Lecturer
Prof. Bhattacherjee, Anol., University of Southern Florida, USA
Prof. Andriani, Pierpaolo, Euromed Management, Frnace
Prof. Chhajed, Dilip, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign,USA
March 2012 by Prof. Bhattacherjee
Issues in Managing Technology Projects
Tentative course outline
Session 1
Topic: Managing technology projects
Session 2
Topic: Business intelligence
Session 3
Topic: Sources and patterns of technological innovations
Session 4
Topic: Organizing for innovations
April 2012 by Prof. Andriani
Issues in Management of Innovation and Technological Change
Tentative course outline
Session 1
Topic: Disruptive innovation model
Preliminary reading:
J. L. Bower, & Christensen, C. M. (1995). Disruptive technologies: catching the wave. Harvard
Business Review, 73 (1), 43—53.
Case: What's Wrong with This Picture: Kodak's 30-year Slide into Bankruptcy available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2935
This lecture will discuss the disruptive innovation model introduced by Professor Clayton Christensen in his book “The Innovator’s dilemma”.
Session 2
Topic: Emergence of new markets based on radical innovation
Preliminary readings: first chapter of book: Bijker, W. E. (1995). Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs . Cambridge: MA: MIT
Press.

Radical innovations generate new markets, which evolve along regular patterns. We will look at the evolution of markets by looking at one specific technology, i.e. the bicycle. This talk is inspired by the
‘Socio-technical’ view of technological evolution
Session 3
Topic: Exaptation: a new way to promote creativity and innovation
Preliminary readings:
Cattani, G. (2005). Preadaptation, Firm Heterogeneity, and Technological Performance: A Study on the Evolution of Fiber Optics, 1970-1995. Organization Science, 16 (6), 563-580.
Dew, N., Sarasvathy, S. D., & Venkataraman, S. (2004). The economic implications of exaptation.
Journal of Evolutionary Economics 14 (1), 69-84.
Many innovations are based on functional shift, that is, on the discovery of new functions for existing technologies. This mechanisms has largely been ignored in the management literature but it seems to explain many innovations and holds the promise to improve management of innovation and design
Session 4
Topic: Modularity, modular systems and modular innovation strategy
Preliminary readings:
Baldwin, C. Y., & Clark, K. B. (1997). Managing in the age of modularity. Harvard Business
Review (September-October), 84–93.
This talk focuses on the importance of modular systems. We will discuss how and why radical innovations evolve toward modularity, the advantages and disadvantages of modular systems and modular innovation strategies.
Additional Session
Topic: Lead users and innovation communities as complementors of R&D departments
Preliminary readings: first chapter of book (pp: Von Hippel, E. (2005). Democratizing Innovation . Cambridge: MA: MIT
Press. Available at http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm
Users have emerged as a powerful force in the emergence of innovations, both radical and incremental. The talk introduces the topic of user-centric innovation.
May 2012 by Prof. Chhajed
Process Innovation Design and Improvement
Tentative Course Outline
Session 1
Topic:
Video:
Readings:
Bottleneck Management
“The Goal”
Amazon ships to sorting machine beat, NYT
Managing bottleneck is fundamental to any production technology management. This session focuses on managing resources to maximize throughput and making product portfolio decisions.
What is a bottleneck?

How should you manage a bottleneck resource?
How should you manage a non-bottleneck resource?
How can the concept of bottleneck be applied to making product portfolio decision?
How to use systems viewpoint in making decisions that may not be locally optimal?
Session 2
Topic:
Case:
Readings:
Process Technology Strategy
Chad Creative Concept
Chapter 2
The concept of what type of process technology to deploy is discussed via a mini-case. The match between market strategy and process strategy using the framework of product-process matrix is highlighted.
What is focused strategy and why is focused strategy important?
What are the impediments in following focused strategy and how to overcome them?
Day 2
Session 1
Topic: Process Technology Measurements and Interrelationships
Readings: A Note on Process Fundamentals
Some plants tear out long assembly lines, switch to craft work, WSJ
This session introduces many non-intuitive process related measures and establishes the relationship amongst them.
How to determine the capacity of an individual resource, the capacity of process, and utilization of a resource?
What are some of the ways to change the capacity of a process?
What is minimum flow time (response time) and how is it related with capacity of the process?
What are the drivers of flow time?
How are some of these fundamental measures related?
Session 2
Topic:
Case:
Process Analysis
Manzana Insurance
Using a case, the session relates the effect of variability on the performance of a process. It also provides practice in analyzing an existing process for improvements and new technology deployment.
What is the effect of variability and congestion on service performance?
How can incentive system affect performance?
Day 3
Session 1
Topic:
Readings:
Process Quality Management
Chapter 6
Six sigma enlightenment, NYT
Hospitals move to cut dangerous lab errors, WSJ
What is quality? How is it different in a service firm?
How can we know whether a process is working within its normal range of variability?
How is process control related with product quality? How is it related with six sigma?
Session 2

Topic:
Case:
Lean Thinking
Toyota Motor Manufacturing
Readings: Chapter 5
What factory managers can teach hospitals, WSJ
Fixing healthcare from the inside, today, HBR
What are the main requirements of a JIT system?
What are different types of waste?
Why and how is the pull system beneficial?
Are there elements of TPS that can be adapted by technology firms?
Day 4
Session 1
Topic:
Case:
Product Design for Sustainable Operations
Cradle ‐ to ‐ Cradle Design
How can product design help toward more sustainable operations? What is the cradle-to-cradle design protocol? What are the challenges in adapting such intense environmental initiative?
Topic: Flexibility Strategy
Course Summary
Session 2
Process Design Project Presentations
Students will be working on developing the operations design of a company and present their design. This project-based learning will help students in deep learning, develop communication skills and provide an opportunity to manage a team based project.