Hyeonju Seol

An analytic network process approach to measuring design change impacts in modular products

Since parts and systems are closely linked to each other in complex engineering products, a change in a single part or system causes changes in other parts or systems, which in turn propagate through a product. This paper proposes an analytic network process (ANP) approach to measuring the relative importance of parts and modules in a modular product in terms of design change impacts and propagation. Although the primary purpose of the ANP is selection and prioritisation of alternatives, this study applies the ANP to change propagation by exploiting its advantageous feature, taking indirect impacts among elements into account. To begin with, a design dependency network that represents design change relationships among parts and modules is constructed as a network model of the ANP. The ANP procedure is then carried out to derive the relative change impacts (RCIs) of parts and modules. The RCI values can be used for various works in engineering change management. A case study on an automobile system is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

Evaluation of new service concepts using rough set theory and group analytic hierarchy process

Highlights? Proposing a systematic approach to evaluation of new service concepts (NSCs). ? Integrating the merits of group analytic hierarchy process and the strengths of rough set theory. ? Measuring the feasibility of NSCs in terms of strategy, finance, market, technology, and implementation. One of the most crucial stages in the new service development (NSD) process is concept selection, which is characterized by newly generated alternatives and vaguely defined concept evaluation criteria. Although a number of factors have been found to be influential, a lacuna remains as to how to make a strategic decision based on influential factors. This study proposes a systematic approach to evaluation of new service concepts (NSCs) by integrating the merit of group analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in modeling multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problems and the strength of rough set theory (RST) in handling subjectivity in concept evaluation. The suggested approach is designed to be executed in four discrete stages. First of all, a hierarchical AHP model for the evaluation of NSCs is constructed in terms of strategy, finance, market, technology, and implementation. Second, pairwise comparisons are made among criteria and sub-criteria, and preferences to NSCs with respect to the sub-criteria are obtained by domain experts. Third, the individual judgments obtained at the preceding stage are aggregated into group judgments. Finally, the NSCs are prioritized based on risk propensity of decision makers. A case study of the video game service is presented to illustrate the suggested approach. We believe that our method can promote consensus building on the promising NSCs.

Identifying core technologies based on technological cross-impacts: An association rule mining (ARM) and analytic network process (ANP) approach

This study proposes a new approach to identifying core technologies from a perspective of technological cross-impacts based on patent co-classification information with consideration of the overall interrelationships among technologies. The proposed approach is comprised of two methods: association rule mining (ARM) and the analytic network process (ANP). Firstly association rule mining (ARM) is employed to calculate the technological cross-impact indexes. Since the confidence measure in ARM is defined as a conditional probability between two technologies, it is adopted as an index for evaluating technological cross-impacts. The technological cross-impact matrix is then constructed with all calculated cross-impact indexes. Secondly, the ANP, which is a generalization of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), is conducted to produce priorities of technologies with consideration of their direct and indirect impacts. The proposed approach can be utilized for technology monitoring for both technology planning of firms and innovation policy making of governments. A case of telecommunication technology is presented to illustrate the proposed approach.

Design Process Modularization: Concept and Algorithm

The product design process is a complex set of integrated efforts, including generating ideas, developing concepts, modifying details, and evaluating proper solutions. The difficulties in designing complex products stem not only from their engineering complexity but also from the managerial complexity. First and foremost, what should be done to deal with the complexity problems is to capture all the constituent design activities and identify inter-dependency among respective activities. Further, once process modeling is done, it is required to structure the design process for better understanding of the process. This study presents a new approach to structuring the design process on the basis of modular synthesis. To do this, the concept of a module is newly proposed in the view point of a process. A module is defined as a group of activities which are divided by split or merge points in a process flow. The design structure matrix (DSM) is used to structure the process because it has a lot of advantages in process modeling and analysis. Two algorithms are developed: the restricted topological sorting (RTS) algorithm for ordering activities and the module finding (MF) algorithm for detecting modules in a process. Both of the algorithms are based on the DSM. Structuring the process in terms of a module, which is called as process modularization, allows a process manager to manage and analyze the process effectively. The overall process and detailed procedures of the suggested approach are presented and an illustrative example is addressed to show the practical operation of the approach.

