Exploring the Benefits of Combined State-of-the-Art Tools for Multi-View Systems Modeling

The growing pressure to adapt to changing conditions, to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, and to develop innovative products and systems in significantly shorter time frames has created new challenges. One consequence is the increased need to integrate system-level and detailed-level design more closely. EXPEED, short for EXploring the Potential benefits of systEms modEling state of the art Design tools, was launched under the Swedish National Aeronautics Research programme to explore how recent research-based methods and tools can be combined to support decision-making, particularly in balancing trade-offs between different perspectives and disciplines. The initiative was supported by GKN Aerospace in Sweden, which provided a recent public reference case to a research team from Chalmers (SE), Cranfield and Cambridge (UK), and NASA (US). The six-month project consisted of a series of short studies investigating how, and to what extent, manufacturability considerations should be incorporated into conceptual-level (systems analysis) design. The findings, summarized in this report, provide insight into how diverse approaches and tools can be integrated to address real-world challenges. The key takeaway is the value of bringing together experts and their tools, not only to resolve initial challenges of terminology and context but also to tackle integration issues that arise when combining different methods. While exploratory in nature, the project demonstrated the importance of using a realistic reference case. Through this example, one notable advantage of combining methods is that the different assumptions and perspectives built into each tool help uncover and account for effects that might otherwise be overlooked.