Improving cross-functional communication about product architecture

Product architecture decisions, such as product modularity, component commonality, and design reuse, are important for balancing costs, responsiveness, quality, and other important business objectives. Firms are challenged with complex tradeoffs between competing design priorities, face the need to facilitate communication between functional silos, and to learn from past experiences. In this paper we present a qualitative approach for systematically evaluating the product architecture of an existing product or product family, linking the original architecture objectives and actual experiences. The intended contribution of our research is to present a framework that brings together a diverse set of product architecture-related decisions that are relevant from a business point of view (and not from a technical point of view) and a set of business performance elements. This framework can be used in workshop that improves cross-functional communication about the product architecture of an existing product family, and this results in practical improvement actions for future architecture design projects. Initial experiences with this approach have been obtained in pilots with Philips domestic appliances & personal care, and Philips consumer electronics

The speechless brain : behavioral studies of memory and emotion during anesthesia

This thesis describes investigations into memory function in surgical patients under anesthesia. In a worst case scenario, sleep (hypnosis) is insufficiently induced and/or maintained and the patient regains consciousness, is aware of surgery and possibly in pain. Such an experience is often traumatic and may have devastating, long-term psychological consequences. Ideally, anesthesia induces unconsciousness and recollection of intraoperative events is lost. The latter scenario provided the research setting for this thesis, which specifically addresses two questions: 1) Does memory function depend on hypnotic adequacy? 2) Does memory function depend on the type of information? Outline Studies were conducted in healthy, ambulatory patients scheduled for relatively short elective surgical procedures under general anesthesia. In all cases, anesthesia was induced and maintained with propofol, an intravenous anesthetic with favorable clinical and pharmacodynamic properties for this type of patient and surgery. Novel psychological and neurophysiological techniques were combined to assess memory function during two levels of anesthesia: adequate hypnosis and deep sedation. Each level was examined in separate studies, as was the effect of non-emotional and emotional information. Both the influence of hypnotic state and type of information on memory function (2 x 2 factorial design) were addressed, and four experiments were conducted. The first chapter introduces behavioral studies of memory and emotion in general, and during anesthesia in particular. Part one provides a background to memory assessment and reviews recent technological developments in monitoring hypnotic state during anesthes·la. Part two briefly reviews human and animal responses to emotional stimuli, and describes the neurobiological basis of emotion. The chapters that follow report on the experiments that were conducted to address the aims of this thesis. With the use of a memory priming paradigm with relatively familiar Dutch words, chapters 2 and 3 describe investigations into memory function during adequate hypnosis and deep sedation, respectively. In chapter 3, individual differences in memory function are addressed as well. Chapter 4 highlights patient awareness that was observed during deep sedation from a phenomenological and neurophysiological point of view, and describes its relation to postoperative conscious recall. Chapter 5 investigates processing of emotional information and its effect on memory function during adequate hypnosis. A similar paradigm is adhered to during deep sedation, which is reported on in chapter 6. In chapter 7, finally, the main findings and conclusions of the studies presented in this thesis are discussed

Performance measurement procedures that support innovativeness rather than hamper it

This paper addresses the contemporary challenges in increasing firm-level innovativeness and developing appropriate performance metrics. The authors discuss these challenges and provide a literature review on the innovation enhancing factors in service industries. They subsequently study the case of a multinational telecom company that tries to renew its innovative capabilities after a restructuring. An interpretative approach, based on employee focus group interviews and an extensive management workshop, is taken to co-develop context specific factors that enhance innovativeness. These factors include, amongst others, personal recognition and acknowledgement for an innovative achievement, available time, customer intimacy, and a clear innovation strategy. The identified factors will be used in a follow-up research aimed to develop performance measurement procedures that support the company to develop and exploit its innovative capabilities

Cost management and cross-functional communication through product architectures

Product architecture decisions regarding, for example, product modularity, component commonality, and design re-use, are important for balancing costs, responsiveness, quality, and other important business objectives. Firms are challenged with complex tradeoffs between competing design priorities, face the need to facilitate communication between functional silos, and want to learn from past experiences. In this paper, we present a qualitative approach for systematically evaluating the product architecture of a product family, comparing the original architecture objectives and actual experiences. The intended contribution of our research is threefold: (1) to present a framework that brings together a diverse set of product architecture-related decisions and business performance; (2) to provide a set of metrics that operationalise the variables in the framework, and (3) to provide a workshop protocol that is based on the framework and the metrics. This workshop aims to improve cross-functional communication about the product architecture of an existing product family, and it results in practical improvement actions for future architecture design projects. Experiences with this approach are reported in pilots with Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care, and Philips Consumer Electronics

Auditory information processing during adequate propofol anesthesia monitored by electroencephalogram bispectral index

Memory for intraoperative events may arise from inadequate anesthesia when the hypnotic state is not continuously monitored. Electroencephalogram bispectral index (BIS) enables monitoring of the hypnotic state and titration of anesthesia to an adequate level (BIS 40 to 60). At this level, preserved memory function has been observed in trauma patients. We investigated memory formation in elective surgical outpatients during target-controlled propofol anesthesia supplemented with alfentanil. While BIS remained between 40 and 60, patients listened to a tape with either familiar instances (exemplars) from two categories (Experimental [E] group, n = 41) or bird sounds (Control [C] group, n = 41). After recovery, memory was tested directly and indirectly. BIS during audio presentation was on average (+/- SD) 44 +/- 5 and 46 +/- 5 for Groups E and C, respectively. No patient consciously recalled the intraoperative period, nor were presented words recognized reliably (Group E, 0.9 +/- 0.8 hits; Group C, 0.8 +/- 0.8 hits) (P = 0.7). When asked to generate category exemplars, Group E named 2.10 +/- 1.0 hits versus 1.98 +/- 1.0 in Group C (P = 0.9). We found no explicit or implicit memory effect of familiar words presented during adequate propofol anesthesia at BIS levels between 40 and 60 in elective surgical patients. IMPLICATIONS: This study suggests that stable levels of adequate hypnosis may prevent information processing and memory formation during general anesthesia and supports the feasibility of electroencephalogram bispectral index as a monitor of adequate anesthesia