Application of fault tree analysis to the service process: service tree analysis approach

Purpose – This study aims to propose a tree‐based analytic tool that may be used in analyzing a large‐scale and complex service process. The tenet of this tool is based on the Boolean logic and named service tree analysis (STA). The proposed STA aims to reflect the customer participation perspective and to propose how to analyze the service process and deduce useful information.Design/methodology/approach – Fault tree analysis is used as an underlying methodology since it has a Boolean logic to describe the customers selection of each element and identifies critical events. Taking these advantages of the fault tree, the proposed STA consists of three main parts; service tree construction, qualitative analysis, and quantitative analysis. First, a service tree is constructed depending on how the service elements are selected by the customer; If the subordinate events are always selected by customers, they are linked with an AND gate, otherwise, with an OR gate. Next, in the qualitative analysis, service el...

Identifying technological opportunities using the novelty detection technique: a case of laser technology in semiconductor manufacturing

While identification of technological opportunities has received considerable attention, previous studies have some weaknesses in terms of subjectivity when finding the opportunities in practical terms. This paper proposes a systematic framework to identify technological opportunities, focusing on objective evidences which are specific and practical to be used in a business environment. To do this, we used patents as a source and employed a novelty detection technique whose primary object is detecting the novel pattern. To begin with, the patents are collected from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. These patents are then pre-processed into a structured keyword vector that can represent the characteristics of each patent. These keyword vectors are then used to analyse the new and emerging pattern, using the novelty detection technique. As the final step, the results are analysed to identify the technological opportunities. A case study on laser technology in lithography is presented to show the proposed framework.

The impact of information technology on organizational efficiency in public services: a DEA-based DT approach

This study attempts to examine the impact of information technology (IT) on organizational efficiency in public services. We propose a new approach to providing the directions of IT investments to improve organizational efficiency. The proposed approach is based on the integrated form of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and decision tree (DT), and composed of two steps. First, DEA is conducted to measure organizational efficiency with the selected inputs and outputs. Second, DT is built based on efficiency scores obtained from DEA and IT factors, as a target variable and predictor variables, respectively. In doing so, we can identify the relative impact of IT investments on organizational efficiency and set priorities to the IT investments to improve efficiency from a view point of each organization. A case study on the Korean local governments is presented to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach.

On The R&D Priority Setting In Technology Foresight: A Dea And Anp Approach

This paper propose a systematic approach to setting R&D priorities of emerging technologies in the technology foresight context. The proposed approach consists of two stages with two multiple criteria decision making methods. Firstly, socio-economic cost-benefit analysis based on data envelopment analysis with macro-level criteria is conducted to screen initial set of emerging technologies. The second stage deals with the detailed prioritization of the emerging technologies that have been selected at the first stage. Analytic network process is employed here with micro-level criteria. The set of derived R&D priorities of emerging technologies is expected to aid R&D policy-making.

On a Patent Analysis Method for Identifying Core Technologies

This study proposes a new approach to identifying core technologies from the perspectives of co-occurrence, relatedness, and cross-impact based on patent co-classification information with consideration of the overall interrelationships among technologies. First, association rule mining is employed to derive the co-occurrence, relatedness, and cross-impact indexes and three technological matrixes are constructed. Second, the analytic network process is conducted to produce importance values of technologies for three perspectives with consideration of their direct and indirect impacts. Finally, data envelopment analysis is applied to identify priorities of technologies. The proposed approach can be utilized for technology monitoring for both technology planning of firms and innovation policy making of governments.

Analyzing Design Change Impacts in Modular Products With Analytic Network Process

Since parts and systems are closely linked to each other in complex engineering products, a change in a single part or system causes changes in other parts or system, which in turn propagates further. This study aims to propose a novel approach to analysis of design change impacts in modular products with consideration of change propagation. The proposed approach measures the relative change impact (RCI) of each part or module on the whole product using analytic network process (ANP). A case study on the automobile system is presented to illustrate the proposed approach. The practical use of RCI is also discussed.Copyright