The integrated use of enterprise and system dynamics modelling techniques in support of business decisions

Enterprise modelling techniques support business process re-engineering by capturing existing processes and based on perceived outputs, support the design of future process models capable of meeting enterprise requirements. System dynamics modelling tools on the other hand are used extensively for policy analysis and modelling aspects of dynamics which impact on businesses. In this paper, the use of enterprise and system dynamics modelling techniques has been integrated to facilitate qualitative and quantitative reasoning about the structures and behaviours of processes and resource systems used by a Manufacturing Enterprise during the production of composite bearings. The case study testing reported has led to the specification of a new modelling methodology for analysing and managing dynamics and complexities in production systems. This methodology is based on a systematic transformation process, which synergises the use of a selection of public domain enterprise modelling, causal loop and continuous simulationmodelling techniques. The success of the modelling process defined relies on the creation of useful CIMOSA process models which are then converted to causal loops. The causal loop models are then structured and translated to equivalent dynamic simulation models using the proprietary continuous simulation modelling tool iThink

Decision making in complex collaborative engineering design.

Engineering design process has often been an independent decision-making process, in which mainly design engineers are involved. With the market globalization and increasing competition, in order to fully satisfy the customers\u27 requirements, products become more and more customized and complex. Therefore, it is impossible for most design tasks to be performed following traditional procedures to meet those requirements. An integrated approach is needed to deal with this issue. Currently, there are many researchers working on complexity, collaboration, negotiation, and decision-making problems respectively. But none of the researchers considered all of them together. This should be the approach to solve the problem since it is unavoidable to have complexity, collaboration, negotiation and decision-making process in most of engineering designs. In this research, the different definitions of complexity are reviewed and a definition of complexity from collaboration point of view is given. In the meantime, the research goes through collaboration and negotiation methodologies and tools in engineering design process. The decision-making techniques in engineering design are also reviewed. A flowchart is constructed to guide engineers or managers in the engineering design process. A case study, based on a real-world project, compares traditional engineering design approach with the new approach using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology approach for efficient decision-making process of material selection. The second case study shows how improvements are made by using ECN (Engineering as Collaborative Negotiation) methodology instead of classical decision analysis in a shaft tolerance design process.Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2004 .G36. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-01, page: 0507. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2005

ADEPS: a methodology for designing prognostic applications

Prognostics applications predict the future evolution of an asset under study, by diagnosing the actual health state and modeling the future degradation. Due to rapidly growing interest in prognostics, different prediction techniques have been developed independently without a consistent and systematic design. In this paper we formalize the prognostics design process with a novel methodology entitled ADEPS (Assisted Design for Engineering Prognostic Systems). ADEPS combines prognostics concepts with model-based safety assessment, criticality analysis, knowledge engineering and formal verification approaches. The main activities of ADEPS include synthesis of the safety assessment model from the design model, prioritization of the system failure modes, systematic prognostics model selection and verification of the adequacy of the prognostics results with respect to design requirements. By linking system-level safety assessment models and prognostics results, design and safety models are updated with online information about different failure modes. This step enables system-level health assessment including prognostics predictions of different failure modes. The end-to-end application of the methodology for the design and evaluation of a power transformer demonstrates the benefits of the proposed approach including reduced design time and effort, complete consideration of prognostics algorithms and updated system-level health assessment

Improvement to quality function deployment methodology : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Statistics at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Content removed from thesis due to copyright restrictions: Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. M. (2016). A distance-based methodology for increased extraction of information from the roof matrices in QFD studies. International Journal of Production Research, 54(11), 3277-3293. doi:10.1080/00207543.2015.1094585 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., & Govindaraju. (2017). Performing competitive analysis in QFD studies using multipole moments and bootstrap sampling. Quality Engineering, 29(2), 311-321. doi:10.1080/08982112.2016.1181181 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. (2014). Statistical comparison of final weight scores in quality function deployment (QFD) studies. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 31(2), 184-204. doi:10.1108/IJQRM-06-2013-0092 Iqbal, Z., Grigg, N. P., Govindaraju, K., & Campbell-Allen, N. M. (2015). Enhancing prioritisation of technical attributes in quality function deployment, 64(3), 398-415. doi.10.1108/IJPPM-10-2014-0156Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is a quality improvement methodology which translates true customer requirements into technical solutions. The major purposes in implementing QFD are enhancing quality, decreasing production cycle time, and lowering costs. QFD methodology utilises a system of matrix like structures known as the House of Quality (HOQ) which work collectively to determine final weightings of the technical characteristics. The derivation of final weights of the technical characteristics and their prioritisation is the final key in QFD process. One of the main theoretical difficulties in employing QFD is that it deals with multidimensional categorical (ordinal) data variables. The rating data of these categorical variables varies from person to person and case study to case study. In prioritising the technical characteristics, QFD practitioners often fail to fully integrate the diverse information extractable from ordinal data and ignore some sections of QFD, House of Quality (HOQ). It is also observed that in each matrix of QFD-HOQ, numerous heuristics have been introduced to suppress the variation, uncertainty and vagueness. During the QFD process, any mistakes such as selection and interpretation of rating scales, application of methods, or integration of various matrices can fail the whole process. In this project with the rationale to improve QFD methodology, a systematic emphasis is placed on the following issues i) Application of methods, procedures, techniques for the appropriate selection of likert scales within each matrix of QFD-HOQ. ii) Application to each matrix, data and their integration towards statistically valid conclusions. iii) Close observation and interpretation of the final prioritisation of technical characteristics (TCs), and its enhancement

