UK Chapter

Abstract

Enterprises are highly complex systems of people and technologies that are entities in their own right, which are prone to gross structural inefficiencies and failures to the extent of causing great societal harm and economic loss. Systems engineering (SE) is an interdisciplinary methodology for understanding, designing and enabling system solutions for complex problems and, as such is uniquely suited to offer understanding and solutions in the domain of enterprises.

This presentation includes observations of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) Programme and the evolving demands for new approaches!

The presentation will be followed by a Q&A and open discussion session.

Suitable for: Systems Engineers of any level of experience who have an interest in Enterprise Systems.

John Lomax: John Lomax is a Programme Systems Engineer with over 30 years of experience gained mainly across the Aerospace, Defence, and Air-traffic Management Domains, and currently works for Communications, Intelligence & Security (CIS), AIRBUS. He has previously worked for BAE SYSTEMS and

for periods at Lockheed Martin and at the SESAR Joint Undertaking. He has worked in various countries including Saudi Arabia, USA, Belgium, and France. He has recently returned from a 7-year expatriation providing direct Customer Liaison to the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) European Commission Agency of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) Modernization Programme located in Brussels Belgium. He is an INCOSE CSEP and INCOSE CAR.

Agenda

“The Year of Engineering”

A two-day conference bringing together world-class presenters and practitioners and providing an excellent forum for professional networking. This remains the UK’s premier Systems Engineering event and will feature:

• Keynote addresses will be given on each day
• Technical presentations on contemporary Systems Engineering theory and practice
• Tutorials run by leading Systems Engineering practitioners
• Exhibition of Systems Engineering organisations presenting their products and services
• An academic research showcase poster competition
• The conference dinner, with an after-dinner speaker from the world of armoured defence vehicles.

The ECF will be hosting a meeting for all of its members attending ASEC this year. It will provide an opportunity to meet each other and discuss the Forum's priorities and future plans.

The Rail Technical Strategy (RTS) sets the UK’s vision of a technology-driven better railway system for the country, creating a framework for research and development. This is complemented by the recently published Capability Delivery Plan (CDP) defining the specific steps that need to be taken in order to achieve the vision. Similarly, and perhaps surprisingly, our European counterparts are following an equivalent approach with the publication of the Shift2Rail updated Multi Annual Action Plan (MAAP) which includes a vision and a catalogue of railway innovation capabilities and a roadmap defining how to achieve these. In addition, this is mirrored at international level by the UIC producing a research and innovation strategy including a capabilities plan. Can all this alignment mean that we finally can have some joined up thinking on how to carry out research and innovation that is relevant and with real impact? Where does systems thinking fit in all this?

The talk will have two distinct parts. It will introduce and explore the aspects described above, followed by an overview of a practical example linked to one of the capabilities identified in these strategic plans. Specifically, an overview will be presented of a current UK research project developing a new braking system concept for overall system capacity improvements.

Roberto Palacin has 20 years experience as an academic working on research related to rail and transport systems. He is currently leading a Railway Systems Research Group at Newcastle University as well as being degree program director for mechanical and systems engineering. Roberto has been involved in research projects on subjects such as strategic development of transport systems, energy efficiency of urban and mainline rail systems, urban mobility and sustainability, development of innovative railway concepts, energy optimisation of rail systems, intermodality of the European rail network and development of modular concepts for high-speed. Roberto’s research interests revolve around two main aspects, application of a systems approach to energy conservation and human-systems interaction and include mobility and mass-capacity in the context of MaaS (urban and long distance), improving railways energy efficiency, connectivity and the development of ergonomic and design-led railway environments.

Complex projects are becoming the norm, interdisciplinary projects coupled with advanced digital technologies are making the assurance landscape more challenging.  From managing requirements and assuring system interfaces to providing proactive integration, verification and validation of the solutions; only progressive assurance, unifying the suppliers and client in joint delivery, provides the necessary guarantee of success.

Tim Whitcher is Solution Lead (Digital Railway) for WSP UK. He brings more than a decade of professional engineering experience within safety critical industries, from assistant tester to technical authority having led, managed and delivered advanced, and SIL-rated, control and infrastructure implementations valued in the low thousands to the multimillions.

