15.566 - Syllabus for Information Systems in Manufacturing Administration Readings Course Objective Grading and Course Description

15.566: Administration

Class Meeting Times: MWF 11:30am-1:00pm E51-149. Any day Any other time http://web.mit.edu/15.566 Office Hours: Mondays, 3-5pm and by appointment, or via email any time.

Reading Packet:

The package of course material is available from Graphic Arts, E52-045. Supplemental handouts will be distributed in class and via the World Wide Web during the semester.

Books:

• Required: Coursepack & web page
• Optional:
  Keen, P., Every Manager's Guide to Information Technology, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA, (1995). (A useful, and amusing, glossary of terms)

Schulgard, C. and M. Sumner, Management Information Systems: The Manager's View, Irwin, 1995. (A standard text. The best of a mediocre lot.)

• Reference:
  Cronin, M. ,Doing More Business on the Internet, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994. (One of the best overviews of business on the internet. Recently updated to cover the WWW.)

Kusiak, A., Intelligent Manufacturing Systems, Prentice-Hall, 1990. (A nice collection of research papers.)

Kalakota & Whinston, Frontiers of Electronic Commerce, Addison-Wesley, 1996. (Detailed, encyclopedic coverage of electronic commerce issues.)

• Fun to read:
  Negroponte, Being Digital, Knopf, 1995 (A collection of visionary essays.)
  Gates, The Road Ahead, Viking, 1995. (The view of the future from Microsoft.)
  Gibson, Neuromancer, Ace Books, 1984 (The view of the future from cyberpunk.)

Course Objectives

Information technology is transforming firms, markets, products and processes with remarkable rapidity. This provides managers with new challenges and valuable opportunities. Firms are turning to information technology not just to solve isolated problems, but also as a catalyst for organizational change and as an integrating force that can span functions, time and space.

This course is designed to give students an appreciation for the management issues surrounding the development and use of information technology in organizations, with a particular focus on manufacturing applications. It is a joint effort of the Leaders for Manufacturing and the Sloan School of Management and is designed with the line and senior managers in mind, as opposed to managers of the IS function. Accordingly, the course focuses on two themes:

1) the state-of-the-art use of information technologies in manufacturing, and

2) the managerial and organizational issues raised by the technology.

The best way to appreciate the organizational implications of information technology is through extensive and thoughtful discussions in the classroom. We view this course as a cooperative learning experience and expect students to share the insights the have gained from their work experience as well as the readings. Students are encouraged to form small study groups to discuss the readings before and after class. There will be occasional course announcements via the page on the worldwide web (http://web.mit.edu/15.566/www/) and we encourage you to check it frequently.

Grading:

Class participation 25%

Management Memos and Computer Exercises 25%

Team project: Topical Web Page 25%

Final Exam 25%

Details on the Management Memos, Computer Exercises, and Team Project will be provided in class and on the web.

Course Description

1. M 3/31   Introduction and Overview

Brynjolfsson, E., "The Productive Keep Producing". Informationweek. September 18, 1995. pp. 38-43.
Brynjolfsson, E. and L. Hitt. "Productivity without Profit? Three Measures of Information Technology Value". MIS Quarterly, June 1996 pp. 121-142.

Optional:
Gleckman, H. et al. "The Technology Payoff". Businessweek. June 14, 1993. pp. 57-68.
Stewart, T. "Welcome to the Revolution". Fortune. December 13, 1993. pp. 66-76.

2. W 4/2   Dyer-Brown Case

Sviokla, J. and M. Keil. Dyer/Brown & Associates. HBS Case #9-189-068

Look at: Dyer/Brown Class Preparation

Guest: John Dyer, Dyer/Brown & Associates.

3. F 4/4  Virtual Factories

Required:

McAfee, A. and D. Upton, "AeroTech Service Group, Inc." HBS Case #9-696-094. As handed out in class on Monday, not the version in the coursepack.
Browse: "The Accidental Superhighway" at http://www.economist/surveys/internet/index.html

Optional :

Upton, D. and A. McAfee. "The Real Virtual Factory." Harvard Business Review. Reprint 96410, July-August 1996.

