Rapid evolution of all your systems-problem or opportunity?

Abstract

Engineering practices for land, sea, air and spacecraft have been driven by different forces and priorities.These forces and priorities are now converging and alert leaders recognize that engineering practices must converge, as well. Ideally the engineering profession will seek an intelligent convergence; one that preserves the current practices that are future-sufficient while innovating new practices where necessary. All engineers across these industries have much to learn from one another'. However, the degree to which we converge the upstream, systems engineering practices will be the major determinant as to whether all other engineering disciplines will collaborate --or collide.Systems engineering practitioners and managers must respond to two kinds of challenges. Firstly, how to model and specify increasingly encompassing "systems of systems" in a way that proactively orchestrates their conjoint evolution? Secondly, how to manage change -profitably -which amounts to executing the classic ECP > ECN > ECO cycle with ten-fold more ramifications in each change while taking only one-tenth the time for change processing and decision.This paper explores the problem, identifies key, future-sufficient practices and describes the concepts, technologies and behaviors that will enable Change Proficiency. Drivers and AttractorsEngineering a whole solution.Future-sufficient engineering practices will be responsive to Market, Regulatory, Technology and Corporate dnvers. Such drivers include; mass customization; increasing product scope and complexity; much shorter cycle times; cost containment of controls, software and electronics technologies; technology half-lives less than product market windows; IPPD initiatives; regulatory demands and Value Chain alliances.The implications are severe. In automotive sector, for example, the numbers of electronic components is increasing and electronic systems are getting more complex, bringing more software which, in turn, brings many changes that are not easy to control. Additionally, because the interconnectivity of all electronic systems is very high, the task of accurately estimating change impacts is one of the larger engineering problems, especially because the technology "half-life" is shorter than the model year development cycle.The focus must shift from engineering products to engineering solutions. It is no longer sufficient to focus only on the design of the deliverable system. Engineering must design, as one integrated solution, the deliverable system, the maintenance and support system, the operator training (including simulation) system, the test system, the production system, the distribution logistics system, the marketing and selling system, and even the aftermarket customization system, Further, a design must provide for a series of versions that can be developed and released over time.The Mars Pathfinder was designed from a total mission or solution viewpoint and

Coping with changes: Causes, findings, and strategies

“…In today's dynamic world markets, needs, technologies, and products are changing very fast. This fast evolution of all systems can result in a major problem for system development [Ring and Fricke, 1998]. For example, functions of systems change rapidly.…”

Development and integration of winning technologies as key to competitive advantage

“…The fast evolution of all our systems [Ring and Fricke, 1998] driven by a half-life of technologies significantly shorter than system life cycles 1 or even system development cycle times leads to various problems for product and technology development. Functions of systems are changing rapidly within a system life cycle.…”

3.3.1 A3 Architecture Overviews: Focusing architectural knowledge to support evolution of complex systems*

“…System evolvability can be defined as "system's ability to adapt to changing requirements and different environments throughout its lifespan in a time-efficient and cost-efficient way" (Borches and Bonnema 2008). The importance of adopting evolvability has been discussed by several authors (Isaac and McConaughy 1994;Steiner 1998;Rowe and Leaney 1997;Christian III and Olds 2005;Ring and Fricke 1998) and its role in the system architecture has been described in (Isaac and McConaughy 1994;Steiner 1998). Since then some work has been done (Isaac and McConaughy 1994;Rowe andLeaney 1997, 1998;Christian III 2004;Christian III and Olds 2005), yet those approaches are usually theoretical and hard to apply in industry.…”

“…Barriers to evolution and challenges to design and develop complex systems can be found in literature (Ring and Fricke 1998), and they have to do mostly with handling complexity. Evolution pose a great challenge to companies, yet it is taken as a fact of live that is costly to change and therefore it doesn't deserve too much attention from management.…”