The meeting will take place at TfL’s offices in 55 Broardway, London SW1H 0BD. There is no charge for attendance and the event is open to non-members but places must be booked in advance. To book, obtain directions or to ask any other questions, please contact RIG Organiser Karl King on k.king@fnc.co.uk or 07403 293935.

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) is an international professional society for systems engineers whose mission is to foster the definition, understanding, and practice of world-class systems engineering in industry, academia, and government

The INCOSE UK Rail Interest Group has been formed:

• To provide a forum for those interested in Systems Engineering in rail to network in a less formal environment, to exchange good practice and to provide mutual support in an area which can require some sustained perseverance;

• To promote, improve and share the practice of Systems Engineering within the rail industry;

• To foster connections with other professional bodies within rail and thereby promote cross fertilisation of knowledge and experience across sectors and community disciplines; and

• To promote awareness of INCOSE UK and encourage membership within the rail industry.

  For further information about the RIG, see www.incoseonline.org.uk and follow the ‘Groups’ link.

1700H Doors Open, 1725H-1845H Event

Finding people with the right skills to perform railway Systems Engineering (SE) is a challenge that is frequently discussed at RIG meetings. The INCOSE SE Competence Framework cannot solve that problem but it can contribute to a solution by providing an objective means of assessing SE competence which, in turn, can underpin recruitment and staff development.

The Framework was originally developed by organisations in the defence sector but is being increasingly applied in the rail domain. This event will provide an opportunity for those curious about the Framework to understand not only what it is and how it works but also to learn how it can deliver value, what the challenges are and how these challenges may be overcome.

Kevin Gedge of Network Rail and Jane Sanders of Bombardier Transportation are both involved in deploying the Framework within their organisations, They will introduce the Framework, describe their experience of using it, outline some of the challenges that their organisations have faced and describe how these challenges have been overcome.

Ian Presland of Charterhouse Systems is Professional Development Director at INCOSE and a key member of the INCOSE International Competency Working Group. Ian will introduce the recently-released internationally-agreed version of the Framework, describing how it was developed and a pilot project to use competency as a basis for assessing applications for Certified Systems Engineering Professional (CSEP) status.

This event is being allocated a slightly longer slot than normal to allow others to contribute their experiences and views with the aims of starting to form an industry view on the Framework and to establish a network of people interested in the Framework in order to foster further exchange of experience. 

The meeting will take place at SNC-Lavalin Atkin's offices in Euston Tower 286 Euston Road London NW1 3AT.  There is no charge for attendance and the event is open to non-members but places must be booked in advance.  To book, obtain directions or to ask any other questions, please contact RIG Organiser, Michael Morua at m.morua@fnc.co.uk or call 07763455171.

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) is an international professional society for systems engineers whose mission is to foster the definition, understanding, and practice of world-class systems engineering in industry, academia, and government

The INCOSE UK Rail Interest Group has been formed: 

• To provide a forum for those interested in Systems Engineering in rail to network in a less formal environment, to exchange good practice and to provide mutual support in an area which can require some sustained perseverance;
• To promote, improve and share the practice of Systems Engineering within the rail industry;
  
•  To foster connections with other professional bodies within rail and thereby promote cross fertilisation of knowledge and experience across sectors and community disciplines; and
  
• To promote awareness of INCOSE UK and encourage membership within the rail industry.
  

For further information about the RIG, see www.incoseonline.org.uk and follow the ‘Groups’ link.

UK Healthcare is facing many challenges: an ageing population with increasing complexity of multiple long term conditions; improvements in medical care which can treat a larger number of conditions, and continued budget pressures and raising expectations. Healthcare is a complex socio-technical system, and identifying and devising interventions with clear net benefits is a challenge: a classic ‘wicked problem’. 

This talk is a presentation of a paper by Johnson, Harding, Smith and Beck that recently won Best Paper award at the 2018 INCOSE International Symposium in Washington DC USA.  It covers an outreach project that took place last year to support, through a series of facilitated workshops using systems approaches, a multidisciplinary project led by the NHS in Shropshire to improve services for the frail elderly.  It will explain the context, the nature of the workshops and techniques applied, and the outcomes, including a coherent prioritised work programme, with buy-in from all stakeholders.   The approaches used included, Systemigrams, Causal Loop Modelling, N2 Diagrams, Class Diagrams and others.

The presenter, Julian Johnson (INCOSE CSEP), was one of the 3 strong outreach team.  He has been an active member of INCOSE since 1997 and contributed to OMG Systems Modelling Language (SysML). From 1987-2015 he held roles in BAE SYSTEMS focussed on systems process improvement He is now Director of Holistem Ltd., a systems engineering consultancy focussing on early-phase systems engineering activities.

Following the successful launch of the Interest Group in April 2018, this will be our first working meeting.

If you would like to attend this meeting, please contact us via email on Michael.Gainford@es.catapult.org.uk

Review of Service Systems Engineering Handbook

- Where have we got to where are we going

- Definitions of Characteristics

- Guidance for early Lifecycle Stages - taken from ASEC18 paper

The Viable System Model (VSM), created by Stafford Beer over 40 years ago, has become one of the best known and widely used cybernetic and systems thinking approaches.  It is a powerful tool for the practical process of diagnosing problems in organisations, and helping to improve their functioning. 

Trevor Hilder, our speaker, is a long time Systems Thinker and VSM practitioner and has worked in, owned and managed businesses in the field of ICT since 1974.  He has applied the VSM in a wide variety of roles; ranging from training programmers, systems programming, creating one of the first database products to run on PCs, writing manufacturing systems, to building an Enterprise Resource Planning system for a convenience store chain.

Trevor had the good fortune of knowing Stafford Beer well, and was given the great complement of being told he is among the finest communicators of the concepts that underpin the model; including Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.

Building on and going beyond the VSM, Trevor has developed his own approach to understanding organisational and individual behaviours and relationships he has called the Moral Modality Framework.   This talk is an opportunity to learn about this powerful new approach as well as the VSM and to gain practical insights into their application.

Presenter: Gary Smith, Airbus

Synopsis: Bio-mimetics have often provided a useful means of inspiration for engineering design, for instance in the fabrication of materials for aerospace. One more recent area of interest, from the perspective of cyber security has been in the remarkable ability of the immune system to cope with the diversity and evolution of threats such as bacteria and viruses. The focus of this talk reflects on the architectural parallels between biological systems and engineered solutions in defence and security. Systems thinking and conceptual modelling are the tools utilized in examining the architectures and the capabilities of the biological systems such as anticipation, adaptability and self-respect. In performing such an examination, greater understanding arises with implications for system science and systems engineering.

Time will be allowed for Q&A after the presentation

Prerequisites: In order to attend please send the following information to TJRABBETS@qinetiq.com no later than COP Thursday 14th June 2017:

- Full name;

- company affiliations; 

- contact telephone number;

- contact  email;

Bring along photo ID (e.g. driving licence or passport) on the evening.

Attendees are requested to turn up after 18:30 for a 19:00 start

Agenda

- Review paper for ASEC 2018

-Use of Architecture Frameworks

-Definition of Characteristics

Updates to draft handbook

Agenda

·         General discussion

·         Review updated sections of Handbook for Services

·         Stakeholder analysis

Architectural Frameworks in Defence are changing. Tom Riley and Paul Handisides will give an overview of the new NATO Architecture Framework v4.0 and discuss its impact of current practice.

Practioners in Defence are being encouraged to move from MODAF to NAF v4.0, which introduces a more coherent organisation of views, an Architecture Development Method, and an alternative notation - Archimate.

Ahead of a Institute of Rail Signalling Engineers (IRSE) conference in April, Adam Rixon (WSP) and Kevin Gedge (Network Rail) will look at how requirements engineering is used within the rail industry.

Adam will focus on how requirements engineering can be taught to non-systems engineers with a dry-run of an interactive workshop and a discussion on how domain specialist engineers can be encouraged to write and recognise good requirements.

Kevin will look at how Goal Structured Notation (GSN) has been used in the context of requirements engineering within Network Rail projects.