Look at: AeroTech Class Preparation

Guest: Andrew McAfee, Harvard Business School 
Optional Session: Internet Session (includes good stuff on how to build personal web page.)

4. M 4/7  Telecommunications and the Internet

Telecommunications Network Fundamentals. Ch. 2 In Networks in Action. Peter Keen and J. Michael Cummins (eds.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co. 1994, pp. 44-88.
Erkes, J.W. et al. "Implementing Shared Manufacturing Services on the World-Wide Web". Communications of the ACM. February 1996. pp. 34-45.

Optional:
Cortese, Amy. "Here comes the Intranet." Business Week. February 26, 1996. pp. 76-84.

browse http://www.hep.net/documents/eegtti/eegtti.html

5. W 4/9  Building Intelligent Systems

Brynjolfsson, E. and T. Loofbourrow. "Expert Systems and AI Toolkits".
In Expert Systems, T. Loofbourrow (ed.), Marblehead, MA: High Productivity Software. 1988.
Bekey, G. "Trends in Robotics". Communications of the ACM. February 1996. p. 62. 
Liker, J., M. Fleisher and D. Arnsdorf. "Fulfilling the Promises of CAD." Sloan Management Review.
Spring 1992. pp.74-86.

Optional:
Mantyla, M., D. Nau, and J. Shah. "Challenges in Feature-Based Manufacturing Research."
Communications of the ACM. February 1996. pp. 77-85.

browse: http://www.ptc.com/
Guest: John Wylie, Parametric Technologies Corp.

Assignments:

1. HT #1: Personal Webpage

2. Submittal of topic and team members for team web page project



6. F 4/11 Mrs. Fields Case

Applegate, L., K. Pearlson, and R. Purchia. "Mrs. Fields, Inc". HBS Case #9-194-065

Assignment:
HT #2: Design a Rule Based System

7. M 4/14  Encryption, Monitoring and Privacy

Rodgers, T.J. "No Excuses Management". Harvard Business Review. July-August 1990. pp. 84-98.
Marx, G. "The Case of the Omniscient Organization". Harvard Business Review. March-April 1990. pp. 12-30.

Optional:
Schiller, J. "Secure Distributed Computing". Scientific American. November 1994. pp. 72-76.
Caruso, D. "Digital Commerce". The New York Times. March 25, 1996.

Look at: Monitoring and Privacy Class Preparation

browse http://www.lotus.com/ or http://www.eff.org or http://www.cypress.com/

8. W 4/16 Reengineering and Beyond

Hammer, M. "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate". Harvard Business Review. July-August 1990. pp. 104-112.
Hammer, M. Beyond Reengineering Chp. 3: "From Worker to Professional" pp. 32-52 and Chp. 5: "From Manager to Process Owner" pp. 73-93. HarperBusiness, 1996.

Assignment:

MM#1: Position on Business Process Reengineering. 

9. F 4/18  Implementing Groupware

Orlikowski, Wanda and Debra Hoffman. "An Improvisational Model for Change Management: The Case of Groupware Technologies" Sloan Management Review, Winter 1997.


Optional:
Orlikowski, Wanda. "Learning from Notes: Organizational Issues in Groupware Implementation". The Information Society. Vol. 9, 1993. pp. 237-250.
Brown, J.S. and E. S. Gray, "After Reengineering." Fast Company Premiere Issue. pp. 78-82, 1996.
browse http://www.lotus.com/
Guest: Wanda Orlikowski, MIT Sloan School

Optional Session: 4GLs (Powerbuild, VB)

M 4/21  Patriot's Day Holiday

10. W 4/23  Managing Innovation and Change

Brynjolfsson, E., A. Renshaw and M. van Alstyne. "The Matrix of Change: A Tool for Business Process Reengineering". Sloan Management Review. Winter 1997. pp. 37-54.
Chew, W. Bruce, D. Leonard-Barton, and R. Bohn. "Beating Murphy's Law." Sloan Management Review. Spring 1991. pp. 5-16.


