Searching for a Partner in .SE
Abstract:
For any product today success does not come from excellence in a single property, but by excelling in the combination of properties. A modern fighter aircraft system will require contributions from virtually all existing engineering disciplines, these engineers all come with their professional knowledge, engineering vocabulary and inherent understanding of system optimality. Moreover, in our organization there are only few engineers that have a complete understanding on how to operate and maintain the aircraft and understand how it will be used tactically. In short our development organization is suffering from an inherent communication challenge. Gripen E, as any other product developed by SAAB Aeronautics, is developed using Systems Engineering approach. This implies a holistic, thru life approach to the development of complex heterogeneous systems to ensure that a realized system has the desired functional and non-functional properties. Today most aspects of the aircraft and its support systems are developed using model based tools and methodology. Through the integrated simulation environment we are able to fly and evaluate the aircraft even though it has not yet flown. In short we pride ourselves at being a state of the art organization in the aerospace domain. Still there are always areas for improvement, above all in our interaction with the academic world. We are missing Systems Engineering partners in:
- Undergraduate education that teaches students the basics in systems engineering such that they quickly can understand and adapt to the systems environment we operate in. Today it is estimated that it takes three years for an employee to be productive. Cutting that time by better preparing students for systems engineering practices will improve productivity and also the minimize the work related frustration of a new employee.
- Post graduate education. All our senior Systems Engineers start out their careers in other engineering domains and transition into systems engineering after some years of experiences. In this respect we miss a partner where they can improve their theoretical knowledge of the subject. SAAB Aeronatuics and other SAAB business units run internal competence development programs up to and including courses that prepare for the INCOSE CSEP exam. However, there is a need for competence development beyond that.
Research. Many, if not most, of our research problems are systems related. Yet, in the absence of a dedicated systems engineering research partner, we are forced to place them with research institutions with no long term interest in systems engineering research. As a consequence our Ph.D. students are spending time adapting to a research environment where the actual research problem is at the periphery of the hosting research organization interests. As a consequence we find it difficult to build in research results from previous projects. In fact many research projects tend to start from scratch instead of building on the competence gained from previous projects.