Graduation Semester and Year
2013
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Industrial Engineering
Department
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
First Advisor
Susan Ferreira
Abstract
Organizations whose primary business is executing contracts must be able to capture contracts to survive. When the contracts involve engineering complex systems, systems engineering often plays a significant role in the proposal process, sometimes leading the technical effort. This research seeks to find an optimal use of systems engineering in proposal management to maximize the probability that a supplier organization will be awarded contracts. A number of systems engineering related factors that can potentially be used to predict contract awards are identified that pertain to the organization, the skill levels of employees, the competitive environment, the proposal project, the contract, and the relationship with the customer. A survey was conducted to gather information related to these factors as well as contract award status for recent proposal efforts. An analysis of the survey results indicates that suppliers seeking to be awarded new contracts should: (1) keep their existing customers very satisfied with the contract work already captured, (2) invest adequate resources in systems engineering labor to understand the requirements and define a solution in support of the proposal, and (3) maintain an adequate number of face-to-face contacts with the customer during the proposal process.A modeling framework was developed and validated to help decision makers determine an optimal use of systems engineering on their proposals. The framework allows users to maximize the probability of a contract award given constraints, such as budget and employee availability, by strategically allocating resources to key systems engineering activities and employee with various skill levels. Organizations that engineer complex systems can use the findings of the survey analysis and the modeling framework to improve the chances of survival for their organizations.
Disciplines
Engineering | Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Smartt, Clement Douglas, "Optimizing The Use Of Systems Engineering On Proposals" (2013). Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations. 76.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/industrialmanusys_dissertations/76
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington