CTMA flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Technology S-curve

A model plotting performance against effort or time for a technology: slow initial improvement, rapid growth, then diminishing returns as physical limits approach. New technologies often begin below incumbents but cross over.

Disruptive innovation

An innovation that initially underperforms mainstream incumbents on established metrics but offers lower cost, simplicity, or access to a new market, eventually displacing the incumbent.

Open innovation

A model in which firms source ideas and technology from external partners and commercialize inventions through external as well as internal paths, rather than relying solely on internal R&D.

Absorptive capacity

A firm's ability to recognize, assimilate, and apply external knowledge. It depends on prior related knowledge and internal R&D investment, which also builds the skill to evaluate outside technology.

Technology life cycle

The progression of a technology through emerging, growth, maturity, and decline phases. Competitive emphasis shifts from product differentiation toward cost and process efficiency as maturity arrives.

Technology portfolio scoring

Ranking candidate technology projects against weighted criteria such as strategic fit, technical feasibility, time to market, IP position, and net present value instead of a single metric.

Sustaining innovation

An innovation that improves performance along the trajectory already valued by mainstream customers, typically offered by incumbents to their best customers at higher margins.

Make-versus-buy decision

Choosing between internal development and external acquisition of technology. Internal suits core, tacit capabilities; licensing or acquisition suits non-core or fast-moving technologies where time-to-market dominates.

Little's Law

Work-in-process equals throughput rate multiplied by flow time (WIP = R × T). Given any two variables, the third can be solved, and the relationship holds for any stable system.

Economic order quantity

The order size minimizing total inventory cost, EOQ = √(2DS/H), where D is annual demand, S is ordering cost per order, and H is annual holding cost per unit.

Reorder point

The inventory level triggering a new order: demand during lead time plus safety stock. Safety stock increases with target service level, demand variability, and lead-time variability.

Bottleneck constraint

The resource with the lowest capacity in a process. System throughput equals the bottleneck's throughput, so improving non-bottleneck resources does not raise total output.

Capacity utilization

Actual output divided by maximum possible output. Effective capacity, which accounts for planned downtime, is always less than or equal to design capacity.

Six Sigma quality

A quality level where specification limits sit six standard deviations from the process mean, yielding about 3.4 defects per million opportunities under the assumed 1.5-sigma long-term shift.

Lean eight wastes

Defects, overproduction, waiting, non-utilized talent, transportation, inventory, motion, and excess processing. Lean seeks to eliminate these while creating flow and pull.

Theory of Constraints steps

Identify the constraint, exploit it, subordinate other processes to it, elevate its capacity, then repeat once the constraint moves to another resource.

Aggregate planning strategies

Chase varies workforce and output to match demand; level holds a constant workforce and uses inventory to absorb variation; mixed strategies combine both to balance cost and service.

Ohm's law and power

V = I × R. Power P = V × I = I²R = V²/R. These relationships apply to resistive DC circuits and to instantaneous values in AC circuits.

Stress and strain

Stress is force divided by cross-sectional area; strain is change in length divided by original length. Young's modulus is the ratio of stress to strain in the elastic region.

Factor of safety

Material strength, yield or ultimate, divided by the applied working stress. A value above one means the design load remains below the failure threshold.

Thermal expansion

Change in length equals the expansion coefficient times original length times temperature change. Constrained expansion produces thermal stress equal to E × α × ΔT.

Three-phase power

For a balanced load, P = √3 × line voltage × line current × power factor, where line voltage is measured line-to-line and current is line current.

Carnot efficiency

The maximum efficiency of a heat engine operating between hot and cold reservoirs: 1 − T_cold/T_hot, with temperatures in absolute units. No real engine can exceed it.

Gear ratio

Driven teeth divided by driving teeth. Torque is multiplied by the ratio while rotational speed is divided by it; power remains essentially constant apart from losses.

Tolerance stack-up

Worst-case analysis adds all component tolerances arithmetically. Statistical root-sum-square analysis assumes independent variations and yields a smaller, less conservative total.

Nyquist sampling criterion

To avoid aliasing, a signal must be sampled at a rate greater than twice its highest frequency component; the minimum rate is called the Nyquist rate.

Tuckman team stages

Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Conflict peaks during storming and is resolved by clarifying roles and goals rather than by suppressing disagreement.

Situational leadership

A model in which the leader adapts among directing, coaching, supporting, and delegating styles according to the follower's readiness or development level for the specific task.

Expectancy theory

Motivation equals expectancy times instrumentality times valence. A zero in any factor produces zero motivation, so leaders must make each link credible to followers.

SMART goals

Goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Measurable and time-bound criteria make progress verifiable and enable meaningful feedback.

Herzberg two-factor theory

Hygiene factors such as pay, policy, and working conditions prevent dissatisfaction but do not motivate. Motivators such as achievement, recognition, responsibility, and growth drive satisfaction.

Thomas–Kilmann conflict modes

Competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. Collaborating suits situations where both the issue and the relationship matter and time permits.