new product to generate expected net revenue when it is released to the marketplace is reduced due to the loss of proprietary knowledge. I obtain dynamic optimal strategies of KD in both projects and the optimal strategy of KT from the new product development project to the existing product improvement project.

abstract: Yield is a key process performance characteristic in the capital-intensive semiconductor fabrication process. In an industry where machines cost millions of dollars and cycle times are a number of months, predicting and optimizing yield are critical to process improvement, customer satisfaction, and financial success. Semiconductor yield modeling is essential to identifying processing issues, improving quality, and meeting customer demand in the industry. However, the complicated fabrication process, the massive amount of data collected, and the number of models available make yield modeling a complex and challenging task. This work presents modeling strategies to forecast yield using generalized linear models (GLMs) based on defect metrology data. The research is divided into three main parts. First, the data integration and aggregation necessary for model building are described, and GLMs are constructed for yield forecasting. This technique yields results at both the die and the wafer levels, outperforms existing models found in the literature based on prediction errors, and identifies significant factors that can drive process improvement. This method also allows the nested structure of the process to be considered in the model, improving predictive capabilities and violating fewer assumptions. To account for the random sampling typically used in fabrication, the work is extended by using generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) and a larger dataset to show the differences between batch-specific and population-averaged models in this application and how they compare to GLMs. These results show some additional improvements in forecasting abilities under certain conditions and show the differences between the significant effects identified in the GLM and GLMM models. The effects of link functions and sample size are also examined at the die and wafer levels. The third part of this research describes a methodology for integrating classification and regression trees (CART) with GLMs. This technique uses the terminal nodes identified in the classification tree to add predictors to a GLM. This method enables the model to consider important interaction terms in a simpler way than with the GLM alone, and provides valuable insight into the fabrication process through the combination of the tree structure and the statistical analysis of the GLM. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Industrial Engineering 2011

Syftet med detta examensarbete har varit att identifiera potentialen för en ökad kapacitet i en cementmalningsprocess. Särskild uppmärksamhet har tillägnats den ingående klinkerns kvalitet och dess påverkan på cementkvarnarnas kapacitet och det färdiga cementets kvalitetsegenskaper. Studien har genomförts genom en kombination av kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder för datainsamling och analys. Datamaterialet har tillhandahållits av en referensorganisation och omfattat en stor mängd statistik från de processer som varit relevanta för undersökningen. Offensiv kvalitetsutveckling, processförbättring och cementproduktion är de huvudsakliga teorier som arbetet utgått ifrån. De slutsatser som dras utifrån genomförd studie är att ingen av de studerade processerna uppfyller ställda krav. Cementmalningsprocessen är inte i statistisk jämnvikt och karaktäriseras av stor oönskad variation med målvärden som avviker från medelvärde. Dessa fynd är ännu mer signifikanta då den ingående klinkerns kvalitet studeras. Orsaker till variation i klinkerns kvalitet kan förklaras av råmjölets variation och variation av andelen aska i bränslet. Olika perspektiv på hur kvalitetsbegreppet definieras inom organisationen har också identifierats som en källa till oönskad variation. Förbättringspotentialen i cementmalningsprocessen har uppskattats till 5% vilket motsvaras av en produktionsökning med 5 ton cement i timmen. / The purpose of this thesis has been to identify the potential for increased capacity in a cement milling process. A particular attention has been put towards the quality of the clinker used and its impact on both the milling capacity and the quality of the final product. The study has been conducted through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. All data has been provided by a reference organization and covers a large amount of statistics. Total Quality Management, process improvements and cement production are the main theories which are covered in the study. The conclusions drawn from the completed study are that none of the studied processes meet their requirements. The milling process is not predictable and is characterized by large undesirable variation and poor location of Key Performance Indicators. These findings are even more significant in terms of the clinker used. Causes of variation in the quality of the clinker can be explained by raw mill variation and by variation of the fuel ash content. Different approaches to defining quality within the organization have also been identified as a source of undesirable variation. The improvement potential in the cement milling process has been estimated at 5%, which is equivalent to a production increase of 5 tons of cement per hour.

