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| Greetings! |
It's summer at last here in Rochester, NY and we hope you are enjoying warm weather and the vacation season.
In this issue, however, we go "back to school" a little early. Skip returns to campus as a guest lecturer on Critical Parameter Management (CPM) at MIT System Design & Management (SDM) program's Systems Engineering class this month. We'll send you his handout, a CPM project guide, upon request. Also, learn more about MIT's SDM program and OpenCourseWare, a web-based resource providing free access to almost all of MIT's course materials.
Have a safe & happy summer! |
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| PDSS President Lectures at MIT on Critical Parameter Management (CPM) |
| As this newsletter is sent out, PDSS President Skip Creveling will be addressing students in the System Design & Management (SDM) program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the topic of Critical Parameter Management (CPM).
Skip has lectured to this summer session class since 2004, at the invitation of Patrick Hale, Director of the SDM Fellows program at MIT. Says Pat, "it's important for our students to learn advanced topics, such as CPM, in product development. Having an industry expert like Skip as a guest lecturer brings real-world experience and credibility into the classroom."
The class is Systems Engineering, a core course for both the certificate and master's degree options of the SDM Program. This year's class will have approximately 35 students on campus and another 20 from around the world tuning in via videoconference. The topic of Skip's lecture is closely related to Part III of his book, Design for Six Sigma in Technology and Product Development ( purchase at 35% discount), which introduces CPM in the context of Design for Six Sigma.
Skip says about the power of CPM, "Every systems engineering leader has a number of responsibilities. The chief of them is the open and honest facing of reality - they don't hide things, they don't wait until all hell breaks loose, they attack the unknown with a plan and a clear set of tasks to get to the facts early.
Developing complex systems that are capable, robust and tunable in reasonable proximity to their targeted requirements is always harder than anticipated. The law of unintended consequences is always active when a team develops a system or sub-level design. Every one I have ever designed has been loaded with harsh examples of this law. Design a blower to provide vacuum and in the process it is too loud, make it quiet and it overheats, cool it and you break your electrical energy budget... Life is tough during product development and the only way I know to hack your way through the realities of this interactive and co-dependent mess is to apply Critical Parameter Management with discipline and rigor. It properly identifies the complex set of interactions, sensitivities and trade-off scenarios that a systems engineer has to know and use to get the design finished as close to on-time as possible. If you want to face the truth about a system as quickly as physics will allow - there is no choice but to master this process and its toolset."
The students will receive Skip's new CPM guide as a handout. See the next article for more information and how to get your own copy by email.
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| Request Your Free Copy of Skip's CPM Project Guide |
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At his MIT lecture this year, Skip will be introducing his at-a-glance guide for a critical parameter management project. Intended for experienced CPM practitioners, this 3-page document contains
- a summary of 9 steps for a CPM project
- a diagram of the linkage of CPM to Design for Lean Six Sigma (DfLSS) tools
- How to link New, Unique, Difficult (NUD) requirements to critical parameters for capability tracking, and
- The definition of "robustness parameters" vs. "mean-shifting parameters"
Please click here to request your free copy via email. If the link does not work, send an email to cpmrequest@pdssinc.com. |
| More About MIT's SDM Program |
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MIT's System Design & Management (SDM) program is jointly sponsored by MIT's School of Engineering and the Sloan School of Management. Offering a master's level alternative to an MBA, the SDM's mission is to educate future leaders in architecting, engineering, and designing complex products and systems - preparing them for careers as the senior technical leaders of their enterprises. SDM is a program for those who want to lead engineering, not leave engineering. SDM has the support and participation of companies and government agencies such as UTC, Boeing, Motorola, US Army, NASA, Ford, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and many others. Over 50 companies have sponsored students and there are over 420 graduates as of June 2008. SDM's targeted core competencies include:
- Systems thinking and underlying theory
- Product development theories and practices
- Innovation mindset and critical technical thinking
- Change agent skills & receptivity to organizational, product and process evolution
- Leadership & teamwork
- Management & engineering preparation and bridging skills
- Business leadership capabilities
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| A Free Alternative to Enrolling: MIT's OpenCourseWare |
What's that? You're not inclined to enroll in MIT's SDM program? You can still access the Systems Engineering class lecture notes, exams and reading assignment list, free of charge and no registration necessary, at MIT's OpenCourseWare page for the course here.
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. For a complete listing of all available courses and information see MIT's OpenCourseWare site.
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Sincerely, | |
Carol Biesemeyer
Business Manager and Newsletter Editor Product Development Systems & Solutions Inc. | |
