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

Active particle dynamics beyond the jamming density

Many biological systems form colonies at high density. Passive granular systems will be jammed at such densities, yet for the survival of biological systems it is crucial that they are dynamic. We construct a phase diagram for a system of active particles interacting via Vicsek alignment, and vary the density, self-propulsion force, and orientational noise. We find that the system exhibits four different phases, characterized by transitions in the effective diffusion constant and in the orientational order parameter. Our simulations show that there exists an optimal noise such that particles require a minimal force to unjam, allowing for rearrangements.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

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