Speaker: Tom Strandberg and Daniel Falk
Venue: Local Speaker in Stockholm
Whether you are an end-user, acquirer or supplier, you find yourself in an ever increasing dynamic environment where technology developments and business models provides for innovate solutions
and offerings. Selling products is replaced by providing services. Services that are delivered by combining products not necessarily designed as a system and that still should be safe and available 24/7 and at the same time expected to cost less. How can you manage to stay on top of this and reap the benefits rather than be locked in by obsolete solutions?
This presentation will describe a case study from the defence domain, but is as applicable to any industry domain where a mix of systems and system elements with life cycles ranging from months to decades are to work together as a whole providing continuous services to the end-users. The approach taken combines what happens in industries providing services such as “Power-by-theHour” and “Industrial machines in the Cloud” with pioneering work by governments establishing capability driven programs, e.g. NZ “Civil Defence and Emergency Management”.
The case to be presented is based on the need to introduce new capabilities for the end-users in a given “market”. It describes the action taken to build a map of the current situation, with traceability from the capability needs of the end-users and related operational scenarios to the products/assets that provide the necessary system functions. Based on this, the evolution over time is modelled, both how end-users needs (read market if you in commercial business) evolve and require new services as well as new technology and products are introduced over time. The model becomes a “roadmapping” tool to match and optimize the investments in systems over time to maximize endusers/market benefits. It facilitates quick analysis of consequences of shifting threat scenario (market changes). Coupled with concepts of product line engineering and circular economy, the model provides for effective lifecycle asset management.
The case goes further in describing the actual use of the model for the purpose of effective acquisition and supply of the services and products. For this the strengths of a model-based approach have been integrated with a document centric approach. The prior has a clear advantage in understanding the complex scenarios and end-to-end traceability. Experience also shows that the model based, graphical, approach is more aligned with the way humans communicate and cooperate when attempting to describe and understand a complex problem. The document centric approach still has its virtues however, especially in a formal relationship between a supplier and acquirer. Documents are still the mostly utilized way within contracting but is also considered to be a more comfortable way of reading results and reviewing a set of data.
The presentation summarizes the lessons learned and provides useful hints for product owners, project managers, systems any engineering and anyone interested in matching your market´s needs and product lifecycles.