From manufacturing to design : an essay on the work of Kim B. Clark. Harvard Business School Working Paper- 07-057

In this paper, we describe Clark's research and discuss his contributions to management scholarship and economics. We look at three distinct bodies of work. In the first, Clark (in conjunction with Robert Hayes and Steven Wheelwright) argued that the abandonment by U.S. managers of manufacturing as a strategic function exposed U.S. companies to Japanese competition in terms of the cost and quality of goods. In the second, conducted with Wheelwright, Bruce Chew, Takahiro Fujimoto, Kent Bowen and Marco Iansiti, Clark made the case that product development could be managed in new ways that would lead to significant competitive advantage for firms. Finally, in work conducted with Abernathy, Rebecca Henderson and Carliss Baldwin, Clark placed product and process designs at the center of his explanation of how innovation determines the structure and evolution of industries.

Designing from Heritage:

Designing from Heritage deals with challenges architects are faced with when dealing with the conservation and reuse of built heritage, with a focus on Modern Movement Monuments. It discusses how to carry out a thorough analysis and evaluation of monuments upon which their conservation and transformation can be based. It is meant for MSc education, but may be of interest to architects in general. This book – the third in the Rondeltappe series – reflects the philosophy and didactic approach of Heritage and Architecture (H&A) section of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (Delft University of Technology). H&A has three chairs: Design, Cultural Value and Technology. They work in close cooperation to lay the foundations for the preservation and continuity of use of built heritage. Designing from Heritage is strongly connected to the first book in the Rondeltappe series which deals with durability and sustainability of monuments, and with the second which advocates  freedom in heritage based design. It contains the contribution of Prof. Wessel de Jonge – the Chair of Heritage and Design and principle at Wessel de Jonge Architects – and Prof Marieke Kuipers – Chair of Culural Heritage in particular of the Architecture of the Twentieth Century and senior specialist of Twentieth Century Built Heritage at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE). Designing from Heritage is subdivided in four chapters:  The first, a contribution by Wessel de Jonge, sketches issues of transitoriness and timelessness related to the reuse of Modern Movement monuments. Their values, characteristics and potentials are the foundations for architectural design aimed at guaranteeing their future lives. In the second chapter, Marieke Kuipers presents a didactic exercise in critical observation of the architectural object.  In the third, she discusses the interpretation of tangible and intangible heritage values in order to specify the main characteristics and critical issues in relation to continuity and change.  Finally, Wessel de Jonge presents his experience of the role of the architect in relation to heritage value assessment, with specific reference to the conservation of Modern Movement monuments

Acquiring enterprise systems as a portfolio of real options

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Acquisition Research Symposium Thursday Sessions, Volume IIThe Department of Defense (DoD) has an enterprise architectural vision and an accompanying transformation plan. The enterprise transformation plan describes multiple individual projects and systems that collectively deliver the desired capabilities and enterprise architecture. These projects are performed over planning horizons that span several years or more. Deciding on what projects to invest in, when to invest in them, and whether to continue the investment as time progresses is a difficult problem because of the uncertainty involved in the operational environment, the technology, and the associated project risks. This paper argues that enterprise systems acquisition can be modeled using real options to obtain project valuations that consider the environmental uncertainty and guide acquisition decisions. Moreover, because the enterprise architecture involves many projects that are interdependent, a portfolio investment approach is called for. We present a real options framework to plan a portfolio of projects as a collection of compound real options. We illustrate how the model can be applied in a case study derived from the DoD?s transformation plan. The model and method contribute an approach to value a portfolio of projects that intentionally creates options to preserve decision flexibility and acquire the target architecture?s capabilities at lower cost and risk.Prepared for the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 93943.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Simulating the Impact on the Local Economy of Alternative Management Scenarios for Natural Areas

This working paper estimates the impact on the local economy of the High Garda Natural Park of alternative management scenarios for the West Garda Regional Forest. The local economy is specialized in tourist services and strongly linked to the tourist presence and their level of expenditure. We wish to investigate the effects of the participative management strategy, which takes into account users preferences and the non-participative strategy, using the SAM multiplier analysis. The local SAM has been constructed considering three sectors: agriculture, tourism and a third aggregate sector including all the other activities. The resident population has been divided into two categories: residents employed in the tourist sector and the remaining resident population. The SAM analysis shows that the accounting representation of the local economy is meaningful and that the participative program, if chosen by the central regional management, would be the most desirable program also at the local level.Tourism, SAM, Multiplier analysis

Unmanned and Autonomous Systems of Systems Test and Evaluation: Challenges and Opportunities

The introduction of Unmanned and Autonomous Systems (UAS) brings substantial, interesting, and in many cases, new challenges to the Department of Defense’s Test and Evaluation community. The test and evaluation of UASs becomes significantly more complicated than traditional systems, especially as we approach more fully autonomous systems and need to test integrated systems of systems in joint military operational testing environments. Compounding the multi-faceted considerations involved in test and evaluation, systems have continuously increasing complexity and capabilities and can be at different maturity levels. Emergent properties, particularly those that are unplanned and undesired, also need to be considered. Challenges identified by the Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Test community and related to the test and evaluation of the UASs are discussed. This paper presents various approaches for addressing these challenges including an innovative Prescriptive and Adaptive Testing Framework and decision support system, PATFrame

A fuzzy method for propagating functional architecture constraints to physical architecture.

International audienceModular product design has received great attention for about 10 years, but few works have proposed tools to either jointly design the functional and physical architectures or propagate the impact of evolutions from one domain to another. In this paper, we present a new method supporting the product architecture design. In new product development situations or in reengineering projects, system architects could use this method in the early design stages to predetermine cohesive modules and integrative elements and to simulate a domain architecture by propagating architecture choices from another domain. To illustrate our approach, we present an industrial case study concerning the design of a new automobile powertrain

Strategic Decisions on the Investment Project

Diplomová práce "Strategické rozhodování o investičním projektu Kasárna Slatina" je zaměřena na využití metod rozhodovací analýzy při řešení rozhodovacího problému v rámci revitalizace armádního brownfield Kasárna Slatina. V teoretické části je vysvětlena základní terminologie, metody a postupy, které se vztahují k problematice řešeného rozhodovacího problému. V praktické části je řešeno závažné strategické rozhodnutí spojené s otázkou rozvoje konkrétní brněnské lokality. Na základě použitých postupů je v souladu s rozhodovací metodikou navrženo optimální rozhodnutí.This diploma work "Strategic Decision Making on the Investment Project Military Barracks Slatina" is about the application of decision analysis methods for a solution to the decision problem of the revitalization of brownfield Military Barracks Slatina. In the theoretical part, the basic terminology, methods and procedures, related to problems of decision situations, are explained. In the practical part, the important strategic decision connected with the matter of a specific area of Brno's revitalization is solved. Through the application of these procedures, the optimal option for solution according to the decision methods is proposed.

An analysis of techniques and methods for technical debt management: a reflection from the architecture perspective

Technical debt is a metaphor referring to the consequences of weak software development. Managing technical debt is necessary in order to keep it under control, and several techniques have been developed with the goal of accomplishing this. However, available techniques have grown disperse and managers lack guidance. This paper covers this gap by providing a systematic mapping of available techniques and methods for technical debt management, covering architectural debt, and identifying existing gaps that prevent to manage technical debt efficiently

A Logical Approach to Real Options Identification with Application to UAV Systems

Complex systems are subject to uncertainties that may lead to suboptimal performance or even catastrophic failure if unmanaged. Uncertainties may be managed through real options that provide a decision maker with the right, but not the obligation, to exercise actions in the future. While real options analysis has traditionally been used to quantify the value of such flexibility, this paper is motivated by the need for a structured approach to identify where real options are or can be embedded for uncertainty management. We introduce a logical model-based approach to identification of real option mechanisms and types, where the mechanism is the enabler of the option, while the type refers to the flexibility provided by the option. First, we extend the classical design structure matrix and the more general multiple-domain matrix (MDM), commonly used in modeling and analyzing interdependencies in complex socio-technical systems, to the more expressive Logical-MDM that supports the representation of flexibility. Second, we show that, in addition to flexibility, two new properties, namely, optionability and realizability, are relevant to the identification of real options. We use the Logical-MDM to estimate flexibility, optionability, and realizability metrics. Finally, we introduce the Real Options Identification (ROI) method based on these metrics, where the identified options are valued using standard real options valuation methods to support decision making under uncertainty. The expressivity of the logic combined with the structure of the dependency model allows the effective representation and identification of mechanisms and types of real options across multiple domains and lifecycle phases of a system. We demonstrate this approach through a series of unmanned air vehicle scenarios

The Impact of Protest Responses in Choice Experiments

Not much attention has been given to protest responses in choice experiments (CE). Using follow-up statements, we are able to identify protest responses and compute welfare estimates with and without the inclusion of such protest responses. We conclude that protest responses are fairly common in CE, and their analysis affects the statistical performance of the empirical models. In particular, when the sample is corrected by protests, our results come from utility consistent models. Thus, future choice experiments should consider the role of protest responses as contingent valuation studies have done.Protest Responses, Choice Experiments