ESD.33 Systems Engineering
HW 2 -- Frameworks
Due Date: 17 June, 8:30AM EST
Deliverable: Team written assignment (about four pages per team).
Time allotment: You should expect to spend 5 hours on this homework.
Grading: 5% of your course grade. Every team member earns the same grade.
Objectives:
This assignment is primarily aligned with the first two objectives of the course – the
ability to plan the SE process and to judge the applicability of processes.
Assignment:
Self select into teams of 2 to 4 people. It will be best for you to form teams within a
single company or perhaps a single industry.
1. Don Clausing articulated a framework in which Requirements, Concepts, and
Improvement (RCI) are the backbone of Systems Engineering. To explore this
framework, please do the following:
System Engineering Implemented in FPDS
Customer
Musts / Wants
> Generic VDS &
SDS
Customer Experience & Feedback
Vehicle Level Inputs
Vehicle Level Requirements
System / Subsystem Level
System &
Subsystem Design Specifications - SDS
> Manufacturing
Knowledge &
Reusability
Requirements
Cascade
> Technology
Production
Feasibility
Feedback
Requirements
Cascade
> Product
Knowledge
Vehicle
Verification
DVM / DVP
Vehicle Attributes
Vehicle System Specification - VDS
> Reusability
Constraints &
Data
Disposal
Feasibility
Feedback
Requirements
Cascades
> Competitive
Benchmark
Data
Purchase,
Operate
& Maintain
Customer
Requirements
Purchase / owner / operator
Regulatory (FMVSS, EPA, ...)
Corporate (WCR, ABS, Manuf, ...)
Corporate
Knowledge
Customer
Satisfaction
Customer Focus
DVM / DVP
System
Verification
Feasibility
Feedback
Part / Component Fabrication /
Verification
> Warranty Data
> Models
Part / Component Design
Component Design Specification - CDS
Highly lterative
KO
SI
SC
Mostly serial
PA
PR
Adapted from Ford Motor Company.
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a) Select an organization that develops products or systems (preferably choose an
organization that you have worked for). State which organization you selected
and briefly describe the organization and its products or services.
b) Determine what tools/processes the organization actually employs (if any) to
deal with each aspect of systems engineering (R, C, & I). Ideally, you can show
some graphics from their documented product development process or training
materials. An example of such a graphic (from the Ford Motor Company) is
shown to the right. Comment on the effectiveness of each process based on your
personal experience.
c) Excellent performance in product development is often catalyzed by technical
leaders who ask good questions. Select an example system at the organization
you have chosen. Imagine a design review for that system (which phase of
review is your choice). Write a typical question that a project leader might ask at
a design review and then propose an even better question on the same topic.
Try to develop such a pair of questions (typical question / better question) for all
three key aspects of Systems Engineering that Clausing emphasized (RCI).
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2. A key aspect of lean thinking is “value stream mapping.”
a) Select any value creating process of moderate complexity and sketch its value
stream map. You don’t need to use any specialized symbology. Just represent
processes and flows in some easily comprehensible way. An example from
Womak’s Lean Thinking is depicted below.
b) Describe at least one example of “muda” within the value stream.
Store A
Supplier
A
Central
Order Point
Supplier
B
Store B
Store C
Regional
Distribution
Center
Supplier
C
Supplier
D
Store D
Information flow
Physical goods flow
Tesco Reorder System. Adapted from Womak.
3. Ward used the simple example of scheduling a meeting to demonstrate the
benefits of a set-based approach. Find another task from engineering, business, or
everyday life and describe how a set-based approach can be used to carry out the
task. Explain, using this example, how the set-based process results in good or bad
outcomes (as the specific case dictates).
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