The purpose of this chapter is to analyze software development as a technology, that is, a process that utilizes phenomena in the material world to achieve a human purpose. What tasks are needed to make a software program? How does software development compare to the other technologies we have...

The purpose of this book is to present a theory of technical systems that can help us better understand the demands technology places on organizations. New technologies in general require new patterns of activity and reward some patterns over others. Quoting Brian Arthur:"When a novel technology...

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the complementary elements of a logistical platform and show how they can work together to deliver a high ROIC. A secondary purpose of the chapter is to illustrate the power and limitations of a strategy of value capture based exclusively on ROIC.I use...

The purpose of this chapter is to understand how technology contributed to the emergence and evolution of modular production networks between 1980 and the present. In a modular production network, the activities needed to create a functioning system (for example, a personal computer) are...

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the value structure of flow production processes and to explain why it is necessary to rationalize flow processes using the tools of systematic management. I first explain the problems facing managers of multi-step flow production processes at the end of...

The purpose of this chapter is to explain what the technologies of flow production with bottlenecks require and reward in organizations. I argue that the organizations best suited to implementing these technologies are vertically integrated spanning all potential bottlenecks. They are subject to...

Bob Kelly, the new CEO of Mellon Financial, is considering the terms of a proposed "merger of equals" with The Bank of New York, just before the final Board meeting to approve the deal. The combination offers a great strategic fit, and the expected synergies are large. However, the proposed...

In this paper we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important alternative models: innovations by single user individuals or firms, and open collaborative innovation projects. We analyze the design costs and architectures and communication costs...

We live in a dynamic economic and commercial world, surrounded by objects of remarkable complexity and power. In many industries, changes in products and technologies have brought with them new kinds of firms and forms of organization. We are discovering news ways of structuring work, of...