System Engineering

   System engineering (SE) is an important part of our studies and we use what we learn during these courses to develop the RICA IV project.

In this first article about SE we will present you the general concept, its main goal and why this is useful.

What is System Engineering (SE) ?

   SE bring together several methods and tools in order to define a system. The goal of this method is to identify precisely all the needs of the stakeholders in order to create a product which match with all the requirements of customers. It comes in the first step of the design process of a device but it takes into account all the life cycle of the product.

SE main steps

   SE begins at the first step of a project : the analysis of the specifications and the study of customers requirements. The major part of the work is during the concept definition and system design but for each important step of the product creation we go back to the SE in order to check if the product match with the customer expectations. SE integrate also a method to verify and validate everything in itself which guaranty the quality and the relevance of each information. We will see this aspect of the SE call V&V and IVTV in a specific article.

The general work through of the SE can be drawn like below.

The main goal

   The main goal of the SE is to design a new product without forgetting anything. The thorough analysis of the customer requirements allow the designer to create a product which match as good as possible with the expectations of the customer. Thanks to this method and its iterations we can avoid the discovery of a design mistake after the realisation of the product. So it avoid the consequences of this : a majoration of the cost and a waste of time.

Applications

   SE can be use for all industrial sector and for different project size. But it is more efficient for big project and for the creation of complex system. So it is perfectly adapted to the RICA IV project and to make us work together.