Applying systems concepts to engineering management

: four approaches for reducing risk in large complex programmes

Abstract

Increases in technological complexity and competitive pressures have made the commercialisation of new products and services increasingly challenging. In response to the above, this research has developed a series of management approaches for engineering projects, the techniques have been developed based on concepts taken from the areas of Systems and Risk Management.
Four new approaches were developed: (i) the Systems Organisational Design Technique, this is a systems approach to the design of engineering organisations. (ii) The Risk Management Philosophy Framework, which outlines a set of principles that organisations should adhere to when managing risk, the framework will reduce the impact of complexity and uncertainty on organisation performance. (iii) the Innovation Guidance Technique, this outlines a set of factors and a self-assessment tool which can be used to assess technological innovations. The tool aims to identify risk to the development and thus improve the chance of successful technology development. (iv) The Risk Assessment Through Connectivity Technique is a structured approach to identify risk and assess the interdependencies between risks. The approach will reduce the negative impacts of uncertainty and allow organisations to more effectively deliver products and services.
The research was done by being embedded in 15 different organisations and observing the development of engineering systems including nuclear power stations, aircraft, submarines, defence technologies, rail and materials engineering. Specifically, two projects completed early on during the research program provided the justification for the research topic. The first project involved working with a defence organisation to improve their approach to the management of technology development. The second project involved working with a technology manufacturer to enhance its Risk Management process.
The methods were tested and verified through action research, each of the methods being applied on a live industrially based project by the researcher, outputs then being peer reviewed in a number of conference papers.
Key advantages of the methods are they are practically focused approaches to apply the complex concepts from the areas of Systems and Risk Management, they are also specifically designed for nuances of engineering organisations.
From an industrial impact perspective, this research project has supported the development of a new business area within the organisation sponsoring this research.

Date of Award	25 Sept 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Leroy A White (Supervisor)