© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Modeling Complex Systems

to synchronize multidisciplinary teams IGPSC8, Arcachon, June 10th 2013

Samuel Boutin - Président Knowledge Inside - 7C rue Jean Mermoz - 78000 Versailles - France Tel: +33 (0) 1 39 02 70 29 sbo@k-inside.com – www.k-inside.com

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

H. Simon: « Systems are hierachical »

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Body

Systems • Digestive

• Respiratory…

Organs • Liver

• Heart …

Tissues and Cells

•Muscular Tissues

•Blood

Book

Chapter

Section

Sentence….

CAR

Systems • Engine

•Carbody

•Chassis

Organs •Carter

•Control Unit

• Sensor

Parts

Business Unit

Division • General &

Administration

• Sales & Marketing

Group • Accounting

• Software test

People

Biological Systems

Formal Systems

Mechatronic Systems

Organizations

When not chaotic!

Herbert. A. Simon The Architecture of Complexity: Hierarchic Systems

(Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, Dec 1962, 467-482)

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Example: mecatronic systems are hierarchical

Excerpt: Wüst&Sassen-Robert Bosch (VDI-Baden Baden 2006)

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vehicle

Engine

Injection System Injector

Physical principle

electronics

control

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

H. Simon: « Systems are made of interacting parts »

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Simon sample: A1,A2,… are rooms that exchange thermal flows

Interactions have a source and a target Interactions may have a scope

Herbert. A. Simon The Architecture of Complexity: Hierarchic Systems

(Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, Dec 1962, 467-482)

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

First approach to represent system

➛ Diagram trees (for hierarchies) with a treeview

➛ Use types to model system variety (exactly like different type of files:

.xls, .doc,.jpg….)

➛ Use flow graphs to represent interactions between objects with same

parent in the hierarchy

➛ Diagram interactions as (oriented) flows

➛ Propose specific display for each type: shape, color, border,…

➛ Allow navigating into the system

➛ EXAMPLE:

• sample 1: navigate into a diagramming of human body:

> file:///D:/IGSPC8V3/hb/SVG/corpshumain.html

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

sample1: human body recursive diagramming

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Man and his environment

Systems

Organs of Circulatory system

Tissues Cells

… Modeled with arKItect by

Knowledge Inside

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Make diagramming accessible

➛ Raw system diagramming may be too complex even if hierarchical decomposition makes it simple to navigate.

➛ System diagramming may also be used to provide synthesized information

To answer this, it’s possible to

Define filters of the system view: show only some types of objects and hide others

Use graphical aspect of object to provide information about the model.

Examples

• Sample 2: various filters over a laptop system diagrams file:///D:/IGSPC8V3/SEAweb/LapTop%20%28SEA%205.3.1%29%2012-11-21%20V1/LapTop%20%28SEA%205.3.1%29%2012-11-21%20V1.html

• Sample 3: business intelligence over a laptop functional architecture

> sur une campagne de tests file:///D:/IGSPC8V3/Proto%20BI%20MDD%20Laptop/LapTop%20%285.2.1.x%29.html

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Laptop functions allocation

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(Laptop) functional architecture

Laptop function decomposition

(Laptop) physical architecture

(Laptop) requirements

(Laptop) Variants

Tests (Laptop project)

Indicators

Sample 2: filters over a laptop system diagram

Modeled with arKItect by

Knowledge Inside

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Navigating in the view allow to identify very clearly where are the subsystems that don’t pass the tests.

Sample 3: make navigation clever % Tests OK

%Tests NOK %Test Non conclusifs

%Tests Non passés

Laptop and context systems

Laptop subsystems

Zoom OS & Power

Modeled with arKItect by

Knowledge Inside

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

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Application to System Engineering diagramming nowadays

Problem at Hand

Change requests

FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

Reporting

Software

PRODUCE Project manager

System engineer

COORDINATE

publish

Enterprise Content

Management Tool

Requirements mngt

Functional archi

SW archi

HW archi

Safety case

Project Reporting

Syst

em a

rch

i

Integration testing

+ CAO

Current organization

No global view of the system Maintenability and traceability in MS Office docs? Coherence of diagrams and contents? Various tools and models from functional teams Versions and diversity?

Problem at hand

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Project manager

System engineer

COORDINATE

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arKItect SEA

database • Automated specification

production

• Aided generation and

maintenance of complex

diagrams

• Automated consistency checks

• Requirements and architecture

alignment and traceability

• Automated indicators synthesis

Benefits

FUNCTIONAL TEAMS « METIERS »

PRODUCE

Design System architecture

Reporting

• Weekly updated

specification and

interfaces

• Changes description

• Efficient access to

project information

Benefits

Synchronization of processes with arKItect SEA

KI Solution Benefits

PLM PDM ECM JIRA SVN

CAO

• Global project vision

• Reliable indicators on design

• Detailed information available

on demand

Benefits

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

Conclusion:

Which system diagramming do you use?

➛ General System theory helps us understanding architectural rules for complex systems.

➛ Knowledge Inside has developped arKItect, a graphical modeling tool that faithfully captures the structure of systems e.g. as described by Simon in his famous 1962 paper.

➛ It is possible to integrate the different pre-CAD diagrams and documents into a single, sound and synchronized multi-view system model.

Key benefits are: • Reuse capability at the functional description and requirements level

• Consistency of data in between processes and people involved in the design activities.

• Fluidity of information

• Change management and configuration management in the pre-CAD stages of design.

• More generally, synchronization resulting in improved productivity and quality.

➛ This approach is validated on large systems in the automotive and railways: it’s now possible to switch from a document centric to a model centric design.

© Knowledge Inside 2006-2013

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Thanks for your attention Variants

Green flows have been added Red flows have been skept

DIFF

Samuel BOUTIN Knowledge Inside – 7C rue Jean Mermoz 78000 Versailles, France Tel: +33 (0) 1 39 02 70 29 sbo@k-inside.com – www.k-inside.com