Left-shift vs the time value of money: unravelling the business case for systems engineering

The principle of left shift – increasing project expenditure in the early part of a project in order to reduce unanticipated costs later in the project – is advocated as a cornerstone of good systems engineering practice. In fact, the expenditure profile of a project, and in particular the proportion of the total spend attributed to early stage activities such as project definition, is often used as a proxy for the overall level of systems engineering effort expended in a project. In order to establish the business case for systems engineering, this level of systems engineering effort can be compared to the project performance relative to cost and schedule targets. A common premise is that projects that spend more early in the project achieve better outcomes than those that defer expenditure until later. This proactive approach to the management of risk seems sensible as it reduces the probability of unanticipated problems plaguing the project midway through, and recognises the lower cost of rectifying problems identified early on. To assume that such an expenditure profile will be attractive to non systems engineers, however, ignores three crucial factors. Firstly, project managers are judged on measurable progress. Often, these definition activities, whilst possibly preventing costs from being incurred, deliver little visible output. Secondly, in a competitive market, almost all successful project bids are under-costed and underestimate the time required to complete (otherwise they would not win the contract). This puts extreme pressure on choosing risky cost-cutting and timesaving measures. Thirdly, and most importantly, money available now is worth more than money available in the future, since this money could be invested in other projects in the meantime, generating returns typically in the range 10-25%. It is therefore rational for financial managers to insist on minimising early project expenditure. Worse still, the riskier the project, the more rational it is in financial terms to try to defer spending until later in the project. We have developed a model that takes into account financial and engineering risks to predict the optimum resource allocation profile for a given project. This generates some interesting conclusions on the level of up front systems engineering effort that can really be justified under different conditions

Confronting an identity crisis - how to "brand" systems engineering

Systems Engineering is not a new discipline; the term has been in use since World War II. Yet, while there has been no shortage of definitions of the term over the years (not all of which are consistent), there is little consensus on the scope of Systems Engineering. This is particularly true in relation to other overlapping disciplines such as System Dynamics, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Project Management, Soft Systems Methodology, Specialist Engineering, and Control Theory, which share many of the origins and techniques of Systems Engineering. This paper presents a landscape of disciplines and suggests that INCOSE should “brand” Systems Engineering strategically, defining explicitly its position within this landscape including its points of parity (overlaps) and points of difference with other disciplines. Actively branding Systems Engineering will broaden its appeal and attract more interest from stakeholders outside the current Systems Engineering community. INCOSE’s “market share” relative to its biggest systems competitor—Project Management—is falling, so even though INCOSE membership is rising, more needs to be done to promote the profession

Critical success factors for the construction industry

This study aims to identify the critical success factors for projects in the construction industry. A list of factors were identified from the existing literature and grouped into categories. The authors added project risk management and requirements management to the list of categories to test the hypothesis that these should also be considered as critical success factors in the construction industry. The study identified 58 success factors classified into 11 groups, which were tested using an elicitation technique. Forty-nine responses were collected from project managers, who had an average or 15 years of project management experience and had participated in more than 15 projects. Once the data was collected, the authors adopted the use of the relative importance index to rank the categories. From the results, the top five most important are (1) Project Organization, (2) Project Manager Competence, (3) Project Risk Management, (4) Project Team Competence and (5) Requirements Management. This lead to the conclusion that both project risk management and requirements management should be considered as critical success factors. Further analysis of the data highlights the importance of scope management and soft skills in Requirements Management and Project Risk Management respectively

Internal invention, external development

The success of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK’s) business relies on the continual identification of differentiated and innovative drugs that can be protected under patent for twenty years. Advances that can increase the number of new drugs successfully introduced to the marketplace or that can reduce the amount of time spent in the product pipeline (between identifying a potential new drug and releasing it in the marketplace) will be of great value to GSK. One way to increase the throughput of successful drugs is to increase the number of potential target compounds that enter the product pipeline. GSK has achieved this by developing a ‘high-throughput chemistry facility’, which uses advanced automation systems to perform tasks that would previously have been performed manually by chemists; this facility now plays a key role in the drug discovery process. During a three-year research project, and with a primary focus on this new facility, University College London has investigated GSK’s relationship with its suppliers of automation instrumentation. We have discovered that GSK often provides the ideas for new systems to its suppliers, who then develop the products commercially and sell them in the marketplace. Interestingly, so as to encourage continuity of the supply chain, GSK generally allows its suppliers to sell instrumentation produced from GSK ideas to GSK’s competitors. This paper is a case study investigating how GSK works with suppliers of equipment essential for its Research and Development process, and why this structure proves mutually beneficial

Improving the patient discharge process: Implementing actions derived from a Soft Systems Methodology Study

In the period from January 2013 to July 2014, three process change initiatives were undertaken at a major UK hospital to improve the patient discharge process. These initiatives were inspired by the findings of a study of the discharge process using Soft Systems Methodology. The first initiative simplified time-consuming paperwork and the second introduced more regular reviews of patient progress through daily multi-disciplinary “Situation Reports”. These two initiatives were undertaken in parallel across the hospital, and for the average patient they jointly led to a 41% reduction between a patient being declared medically stable and their being discharged from the hospital. The third initiative implemented more proactive alerting of Social Care Practitioners to patients with probable social care needs at the front door, and simplified capture of important patient information (using a “SPRING” form). This initiative saw a 20% reduction in total length of stay for 88 patients on three wards where the SPRING form was used, whilst 248 patients on five control wards saw no significant change in total length of stay in the same period. Taken together, these initiatives have reduced total length of stay by 67% from 55.8 days to 18.6 days for the patients studied

