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This page provides information for companies interested in involvement with the Decision Tools for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship Course at Carnegie Mellon

Introduction

Dear Potential Supporter,

Thank you for your interest in Carnegie Mellon’s Spring 2009 senior- and graduate-level course on Decision Tools for Engineering Design and Entrepreneurship (DTEDE). DTEDE provides Carnegie Mellon engineering students with a toolset to quantify a technical roadmap for bringing a new product design or innovative technology to market. The course is framed around one, team-based semester-long project. Teams are expected to apply topics covered in class, as well as general engineering knowledge, to develop their own computational models of design, production and projected market response to the product. As the culmination of the course, students are expected to synthesize their model results into a business plan for the new product or technology. We encourage all companies to attend the students teams' final presentations of their business plans, which will be held this year the week of May 4th.

The following guidelines may be useful in identifying an appropriate product or technology for a DTEDE project:

1. Innovative: The proposed project involves a new product or technology with attributes (e.g. price, efficiency, reliability, size, performance, etc.) you hope will provide you with added competitiveness on the market, but for which actual market adoption is still uncertain.
2. Prior to Capital Investment: Your new product or technology has only recently or has not yet been introduced into high-volume manufacturing, or you are considering a significant change that would affect production; however, based on your experience with prototypes, or legacy products, your company has a plan for how such an introduction would occur (e.g. what equipment would be necessary, what might be expected for cycle times and yields)
3. Identified Target Market: Your company has identified a target market for this new product or technology. You are aware of competing products in that market, and are able to identify with students the attributes on which new market entrants compete (e.g. price, efficiency, reliability, size, performance, etc.)
4. Global Relevance: Optional – when appropriate, new products in which manufacturing location is undecided, where manufacturing practices vary by country, or where market preferences vary by country are particularly of interest.

By nature, each team will have somewhat different tasks and areas of emphasis, depending on the product selected. Also, as in any educational experience, the composition and quality of output of student teams can vary widely. We cannot guarantee the final output of individual teams. That being said, the quality of student team output frequently correlates with the attention and data access provided by the participating company. Based on course requirements, companies sponsoring a DTEDE project may expect the following basic output from its student team at the end of the semester:

1. A Final Report including the following assessments:
   • Detailed analysis of the cost-drivers of one production step;
   • Quantitative analysis of the relationship between one or two design attributes and production costs for that step;
   • A decision-tree analysis of how the optimal plant capacity investment varies with expected demand;
   • A survey by which to assess consumer preferences for a few critical design attributes using student respondents or other respondents provided by the sponsor;
   • Quantitative analysis of the relationship between one or two design attributes and the optimal trade-off between these attributes based on demand predictions;
   • Quantitative analysis of how heterogeneity in market preferences affect competitive positioning; and
   • An initial assessment, based on the above analyses, of the critical trade-offs impacting the ability of the new product or technology to achieve economic competitiveness against existing products available on today’s market.
2. A 10 Minute Final Presentation recommending a business plan, based on the team’s assessment of the economic competitiveness of the new product or technology against existing products on today’s market.

As this is the inaugural semester of this innovative class, we are asking for only small company gifts in exchange for a student team taking on a project. To learn more about this gift, please contact us directly. Examples of past work by both lead-faculty on technology, operations, and market decision modeling can be found on our websites at, Professor Fuchs and Professor Michalek. While we allow that participating companies may choose to exchange information under non-disclosure agreements with the faculty and student teams, all teams must maintain the right to present and publish the results of their analyses in such a way that obscures the underlying data.

We are very excited about the kick-off of this ground-breaking new engineering design and entrepreneurship class at Carnegie Mellon University, and look forward to working with you in the upcoming term. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at dtede@andrew.cmu.edu.

Sincerely,

Erica Fuchs and Jeremy Michalek

Timeline

Summary of Key Dates (Tentative)

January 15

• Optional 5 minute in-class presentation by company representative to introduce students to potential project

January 22

• Team selection, first company conversation with student team

January 27

• Team presentation (10 min, ~8 slides) on project selection and scope
• Company participation welcome
• Company should expect a copy of presentation.

February 3

• Written memo (1-2 pg.) due of revised project proposal
• Company should expect a copy of presentation and memo
• Optional: company representative meets with team in Pittsburgh (anytime Jan 28 - Feb 4)

February 12

• Teams begin collecting data on production

February 24 or March 3

• Team presentation (10 min, ~8 slides) on production analysis
• Cost memo due (2-5 pages)
• Data collection on production ends
• Company should expect a copy of presentation and memo

March 3

• Teams begin collecting data on demand

March 9-13

• Company site visits, further collection of production and demand data

April 2

• Team presentation (10 min, ~8 slides) on demand analysis
• Market memo due (2-5 pages)
• Data collection on demand ends
• Company should expect a copy of presentation and memo

April 9

• Revised demand survey design due
• May be possible to use with customer population, depending on project definition and and team capabilities

Finals Week (week of May 4, date TBD in Jan. by university final exam schedule)

• One 3-hour session with final project presentations (20 min, ~15 slides)
• Final project report due
• Company attendance encouraged

Participation in end-of-term student project review panel

We are currently seeking leaders from the business community to attend and critic the students' end-of-term presentations of their business plans. Student teams will be asked to present their complete, integrated analyses during one 3-hour session the week of May 5, 2008. Each team presentation will last 20 minutes, and should be accompanied by a 10 page business plan defending their conclusions with their integrated modeling analyses over the course of the semester. If you would be interested in participating, please contact Professors Fuchs and Michalek by email at dtede@andrew.cmu.edu or by phone at 412 268-6115.