ASSIGNMENT

Course Code : MS-94

Course Title : Technology Management

Assignment No. : MS-94/TMA/SEM-II/2020

Coverage : All blocks

Note: Attempt all the questions and submit this assignment to the Coordinator of your Study
Centre on or before 31st October, 2020.

1. What is the role of technology in any business unit? How does technology help in
designing the business strategies of a firm? Illustrate your answer with the help of an
example.

2. Discuss with the help of examples the importance of generation, up gradation and
improvement of technology.

3. What are the benefits that an organization can have from effective absorption of
imported technology? Explain giving examples.

4. What do you understand by ‘linkages’? What is the role of ‘linkages’ in an organization

having Technology Management Group? Discuss.

5. What are the various information sources through which the technology information
can be procured? Discuss the merits and demerits of any two of the information
sources.
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ASSIGNMENT REFERENCE MATERIAL (July20 to Dec20)

MS-94
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Q1. What is the role of technology in any business unit? How does technology help in
designing the business strategies of a firm? Illustrate your answer with the help of an

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example.

Ans:- The word ‘technology’ comes from two Greek words – ‘techne’- the skill or craft
needed to make something and ‘logos’ (discussion or knowledge of something). So
technology means knowledge of how something is made.

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Technology seems to be the most widely today in industrial world and several words or
nomenclatures connected with technology are in vogue. These includes Research &
Development, invention, technology development, technology strategies, technology forecast
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technology assessment, technology planning, technology information, technology transfer,
technology absorption and adaptation, Industrial property systems, code of conduct and
technology management. It is difficult to find so exact definition for technology, for it has

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been defined in many ways.
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ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN OF BUSINESS

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STRATEGY:

Technology and management of technology are critical for an enterprise for its successful
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operation on long-term basis. Technology management however a part of total management

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system. There are three basic consideration for starting any new firm based on technological
innovation.
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a) The idea for a technological innovation

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b) A potential market.
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c) Team work in both technological and business experts

The above points underline the need for interweaving the technology framework eiht other
areas of business in an enterprise. The idea of a technological innovation should be based or
linked with the potential market and the technology team seam should closely interact with
the rest of the divisions of the enterprise leading to a successful logical conclusion in terms of
production/processes to be developed as per the set objectives set at the beginning. This
strategy is best reflected in the form of a ‘Business Plan” of an enterprise which needs to be
prepared and approved before starting the new business.

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The Business Plan : The business plan is a strategy summery of a new venture. Its purposes
are

1. To ensure, by clear focus in strategy, that important points necessary to the success of any
business venture have been considered and;

2. To persuade functional investors to invest in the new venture.

A new venture business plan could include the following :-

a) Current Business Status

-Business objective

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-Management and organisation

b) Products or Services

-Product Description

-Technology Background

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-competition

c) Benefits to Customers

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-Market
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-Market Strategy

d) Capitalisation
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-Capital Requirement
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-Financial Forecast
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-Benefits to Investors
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Q2. Discuss with the help of examples the importance of generation, up gradation and
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improvement of technology.

Ans:- Technology generations

As with birth generations, researchers have identified several different technology

generations. Most of us are most comfortable using whatever form of technology was current
during our formative period: ages 10–25 [Lim, 2010]. We belong to the technology
generation that was dominant during those years. As we age beyond 25 (approximately), and
technology advances, we may have trouble learning or remembering how to use products or
services we did not grow up with [Wilkinson, 2011]. It’s not impossible…it’s just not as
easy.

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The effects of technology generations are discussed in more detail in Chapter 7: Knowledge,
but for now, just keep in mind that technology generations exist.

Poly-generation technologies, joined with the storage system, have a good potential for CO2
emissions reduction in the district heating networks. A systematic optimization procedure is
needed to select and size equipments and storage tanks. The optimization of energy systems
that include one or more technologies is extensively studied by many authors. It is referred to
D.Connolly et al. (2010) for a detailed review. Most of these publications carried out only
simulations, while system design optimization is neglected. For a detailed overview, the role
of optimization modeling techniques in power generation is reviewed in Bazmi and Zahedi
(2011). However, most of these optimization models only consider a mono economic
objective function, completed with environmental and energetic targets as constraints.

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On the other side, the integration of heat storage devices and conversion technologies in the
energy system is studied in several publications. Soderman and Pettersson (2006) proposed a
mixed integer linear model with mono objective function to integrate the storage tank with
the cogeneration units in a district energy system. The MIP optimization model for sizing the
heat storage tanks and a combine heat and power plant with mono objective function is
presented by Christidis et al. (2011) and Collazos et al. (2009), while long-term thermal

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storage is studied by Tveit et al. (2009).