Network Rail's Manchester office is easily accessible from Manchester Piccadilly station and light refreshments will be provided. If you intending to arrive by car, please email Receptionsquareone@networkrail.co.uk 48 hours before the meeting with their name, car registration and the meeting details (Room 3.7/3.8, INCOSE NWG, Starting at 18:00 on 15th March).

Our speaker is Matthew Dent.  He is a Chartered Engineer with a Masters in Systems Engineering from Loughborough University, and is now an independent consultant with recent experience implementing MBSE in the defence industry.

In this talk he will summarise a research paper he presented last summer at the 27th Annual INCOSE International Symposium (IS 2017) in Adelaide, Australia. It focuses on the application of MBSE and the development of a Knowledge Model to manage and integrate complex capability, across disparate stakeholder groups within a large organisation. He will also discuss some of the key insights from IS 2017 and he hopes to promote discussion on some of the MBSE adoption challenges that we face today.

Main Items:

Feed back from ASEC 2017

Headings/skeleton for Guidance for Systems Engineering for Services

Populating the Guidance

Notes on previous meetings on the Service Systems Engineering Wiki

The Annual Systems Engineering Conference (ASEC) is INCOSE UK's flagship annual event and brings together a wide range of professionals from a variety of backgrounds, with the common interest of building upon their Systems Engineering (SE) knowledge and sharing ideas with their peers.

INCOSE UK hosted its first annual conference in 2010, with the aim of creating the premium annual SE conference in the UK. Now in its 7th year, ASEC has indeed grown to become the UK’s foremost SE conference.

This years theme is "Pushing the Boundaries of Systems Engineering".

For more information please visit www.asec2017.org.uk

The 4th industrial revolution embraces issues around automation, digital, data exchange and “smart” systems. It includes cyber-security, virtual representation and the Internet of Things. It is claimed it will revolutionise and change the world.  This talk will explore and discuss how the fundamental systems principles of understanding functionality, connections and emergence will still apply.  Systems will become more complex rather than merely complicated, and their scope and impact will expand. This implies an evolution in Systems Engineering practice. At the core of this will be the need to apply Systems Thinking well, and so there will be an even greater need to overcome the barriers to Systems Thinking.

Richard Beasley joined Rolls-Royce in 1986 and after working on Integration Aerodynamics, Safety, Reliability and Life Cycle Engineering, became the Global Chief of Systems Engineering and in 2011 was made a Rolls-Royce Associate Fellow in Systems Engineering.  Richard is a great champion of Systems Engineering and from 2014 to 2016 was President of INCOSE UK.

Dear all,

This event is in partnership with the IET

About this event

Discuss the challenges associated with developing architectures for complex multidisciplinary systems that are diverse and heterogeneous in nature. In particularly the design approaches that consider emergent behaviours and aim to achieve particular system level attributes. I’m especially interested in scenarios where architectures are typically developed independently by discipline but there is a functional relationship apparent at the system level e.g. the performance of a modern F1 race car may be dependent on the interactions of aerodynamics, handling, power and the control philosophies. How can these diverse and complex disciplines be managed to achieve the optimum integrated system level
performance?

Speakers

Our speakers for the event include:

• Mike Wilkinson - Niteworks
• Stuart Mitchell - Yorkshire Water
• Jonathon Holt - Rolls Royce
• Professor Visakan Kadirkamanathan - Sheffield University
• Tim Rabbets - QinetiQ

To registration for this event please go to the IET website site

Dr. Steve Wright is a senior lecturer in Avionics, Systems, and Electronics in the Engineering Design and Mathematics Department at the University of the West of England, with special interest in drone technologies.

Steve will explain how the evolution and convergence of a number of separate technologies allowed for a revolutionary step change in consumer/prosumer drone capability and affordability.

Each of these technologies and how they are integrated will be described, as will the emergent challenges for system reliability. In particular, the difficulties posed by the different technical heritage these drones have compared to conventional aerospace.

We hope to provide both a static and flying display of a selection of drones.

Please note this event will be held at BAWA, and not our regular venue.