Principles of Enterprise Systems

Abstract:

• • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through its Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) research team has been conducting research and facilitating enterprise-level transformations in large complex socio-technical enterprises for over 15 years.

  • These enterprises have spanned a broad base of industries and governmental organizations including aerospace, automotive, electronics, health care, transportation, construction, defense acquisition and logistics, research labs and many others.

  • What has emerged from both the action research in the field and its application in case studies in graduate courses is the concept of “overarching” enterprise principles and transformation methodologies that are independent of the industry or organization.

  • A framework for transformation that consists of a set of interdependent methodologies, tools and enterprise principles that support holistic enterprise transformation is described and includes the following five elements:

    • 1) Key Principles of Enterprise Thinking,

    • 2) Enterprise Transformation Road-map,

    • 3) Lean Enterprise Self Assessment Tool (LESAT),

    • 4) Enterprise Strategic Analysis for Transformation (ESAT) and

    • 5) Enterprise Architecting Framework.

  • The application of this framework to the enterprise systems analysis and design of various industry and governmental organizations is discussed.

Introduction:

• • Most organizations are compelled to continuously transform the way they perform in order to achieve their strategic business objectives.

  • The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through its Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) research team has been conducting research in enterprise-level transformations in large complex socio-technical enterprises since its inception in 1993.

  • The focus of this research has been aimed at determining effective strategies for successful enterprise transformation.

  • Additionally, enterprise transformation and architecting is being taught in two graduate level courses: “Integrating the Lean Enterprise” and “Enterprise Architecting”.

  • In these courses, we leverage LAI research and deployment experiences to teach the concepts and the methodologies.

  • Students carry out live enterprise case studies to apply the methodology, as well as demonstrate understanding.

  • In total, over seventy different enterprises have been studied across a broad span of industries and governmental organizations including aerospace, automotive, electronics, health care, transportation, construction, defense acquisition and logistics, research labs and many others.

  • What has emerged from both the transformation research and its application in practice in the field is a set of “overarching” enterprise principles that are implementable through non-domain specific transformation methodologies.

  • A framework for transformation that consists of a set of interdependent methodologies, tools and enterprise principles that support holistic enterprise transformation is described in this paper.

  • Figure 1.

• • depicts some of the key issues and questions in enterprise transformation along with the methodologies and tools that aid in conceptualizing and executing transformation in an integrated holistic fashion.

  • Two elements in the transformation framework assist in how to think about the key elements that are critical for sustainable transformation: the seven enterprise principles and the enterprise architecting framework.

Key Elements of Enterprise Transformation Framework

Conclusion & Future Research:

• • Principles were drawn from lean principles and practices and scaled to drive enterprise level transformation, not just local suboptimal change.

  • The Enterprise Transformation Framework provides an integrated set of methodologies that make these key enterprise principles actionable.

  • Elements of this framework have been successfully utilized by a large cross section of industries in their enterprise transformations and research has shown them to be both domain independent and scalable.

  • Additional research in performing longitudinal studies of organizations engaged in enterprise transformation will yield additional insights into both the mechanisms of transformation as well as principles of leadership and change management.

  • It is anticipated that enhancements to the framework will emerge in terms of modifications to its specific content as well as determining additional systems engineering tools and methods applicable at the enterprise level.

  • These methods could include real options (Mikaelian et al, 2009), simulation models (Glazner, 2009) and social network theory.