acatech HORIZONS: Advanced Systems Engineering

The products we use today are more complex than ever before. This is just as true for the washing machine, which is already connected to the cell phone via app, as it is for the car. The car is a particularly fitting example: when we buy a new car, it contains not only classic mechanical engineering but also complex electronics and software. This places ever greater demands on the companies that manufacture these products. Traffic assists, heated seats, cornering lights and the color “metallic midnight blue”: the more each car is tailored to the customer and thus individualized, the less likely it is that there are two exactly identical vehicles being built. As a result, economies of scale in production can no longer be exploited as easily. From an economic point of view alone, increasing complexity poses new challenges for manufacturers in the development and production of new product generations.

In order for the entertainment system and the parking assist to collaborate smoothly in the car – or for the parking aid to be omitted without the items for it appearing in the menu of the entertainment system – experts from many different disciplines must work together and coordinate their efforts: Engineers, materials scientists, software developers, physicists, etc. A new interdisciplinary approach is needed to develop these complex technical systems in large projects: Advanced Systems Engineering (ASE).

At it’s core, ASE is a concept based on systems theory that should enable a company to effectively manage this interdisciplinary collaboration in the future in order to minimize risks and remain innovative and competitive. The principles of Advanced Systems Engineering provide a holistic approach with methods, models, tools and procedures through which companies can ensure the creative design, manufacturability, usability, safety and sustainability of their future products. Every company has different requirements, which is why the concept must always be individually adapted to the existing circumstances in order to be able to work economically with it. Only with Advanced Systems Engineering will it be possible for today’s companies to anticipate tomorrow’s problems and prevent them from arising in the first place.

An important aspect of this is to involve employees accordingly. Openness to new ideas and the ability to communicate are required of those involved in order to actively shape change. That is why special attention is paid to the interaction between people, technology and organization. This issue of acatech HORIZONS is dedicated to this interface, as well as to the potential of advanced systems engineering and the challenges that still need to be overcome in researching and implementing this concept.