Completed project (2016-2017)

Overview: How can a systems engineering approach be applied to the project delivery process in the design and construction of built infrastructure?

  • First, this paper articulates how infrastructure can be seen as a system of interest, a complex product system that is operated and delivered through enabling production and work systems.
  • Second, it considers systems operation, where research in the systems engineering discipline shifts attention from ‘operator error’ (and root causes) to the systemic accident factors.
  • Third, it considers systems development and how a formal model of the development process, the classic V diagram, differs from the standard representations of production used in the design and construction of built infrastructure emphasizing systems architecture and systems integration.
  • Fourth, it considers production systems in terms of the locus, organization and activities involved in fabrication and assembly.
  • Fifth, it considers infrastructure systems from the broader perspectives of long term ownership and operation of assets, critical infrastructure, and a shift from a linear to circular economy.

The paper concludes by discussing where further research is needed. This is both in relation to the emergent properties, flows of physical material, information and costs associated with infrastructure as a complex product system and in relation to the enabling work systems for production (design and construction) and for operation, maintenance and disassembly.

Contact: Please contact csei@imperial.ac.uk for further information

Outputs

Whyte, Jennifer (2017) Systems engineering and the project delivery process in the design and construction of built infrastructure, Project Production Institute Journal, (forthcoming)

Systems engineering and the project delivery process - Author copy