AN INTEGRATED SYSTEMS ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY FOR DESIGN OF VEHICLE HANDLING DYNAMICS

The primary objective of this research is to develop an integrated system engineering methodology for the conceptual design of vehicle handling dynamics early on in the product development process. A systems engineering-based simulation framework is developed that connects subjective, customer-relevant handling expectations and manufacturers\u27 brand attributes to higher-level objective vehicle engineering targets and consequently breaks these targets down into subsystem-level requirements and component-level design specifications. Such an integrated systems engineering approach will guide the engineering development process and provide insight into the compromises involved in the vehicle-handling layout, ultimately saving product development time and costs and helping to achieve a higher level of product maturity early on in the design phase. The proposed simulation-based design methodology for the conceptual design of vehicle handling characteristics is implemented using decomposition-based Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) techniques and evolutionary, multi-objective optimization algorithms coupled within the systems engineering framework. The framework is utilized in a two-layer optimization schedule. The first layer is used to derive subsystem-level requirements from overall vehicle-level targets. These subsystem-level requirements are passed on as targets to the second layer of optimization, and the second layer derives component-level specifications from the subsystem-level requirements obtained from the first step. The second layer optimization utilizes component-level design variables and analysis models to minimize the difference between the targets transferred from the vehicle level and responses generated from the component-level analysis. An iterative loop is set up with an objective to minimize the target/response consistency constraints (i.e., the targets at the vehicle level are constantly rebalanced to achieve a consistent and feasible solution). Genetic Algorithms (GAs) are used at each layer of the framework. This work has contributed towards development of a unique approach to integrate market research into the vehicle handling design process. The framework developed for this dissertation uses Original Equipment Manufacturer\u27s (OEM\u27s) brand essence information derived from market research for the derivation and balancing of vehicle-level targets, and guides the chassis design direction using relative brand attribute weights. Other contributions from this research include development of empirical relationships between key customer-relevant vehicle handling attributes selected from market survey and the various scenarios and objective metrics of vehicle handling, development of a goal programming based approach for the selection of the best solution from a set of Pareto-optimal solutions obtained from genetic algorithms and development of Vehicle Handling Bandwidth Diagrams

Effective communication in requirements elicitation: A comparison of methodologies

The elicitation or communication of user requirements comprises an early and critical but highly error-prone stage in system development. Socially oriented methodologies provide more support for user involvement in design than the rigidity of more traditional methods, facilitating the degree of user-designer communication and the 'capture' of requirements. A more emergent and collaborative view of requirements elicitation and communication is required to encompass the user, contextual and organisational factors. From this accompanying literature in communication issues in requirements elicitation, a four-dimensional framework is outlined and used to appraise comparatively four different methodologies seeking to promote a closer working relationship between users and designers. The facilitation of communication between users and designers is subject to discussion of the ways in which communicative activities can be 'optimised' for successful requirements gathering, by making recommendations based on the four dimensions to provide fruitful considerations for system designers

A methodology for the selection of new technologies in the aviation industry

The purpose of this report is to present a technology selection methodology to quantify both tangible and intangible benefits of certain technology alternatives within a fuzzy environment. Specifically, it describes an application of the theory of fuzzy sets to hierarchical structural analysis and economic evaluations for utilisation in the industry. The report proposes a complete methodology to accurately select new technologies. A computer based prototype model has been developed to handle the more complex fuzzy calculations. Decision-makers are only required to express their opinions on comparative importance of various factors in linguistic terms rather than exact numerical values. These linguistic variable scales, such as ‘very high’, ‘high’, ‘medium’, ‘low’ and ‘very low’, are then converted into fuzzy numbers, since it becomes more meaningful to quantify a subjective measurement into a range rather than in an exact value. By aggregating the hierarchy, the preferential weight of each alternative technology is found, which is called fuzzy appropriate index. The fuzzy appropriate indices of different technologies are then ranked and preferential ranking orders of technologies are found. From the economic evaluation perspective, a fuzzy cash flow analysis is employed. This deals quantitatively with imprecision or uncertainties, as the cash flows are modelled as triangular fuzzy numbers which represent ‘the most likely possible value’, ‘the most pessimistic value’ and ‘the most optimistic value’. By using this methodology, the ambiguities involved in the assessment data can be effectively represented and processed to assure a more convincing and effective decision- making process when selecting new technologies in which to invest. The prototype model was validated with a case study within the aviation industry that ensured it was properly configured to meet the

Iterative criteria-based approach to engineering the requirements of software development methodologies

Software engineering endeavours are typically based on and governed by the requirements of the target software; requirements identification is therefore an integral part of software development methodologies. Similarly, engineering a software development methodology (SDM) involves the identification of the requirements of the target methodology. Methodology engineering approaches pay special attention to this issue; however, they make little use of existing methodologies as sources of insight into methodology requirements. The authors propose an iterative method for eliciting and specifying the requirements of a SDM using existing methodologies as supplementary resources. The method is performed as the analysis phase of a methodology engineering process aimed at the ultimate design and implementation of a target methodology. An initial set of requirements is first identified through analysing the characteristics of the development situation at hand and/or via delineating the general features desirable in the target methodology. These initial requirements are used as evaluation criteria; refined through iterative application to a select set of relevant methodologies. The finalised criteria highlight the qualities that the target methodology is expected to possess, and are therefore used as a basis for de. ning the final set of requirements. In an example, the authors demonstrate how the proposed elicitation process can be used for identifying the requirements of a general object-oriented SDM. Owing to its basis in knowledge gained from existing methodologies and practices, the proposed method can help methodology engineers produce a set of requirements that is not only more complete in span, but also more concrete and rigorous