Staying nimble : a flexible approach to complex product development in a rigid environment
Name
932071545-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
13.06 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
aa0758d5158813407917212b148ca554
Author(s)
McKellar, Robert W. (Robert William)
Advisor(s)
Qi D. Van Eikema Hommes.
Alternative Title
Flexible approach to complex product development in a rigid environment
Date Issued
2015
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Incorporating flexibility into business processes can provide organizations with increased agility to respond to uncertainty within complex product development projects spanning across many years and many organizations. Current methods used for determining value in order to justify associated costs for implementing and maintaining process flexibility are not sufficient in capturing the full worth of flexibilities within processes. A framework is developed which builds upon on prior research to assess value of flexibility within product development processes, combining benefits of rigid constraints with flexible options. Valuation of a simple potential flexibility within an aircraft development project is used to demonstrate the use of the framework in practice and to evaluate strengths and weaknesses of the framework. The method of valuation provides benefit of capturing hidden value that would otherwise be ignored or left on the table and provides further insight into the behavior of the process flexibility in a manner which leads to optimization of that flexibility. However, adoption of the framework is hindered by the skillset required in practice along with the inherent inability to demonstrate its full value, as measured by actual performance.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, System Design and Management Program, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-67).
Subjects
Engineering Systems Division.
System Design and Management Program.
MIT Department
System Design and Management Program.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division
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