Systems integration is a major challenge across many disciplines, with a large number of technical, project, organisational or environmental problems occurring as a result of improper integration. This article highlights the scope of the challenges facing systems integration and explains why it requires the incorporation of both technical and non-technical domains. Humans, systems and the environment, as well as the interactions among them, significantly contribute to the proper integration of systems. These, however, have been formulated differently across different engineering disciplines. For example, systems engineering considers the human to be part of the system, while railway engineering considers the human to be part of the system environment. This paper explores the fundamentals of integration and lays a theoretical foundation for the integration of systems. It will introduce Safety Cube theory to outline these fundamental aspects of system integration. Example applications are provided at the end of the paper.

As systems continue to grow in interconnectedness and complexity, System Integration has become increasingly more difficult. The significance of a System Definition phase, describing a system in increasing level of detail, to facilitate integration (avoid or anticipate issues in advance) is clear from literature. However, what this should specifically entail, varies. Moreover, the term "system" as commonly used, does not correspond to a specific level of granulation or complexity. Therefore, focusing on a System of Interest is a prerequisite. The purpose of this paper is to first identify key features from literature which should be included in a System Definition phase. Secondly, in order to identify what hinders effective integration from industrial perspective and, determine how this can be related to the identified System Definition features, a case study has been carried out within the Dutch railway system. By interviews and qualitative data analysis, numerous integration issues were identified. From the case study, several features were identified which require appropriate attention to facilitate effective integration. In addition, the case study revealed features, which were not obtained from literature.

The growing demand for optimal rail mobility requires an efficient and well-integrated railway system, one which can cope with technical, logistical, and environmental constraints, to enable sustainable growth. This demand has led to numerous (proposed) changes in railways, including in the Dutch railway system. Because of this, managing system integration is currently a trending topic. Besides technology, systems integration involves humans, organizations, processes, and information sharing. Hence, challenges related to system integration can be manifold.In order to get insight into these integration challenges in practice, 43 semi-structured exploratory interviews are conducted in the Dutch railway context. In our qualitative data analysis, challenges are analyzed from two frameworks taking a systems perspective. This research reveals numerous challenges faced in this context, most dominant here is the desire to effectively manage changes. Specifically, our analysis and subsequent mapping on systems control theory shows that many of these challenges revolve around effective control in the railway system.Finally, our research shows that future research should be aimed at gaining early insight and models on changes to be integrated into railway systems. In addition, the findings of this research can be used to help practitioners and researchers to work towards not only recognizing but also resolving the specified integration challenges.

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