To sum up, the energy system optimization with storage systems are studied by many
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authors. However, a systematic procedure including the heat storage systems and energy
integration techniques with simultaneous consideration of multi-periods and multi-objectives
aspects for optimizing a district energy system is needed. A multi-objective optimization

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model with evolutionary algorithms (EMOO) and MILP based on the decomposition
approach was developed by Fazlollahi and Marechal (2011). It is extended with the
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integration of the thermal storage optimization model in the present work. The goal is to
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integrate heat storage system with other conversion technologies for optimizing a district
energy system design.
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The Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) works with industry partners to increase the
performance and reliability of next-generation wind technologies while lowering the cost of
wind energy. The office's research efforts have helped to increase the average capacity factor
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(a measure of power plant productivity) from 22% for wind turbines installed before 1998 to
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an average of nearly 35% today, up from 30% in 2000. Wind energy costs have been reduced
from over 55 cents (current dollars) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 1980 to an average of under 3
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cents per kWh in the United States today. To ensure future industry growth, wind industry
technology must continue to evolve, building on earlier successes to further improve
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reliability, increase capacity factors, and reduce costs. This page describes the goal of
WETO's utility-scale wind technology research efforts and highlights some of its recent
projects.

Wind energy technologies available for licensing from U.S. Department of Energy
laboratories and participating research institutions can be found on the DOE's Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Energy Innovation Portal. View all WETO next-
generation technologies research and development projects by visiting the WETO Projects
Map and selecting Program Area: Next-Generation Technology Development and
Manufacturing.

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Q3. What are the benefits that an organization can have from effective absorption of
imported technology? Explain giving examples.

Ans:-

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Q4. What do you understand by ‘linkages’? What is the role of ‘linkages’ in an

organization having Technology Management Group? Discuss.

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Ans:-

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There are at least three world views regarding the productivity paradox:
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1. There is no paradox. Information technology (IT) and other improvement
interventions are improving performance. Researchers and practitioners simply cannot
measure the improvement.

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2. There is a problem but not a paradox. Improvement initiatives are not being driven by
rationality or profound knowledge (defined below). They are more like random-walk
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processes, initiated on the basis of what is in vogue or what is easily available, not on the
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basis of what makes sense or will work best. Thus, the problem is not necessarily with
measurement but with the quality of decision making.
3. There is a paradox, and addressing it is confounded by the lack of systems thinking,
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lack of profound knowledge, and inadequate measurement methodology.

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We believe the third view is the most accurate.

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The productivity paradox has a threefold nature. It is a measurement problem, a management

and decision-making problem, and a combined problem of stragegy, action, and
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measurement. In this chapter we present a conceptual model that portrays the organization, its
management system, and the planning process in a way we hope will stimulate a thorough
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reexamination of managerial planning and decision making and some of the fundamental
notions regarding performance. We explore the relationship of the measurement function to
performance at the individual, group, and organizational levels in a way that integrates
measurement, planning, and managing the organization. We also discuss research issues
associated with the use of measurement to support improvement and to address linkage
questions. The alignment of strategies, actions, and measures is a key theme in this chapter.
Many organizational improvements are undertaken without knowledge of cause-and-effect
relationships. Some are undertaken because they are the ''in" thing to do; others are
undertaken because they are believed to be the "right" thing to do. Some improvements,
however, are initiated based on evidence that they will improve performance. Sometimes the
interventions do improve the performance of certain subsystems, but the improvement cannot

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be tracked either horizontally or at higher levels of the organization. One expects that the
interventions will cause a change in performance because there are linkages among entities
within levels as well as between levels of the organization.

Deming (1986, 1991) and Goldratt (Goldratt and Cox, 1986; Goldratt and Fox, 1986) provide
good examples of how failure to understand linkages can lead to interventions at one level
having neutral or negative outcomes, particularly at the level of the macro system. Defining
specifically what linkages are expected is critical in developing a performance measurement
methodology. Much evaluation research simplistically assumes that an improvement at one
organizational level will automatically cause an improvement at another level. Linkages are
far more complex, however. Implementing an intervention in a given entity can cause
multiple dimensions of performance to improve within the entity itself and, then, in other
entities through linkages.

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Q5. What are the various information sources through which the technology
information can be procured? Discuss the merits and demerits of any two of the
information sources.

Ans:-

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