Multifunctional Student Project Teams at PSU’s ETM Department

The increasing globalization and stronger recognition for what teams have to off er changes the attitude towards teamwork in the academic environment of Universities. Graduate programs, like that from the Engineering and Technology Management (ETM) Department from Portland State University, emphasize teamwork and forces students to accomplish their projects in teams. The purpose of this study is to investigate multiple student projects in the academic Engineering & Technology Management environment with the intent to identify critical issues in multifunctional student project teams. The study was accomplished in the Engineering and Technology Management Synthesis class under supervision of Dr. Dragan Milosevic

International Speed Print, Inc.: Reengineering for a New Market3

Introduction: In 1997, International Speed Print, Inc., (ISPI) 1 was a $7 billion Fortune 100 corporation with a 134-year history. The company operated 55 print plants with 34,000 employees located around the world. ISPI dominated the printing market with sales greater than its next largest nine competitors combined. The company’s 4000 clients included Simon-Schuster, ITP, McGraw-Hill, Time Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Microsoft and many others. ISPI had print operations in China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Ireland, the U.K., Holland, Spain, Poland, and 40 plants in the U.S. The plants in Japan and China printed the Far East version of Microsoft Windows user manuals. Although it had clearly survived and thrived through many decades, the company was now facing new challenges

International Speed Print, Inc. Reengineering for the New

Abstract: In 1997, International Speed Print, Inc., (ISPI) was a $7 billion Fortune 100 corporation with a 134-year history. The company operated 55 print plants with 34,000 employees located around the world. ISPI dominated the printing market with sales greater than its next largest nine competitors combined. Although it had clearly survived and thrived through many decades, the company was now facing new challenges

Cross-Cultural Teams and Projects: Issues and Trends in the ‘70s

This report is a result of an extensive reading of the literature in the 70\u27s on some challenging team issues. Culture shock was found to be a popular issue in those days. Culture shock adjustment shock models were previewed, with the overview and resulting effect on team performance presented in this report. Leadership was found to be rather dictated, by cultural biases, in most cases instead of personality indicators. Business views and results from researchers clashed. Arguments for teams and against teams were explored and are presented in this report. We conclude the report with our observations accumulated during our reading

Postmortem Analysis

All of our team members started this class with different expectations regarding the outcome our group would have and the helpful information we would learn for future teams. These outcomes included the learning of tools for analyzing team performance and using them to increase the efficiency and communication of teams. Other expectations included the examination of conditions for the creation of a positive team climate and the gain of personal experience through acting in a team that is focused on reaching a high level of team performance. We applied the concepts we learned in class in our multicultural team and observed ourselves to learn and gain a better understanding of how a team should function. The purpose of this report is to investigate our actions in the team building class, and give a postmortem analysis of our teams performance and characteristics. We will provide information about our team members, their different cultures and how this affected our ability to work together. We also will analyze our individual roles in the team atmosphere and how our different personalities affected the team. Finally, we will look at our meeting skills, evaluate them, and provide information concerning our positive and negative team meeting skills

Process Improvement of Wafer Measurement in the Semiconductor Industry

This project is to explore the use of Statistical Process Control (SPC), in particular the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA), to ensure continues improvement in a chemical process. Particular interest in this study is to see how well analytical machines would measure the wafer thickness. EWMA requires that all past information is gathered with more weight given to the most recent data. In conclusion, the data under study reveals that EWMA is an effective way in controlling and detecting whether or not the moving target operates within the process limit and thus, confirm the reliability of the measurements by the machines

Optimization of UPS Selection at PSU IT Department

In the government-based institutions, the decision making process is complex as it goes through bureaucratic system up to the person in charge of execution. Furthermore, the process becomes even harder when a number of technologies are involved. This is the situation PSU-OIT faced when the institution was purchasing UPS system 4 years ago. PSU top management had to allocate resources within the institution\u27s budget according to the OIT department\u27s proposal. Within budget constraint, OIT Department had to formulate UPS requirements according to their network and communication needs and send these requirements to different UPS suppliers for the bidding process. After receiving the demand formulation, these suppliers, in turn, informed the OIT department the best of UPS they could supply. Then, came the toughest stage of selecting that offer which was supposed to be the best according to the PSU network needs. It is worth mentioning, here, that the decision was hanging at balance between the two UPS brand names: Liebert and Exide and the OIT Department\u27s choice ended up to be Liebert. Liebert was therefore purchased and the offer of Exide was turned down. This is the stage that is of interest in this report

Project Management Software In The Construction Industry – A Case Study

This project is a case study that attempts to analyze the impact of project management software in a construction company. The company selected is a medium-size local construction company. Our objective is to identify the important key attributes of project management found in construction industry based on literature search, and how the use of project management software can significantly impact these attributes and thus, affect the success and failure of a project. It is interesting to see what are the challenges the company facing in adopting the new technology and what remedy have they prepared to face these challenges. Data collection for this case study was done through the use of survey instrument, i.e. questionnaire. Informal interview ensued was done to clarify information obtained from the previous as well as to extend our observation to enrich our case analysis. Conclusion and the following recommendations of this case study are provided based on our assessment of observation from the case analysis. To protect confidentiality of our client, their identification will not be disclosed

Implementing of Innovative Business Strategy on IT-Platform in DaimlerChrysler: DCX NET

Abstract: This paper illustrates on base of the new founded DCX NET holding by DaimlerChrysler the reason for launching a new strategy based on e-commerce in the automotive industry. Thus connected procedures, structures and treats are presented and the different business areas of DCX NET are analyzed. Critical issues in the B2C relationship are looked at and possible “management workarounds” are gathered. Furthermore expectations and prognoses regarding the furthermore ecommerce trend in the automotive industry are listed

Strategic & Policy Issues: AT&T@HOME

Introduction: This paper discusses AT&T and its strategies in the cable Internet service provider. It is organized into parts as follow. The AT&T Overview will be presented information in the area as follow: - History of AT&T - Origins - Organization - Over all product of AT&T - AT&T Broadband Access provider Cable modem Products competition AT&T@HOME Cable Internet Service Products Strategy The Analysis part of the paper focuses on AT&T strategies in the area of: - Acquisition Strategy - Partnership Strategy S.W.O.T analysis Porter’s Five force The Critical Issues Conclusio