Keen Mobility Quality Manual

Abstract Keen Mobility is a company growing its product line from 0 products to 3 separate products. There is a need to quality standards and procedures both internally and externally. This manual is a first draft of a quality manual that Keen Mobility can use, add to, or even delete sections as they grow into a large organization with good quality people and products

The Oil Economy: How an Oil Crisis Impact the U.S. Economy

With the current gasoline price skyrocketing beyond people’s expectation, it causes one to wonder what is going on with the global economy with respect to oil. For the past years various institutions and scientists conducted research on the potential of an oil crisis. It is predicted that they will be an oil shortage by the year 2012 – 2015. With this knowledge, this paper sets up to analyze the impact of oil crisis on the US economy with respect to gasoline tax revenue – which is one of the major source of revenue that the government use to maintain the network of national highways throughout the US and other programs. The paper will also present how the shortage of oil can have a triple down effect of the government are pressure to raise the gasoline tax rate which can inflate the gas price and makes it goes up. This in turn could have side effects to the end consumers and potentially slow or cripple the US economy. The paper further narrows down the focus of inflation on gasoline versus consumer products such as milk over the years of history and show how fast gasoline price has risen to help the audience relates how this can effect them. The paper then offers a potential solution based upon Oregon’s future plans for solving its tax revenue from gasoline. Finally the paper concludes with some recommendations that the government may take in handling the oil shortage. Note: The presentation associated with this report is included as a supplemental file

The Fuzzy Front End: A Comparative Study

The start of a new product development project is a confusing time. People are working to establish what the product looks like, how long the development will take, what the cost will be and many other variables. This confusion is so universal that a term “the fuzzy front end” is a common description. Initially Team 3 set out to find, through a review of the literature, a set of best practices for the fuzzy front end. However, no best practices exist. It is argued in the literature that each company and each project is so unique and that best practices cannot exist. What were found instead are tools and metrics to evaluate the front-end practices of organizations, and through case history, compare to what a world-class front-end process would be. Through interviews and team member experience, this evaluation was applied to InFocus, Inc. and the Canadian Military. Further, these two organizations’ front-end processes are compared and contrasted. Finally, recommendations are made for both organizations to improve their front-end performance. Note: The presentation associated with this report is included as a supplemental file

Technology-Driven Entrepreneurship: A Study of the Portland Area Venture Funding Environment

The purpose of this study is to investigate the apparent disconnect with the Portland area entrepreneurial community and its ability to leverage the high-tech human capital in the region. Interviews conducted with persons in the venture funding community will be combined with a literature search to investigate the problem, if any, and to determine the source, if possible. Conclusions, recommendations, and suggested areas of further study will be proposed based on findings of the project team

GE – Corporate Strategies during and after the Jack Welch era

GE’s core values arise from its “Three Traditions”: “Unyielding Integrity, Commitment to Performance and Thirst for Change”. GE has codified these values on its website, which include using customer satisfaction as measure of success, creating opportunities for skilled workers, drive to expand the business globally, respect for the individual, use the size of the business as leverage in taking risks, and use of technology to improve speed

Orbital Space Plane Decision Analysis: An Application of Nathasit Gerdsri’s Model to NASA Technology Selection

The objective of this project is to test the applicability of hierarchical decision model and process developed by Nathasit Gerdsri in his doctoral research in Systems Science/Engineering Management Ph.D. As a test case, the intent of the project is to replicate the decision making process at NASA for selecting the 2nd generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) technology known as the Orbital Space Plane (OSP) concept. There are three OSP concept alternatives currently under consideration. The alternatives each have unique design characteristics. To conduct a formal evaluation of the alternatives, the team quantified subjective judgments formed on the basis of conceptual, preferential and qualitative information gleaned from NASA and related sources. Six main decision criteria, selected from NASA Level-1 Requirements, are dissected into sub-criteria, defined by Gerdsri as factors, and weights are quantified for each factor by subjectively judging relative magnitude of importance using the principles of multicriteria decision making [1]. Each factor is then scaled from 0 to100 using the straight method of ratio scaling. Six different descriptive ranking continuums are used for the scale. The score of each scaled factor indicates the condition of the alternative relative to the factor. All combinations of the six main criteria are compared pairwise with each other with respect to relative importance. The multicriteria method allowed us to weight and score factors, and pairwise comparison provided a means to rank the relative importance of each main criterion. The result of the combined methods is a value indicating the optimal choice of the three OSP alternatives. This study is a hypothetical scenario based on actual concept designs and current events. Note: The presentation associated with this report is included here as a supplemental file

Team Report 2 – Team 3

This paper discusses the experiences made by team 3 in Dr. Milosevic’s Communications and Teambuilding class in spring 2004. It is shown what the team had to do, how it approached the different tasks and how the team developed over time. Problems are pointed out and discussed. Finally a list of lessons learned is presented as recommendations for teambuilding in general