This thesis is improving a support process with lean in a fast-growing IT startup. It investigates how processes in the service area can benefit from process improvement with lean, and the challenges and similarities that already exists in a startup with a background of agile and lean development. This is studied with both qualitative and quantitative data in order to create a broad point of departure. Common lean tools are used such as value stream mapping, 5S and, Pareto diagrams, but also from the quality management toolbox such as process mapping. The resulting analysis creates the foundation for a more efficient process which the startup can use to scale, measure and control. Lean is found to be a very suitable theoretical framework for this purpose, but some main concepts are found to not translate very well from the manufacturing industry where Lean once originated.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research work presents a model for a process and design improvement based on quality cost management into activity based management. The objective of this research is to develop a model that provides a quality cost reduction through processes and product improvement, identified and measured by the activity based cost system. The model has two combined phases, being the first: the quality cost measurement through the activity based cost, that allows the identification of product quality cost which was classified in prevention, appraisal and failure. This phase uses the vertical part of Activity Based Management (ABM), allocating the cost into products, through quality activities that were identified in the company, prioritizing those products in need of improvement in their process. With definition of products, follows to phase 2: internal processes analysis using quality cost, where it uses the model of critical analysis and internal processes control improvement. When the main problems are identified, as much on field product performance (external failure cost) as on internal problems within the company (internal failure cost), it is possible to make a correlation with the internal development product process. In this manner improvement opportunities are identified. Finally, it introduces a model of process and design improvement using the quality cost management into activity based management and the application of this model in the cutlery company. / Este trabalho de pesquisa apresenta um modelo para melhoria de processos e projetos com base no gerenciamento dos custos da qualidade em um ambiente de gestão por atividades. O objetivo da pesquisa é desenvolver um modelo que proporcione uma redução dos custos da qualidade através da análise e melhoria dos processos, projetos e produtos, identificados e mensurados pelo sistema de custeio por atividades. O modelo contempla duas fases, interligadas, sendo a fase 1: a mensuração dos custos da qualidade através do custeio por atividades, o que permite a identificação dos custos da qualidade dos produtos, classificados em prevenção, avaliação e falhas. Nesta etapa utiliza-se a parte vertical do modelo de gerenciamento por atividades (ABM), através do qual aloca-se os custos aos produtos, através das atividades da qualidade, identificadas na empresa, priorizando-se aqueles produtos que devem ter seus processos melhorados. Com a definição dos produtos, parte-se para a fase 2: análise dos processos internos com base nos custos da qualidade, quando se utiliza o modelo para análise crítica e melhoria do controle dos processos internos. Identificando-se os principais problemas, tanto de desempenho dos produtos no campo (custos de falha externa), quanto de problemas internos na empresa (custo de falha interna), pode-se correlacioná-los com os processos internos de desenvolvimento dos produtos. Deste modo as oportunidades de melhoria são identificadas. Finalmente, apresenta-se uma proposta de implementação do modelo de melhoria de processos e projetos com base no gerenciamento dos custos da qualidade em um ambiente de gestão por atividades e a aplicação do modelo em uma empresa do setor de cutelaria.

Thesis (MTech (Quality))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / The diffusion of a Quality Management System (QMS) to improve business performance depends upon the quality management strategy used. The aim of Eskom’s QMS strategy was to create a sustainable quality drive throughout the company to improve customer and stakeholder satisfaction. This research project’s objective is to determine how the diffusion of a QMS can improve the electricity supply industry in the Western Cape division of the electricity sector in South Africa. The key research objectives within the research study are:  to assess what effect a QMS has on a sustainable long-term solution for energy supply;  to assess how a QMS contributes to the establishment of world class processes and practices;  to determine how a QMS affects quality culture;  to determine what factors of a QMS play a role in a continual improvement process, and  to determine what barriers affect a sustainable QMS implementation. The research question is: “how can the diffusion of a QMS bring improvement to the electricity supply industry?” A quantitative research methodology was employed in the study. The responses to a survey questionnaire were analysed and conclusions were drawn. The research finding is that diffusion of a QMS improves the electricity industry by positively affecting attitudes towards the challenge of securing a sustainable long-term energy supply, improving processes and practices, engendering a quality culture and contributing towards continual improvement. At the same time, certain barriers to the implementation of a sustainable QMS were identified.