Observations of decision-making in the mechanical design process in a start-up company

This thesis examines the effect that working at a start-up company has on decisions and considerations during the mechanical design process, and is based on the experience of the author while interning at an Al robotics start-up as part of an MIT graduate students' team. An overview of the company is provided, the different stages of the product development are introduced and Miso's approach to the design of the modules for its product is discussed. Advantages and disadvantages of the approach are examined with examples, and suggestions for improvement are provided. In particular, the role of first-order-analysis (FOA) as a powerful tool to predict problems early is presented, the need for order as a necessary condition for growth is discussed, and next steps for the future production ramp-up stage are shared.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Beltrame Filgueiras, Enrique Nicolás.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David Hardt and MNaria Yang.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131014

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/131014