Modelling the costs and benefits of hybrid buses from a whole-life perspective

Hybrid electric-diesel engine technologies offer the potential to reduce fuel consumption in buses by around 40%. These savings can largely be attributed to regenerative braking – the ability to store in a battery energy that would otherwise have been lost under braking. Lower fuel consumption makes sense economically for bus operators through reduced running costs; hybrid engines have other wider benefits, though, such as reducing emissions and noise, and providing smoother acceleration and braking. The costs associated with hybrid technologies are significant, however, with hybrid vehicles currently costing around 50% more to buy than conventional buses. With Alexander Dennis and BAE Systems, UCL is conducting a three-year systems engineering research and development project to adapt and optimise hybrid buses for the UK and European market. This paper investigates one aspect of this project – the costs and benefits of introducing hybrid bus technologies from a whole-life perspective. We find that fuel and emissions savings alone do not provide a compelling case for hybrid buses based on current prices. However, as the cost of fuel rises, and when the social and environmental impacts of motor vehicle use are better accounted for, hybrid technology outperforms conventional diesel technology

Systems for construction: Lessons for the construction industry from experiences in spacecraft systems engineering

Construction projects are becoming ever more ambitious in terms of the size of structures, the number of requirements, the number and influence of stakeholders and the extent to which technology is integrated into buildings. Although great buildings may historically have been designed and built by a single guiding mind - 'the architect' - modern buildings require teams of specialists to work together to develop ideal solutions. In these circumstances, to ensure that construction projects are delivered on time, to budget and to the requirements specified by the customer, the construction industry could benefit from adopting a systems' engineering approach to design. Based on 45 years of spacecraft instrumentation research and development and over 10 years experience teaching Systems Engineering in a range of industries, University College London's (UCL's) Mullard Space Science Laboratory has identified a set of guiding principles that have been found to be critical in delivering successful projects in the most demanding of environments. The five principles are: 'principles govern processes', 'seek alternative systems perspectives', 'understand the enterprise context', 'integrate systems engineering and project management' and 'invest in the early stages of projects'. Underlying these principles is a will to anticipate and respond to a changing environment with a focus on achieving long-term value for the enterprise. These principles are applied in both space projects and nonspace projects (through UCL's Centre for Systems Engineering), and are embedded in UCL's teaching and professional training programme. These principles could contribute to the successful delivery of complex building projects

Identifying the cellular targets of drug action in the central nervous system following corticosteroid therapy

Corticosteroid (CS) therapy is used widely in the treatment of a range of pathologies, but can delay production of myelin, the insulating sheath around central nervous system nerve fibers. The cellular targets of CS action are not fully understood, that is, "direct" action on cells involved in myelin genesis [oligodendrocytes and their progenitors the oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs)] versus "indirect" action on other neural cells. We evaluated the effects of the widely used CS dexamethasone (DEX) on purified OPCs and oligodendrocytes, employing complementary histological and transcriptional analyses. Histological assessments showed no DEX effects on OPC proliferation or oligodendrocyte genesis/maturation (key processes underpinning myelin genesis). Immunostaining and RT-PCR analyses show that both cell types express glucocorticoid receptor (GR; the target for DEX action), ruling out receptor expression as a causal factor in the lack of DEX-responsiveness. GRs function as ligand-activated transcription factors, so we simultaneously analyzed DEX-induced transcriptional responses using microarray analyses; these substantiated the histological findings, with limited gene expression changes in DEX-treated OPCs and oligodendrocytes. With identical treatment, microglial cells showed profound and global changes post-DEX addition; an unexpected finding was the identification of the transcription factor Olig1, a master regulator of myelination, as a DEX responsive gene in microglia. Our data indicate that CS-induced myelination delays are unlikely to be due to direct drug action on OPCs or oligodendrocytes, and may occur secondary to alterations in other neural cells, such as the immune component. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparative molecular and cellular analysis of CS effects in glial cells, to investigate the targets of this major class of anti-inflammatory drugs as a basis for myelination deficits

Care and Flow: Using Soft Systems Methodology to understand tensions in the patient discharge process

Many hospitals face a daily struggle to manage capacity, especially where wards contain patients with a combination of health and social care needs. In this study, Soft Systems Methodology was used to understand the process of discharging patients from an acute hospital and to answer the question ‘Why do patients with complex needs often spend longer on the wards than is necessary?’. Through a series of twenty structured interviews, several problems with the discharge planning process were identified. Problems included ineffective communication, slow processing of paperwork, limited forward planning, no clear ownership of the process and delays in finding care in the community. The persistence of these problems despite longstanding guidance on discharge planning can be understood by recognising the tension between two different philosophies in hospitals – a traditional ‘Care’ mindset focusing on the immediate needs of patients on the wards, and a planning-focused ‘Flow’ mentality, where the hospital’s responsibility to the wider community dominates. Soft Systems Methodology was found to be an effective approach for discussing discharge planning and highlighting this tension. Based on the insights gained from the interviews, three practical initiatives have now been implemented to reconcile the tension and thereby reduce delays in the hospital

Principles of systems engineering management: Reflections from 45 years of spacecraft technology research and development at the mullard space science laboratory

Based on 45 years of experience conducting research and development into spacecraft instrumentation and 13 years' experience teaching Systems Engineering in a range of industries, the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL) has identified a set of guiding principles that have been invaluable in delivering successful projects in the most demanding of environments. The five principles are: 'principles govern process', 'seek alternative systems perspectives', 'understand the enterprise context', 'integrate systems engineering and project management', and 'invest in the early stages of projects'. A common thread behind the principles is a desire to foster the ability to anticipate and respond to a changing environment with a constant focus on achieving long-term value for the enterprise. These principles are applied in space projects and have been spun-out to non-space projects (primarily through UCL's Centre for Systems Engineering). They are also embedded in UCL's extensive teaching and professional training programme. © 2012 by Author Name