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Videos
Completed
Dissertations
ESD Working Paper Series
Engineering
Systems Symposia
Brunel Lecture
Series
Miller Lecture
Series
ESD
OpenCourseWare
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List
of Papers for 2001:
(in reverse chronological order)
ESD-WP-2001-06: Three
Perspectives on Modularity – A Literature Review of a Product
Concept for Assembled Hardware Products
by Sebastian Fixson
In
recent years, modularity as a design strategy has received renewed
interest. The term modularity, however, is often used to describe
phenomena that are similar yet slightly different, for different
products, and in different industries and contexts. Therefore,
it is unclear whether there is a way to operationalize the concept
of modularity across these different uses. This paper reviews
the concepts of modularity used in the literature representing
different thought worlds (engineering and management) and different
occupations (academia and industry).
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ESD-WP-2001-05: Managing
the Global knowledge-creation Network: A Sense Making Perspective
by Susan Albers Mohrman,
Janice A. Klein, David Finegold
We
have entered the era of the knowledge economy, a period when knowledge
has replaced natural resources and capital as the most important
economic resource. Increasingly, corporations are reaching out
globally to secure the best talent available at the most reasonable
cost to serve world-wide markets.
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ESD-WP-2001-04: Extracting
the Essence of Flexibility in System Design
The modest
purpose of this paper is to review the concept of flexibility
as discussed in various fields of investigations, and to extract
its characteristic features. In order to discuss any subject matter
clearly, it is necessary to begin with a clear set of definitions.
Indeed much can be gained through careful and consistent definitions
of terms alone. Flexibility however is a word rich with ambiguity.
While it is being increasingly used in various fields, few attempts
have been made to formally define, quantify, and propose ways
for achieving flexibility. This paper proposes to fill in part
this gap by synthesizing a clear and consistent definition of
flexibility. It will do so by reviewing the usage of the term
in various fields of inquiries, and show that it is indeed possible
to clearly and unambiguously characterize flexibility, and to
disentangle it from closely related concepts.
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ESD-WP-2001-03: Initial
Top-Level Characterization of the Air Force Sustainment System
by Dr. Kirk Bozdogan
and Prof. Joseph
Sussman, in collaboration with Prof. Thomas
Allen and Prof. Wesley Harris
This draft
white paper presents an initial top-level characterization of
the Air Force sustainment system. The first part of the paper
gives an overview of the proposed conceptual framework for system
characterization. The second part presents an initial top-level
characterization of the system, by using this framework, and offers
some preliminary suggestions or recommendations. Finally, next
steps in the research process are outlined, placing the paper
in the larger context of the task on system characterization and
transformation.
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ESD-WP-2001-02: Aircraft
System and Product Development: Teaching the Conceptual Phase
by Earll
M. Murman, R. John Hansman, and John-Paul Clark
This working
paper reports the first offering of a graduate level subject covering
the conceptual phase of aircraft product development. The output
of the conceptual phase is a system level specification that usually
serves as the input for a traditional undergraduate capstone on
aircraft design.
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ESD-WP-2001-01:
Toward a New Technology and Policy Program (TPP) Curriculum
by Rebecca
Dodder, Professor Daniel
Hastings, Professor Tom
Kochan, Professor Richard Lester, Professor David
Marks, Professor Ken
Oye, Professor Joseph
Sussman, Professor Arthur Steinberg, and Dr. Richard Tabors
This working
paper serves as a discussion piece by synthesizing many of the
ideas and concerns that have arisen in the process of developing
a new TPP curriculum for September 2001. The focus point is a
draft template for a new TPP curriculum. In order to provide a
context for this 'strawman' curriculum, the paper first presents
the main findings of the committee's analysis to date, an overview
of TPP in the context of Engineering Systems, and a set of criteria
for evaluation. The appendices contain information on other graduate
programs similar to TPP in order provide benchmarks as well as
some philosophical discussion of the relationship between the
Technology and Policy Program and Integrated Assessment methods.
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