Assignment:

MM #2: Technology Implementation Case Example

11. F 4/25  Outsourcing I

McFarlan, F. and K. Seger. "General Dynamics and Computer Sciences Corp.: Outsourcing the IS Function". HBS Cases #9-193-144 (A) and #9-193-145 (B).
To Be Distributed in Class.

Look at: Outsourcing Class Prep

Optional:
browse http://www.csc.com/about/cli_aero.html#gdc

Optional Session: PGP Encryption

12. M 4/28  Outsourcing II

Quinn, James B. and Frederick G. Hilmer. "Strategic Outsouring" Sloan Management Review. Summer 1994. pp. 43-55.
McFarland, Warren, and Richard Nolan, "How to Manage an IT Outsourcing Alliance." Sloan Management Review. Winter 1995. pp. 49-60.

Optional:
Prahalad, C.K., and Gary Hammel. "The Core Competence of the Corporation." Harvard Business Review. May/June 1990. pp.79-91.

Assignment:
MM #3: Outsourcing

13. W 4/30  Application Templates and SAP

Hofman, J.D. and J. Rockart. "Application Templates: Faster, Better and Cheaper Systems". Sloan Management Review. Fall 1994. pp. 49-60.

Optional:
browse: http://www.sap.com/
Guests: Jeremy Coote and Rob Rae, SAP

14. F 5/2   Evaluating IT Investments

Kaplan, R.S. "Must CIM Be Justified on Faith Alone?" Harvard Business Review. March-April 1986. pp. 87-95.
Clemons, E. "Evaluation of Strategic Investments in Information Technology." Communications of the ACM. January 1991. pp. 22-36.

Optional:
Kemerer, C.F. and Sosa, G. "Systems Development Risks in Strategic Information Systems," Information and Software Technology,  April 1991. pp. 212-223
Brynjolfsson E. "Technology's True Payoff." Informationweek. October 10, 1994. pp. 34-36.
browse: http://www.Daratech.com/

Look at: Evaluating Investments Class Preparation

Assignment:
HT#3: PGP Encryption and Authentication

Optional Session: Java

15. M 5/5   Primis Case

MIT Case: McGraw-Hill/Primis A,B & C
Venkatraman, N. "IT-Enabled Business Transformation: From Automation to Business Scope Redefinition". Sloan Management Review. Winter 1994. pp. 73-87.

Case to be distributed in class.
Look at: Primis Class Preparation

16. W 5/7  Supply Chain Management

Lee, H. and C. Billington. "Managing Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities." Sloan Management Review. Spring 1992. pp. 65-73.
Guest: Ken Sharma, I2


17. F 5/9   Agile Manufacturing and Value-Adding Partnerships

Johnston, R. and P. Lawrence. "Beyond Vertical Integration - the Rise of the Value-Adding Partnership." Harvard Business Review. July-August 1988. pp. 94-100.
Rayport, J. and J. Sviokla. "Exploiting the Virtual Value Chain." Harvard Business Review. November-December 1995. pp. 75-85.

Optional
"The Incredible Shrinking Company". The Economist. December 15, 1990. pp. 65-66.
browse: http://www.isr.umd.edu/Labs/CIM/virtual.html

Optional Session: Course Review

18. M 5/12   Integrating Heterogeneous Databases

Madnick, S. "Are We Moving Toward an Information SuperHighway or a Tower of Babel? The Challenge of Large Scale Semantic Heterogeneity." Proceedings of the IEEE Twelfth International Conference on Data Engineering. February 1996. pp. 2-8.
Benjamin, R. and R. Wigand Electronic Markets and Virtual Value Chains on the Information Superhighway, Sloan Management Review, Winter 1995. 62-72.
Guest: Stuart Madnick, MIT Sloan School


19. W 5/14 Course Wrap Up and Future of Manufacturing

Drucker, P. "The Coming of the New Organization." Harvard Business Review. January-February 1988. pp. 45-53.
Malone, T. and J. Rockart. "Computer, Networks and the Corporation." Scientific American. September 1991. pp. 140-147.

Assignment: Team Web Page

20. T 5/20 Final Exam 1:30 pm. E51-149