Unless you have spent the last five years or so under a rock, it would be hard to miss the fact that software is everywhere. Our cars either have computer screens, can connect to our smart devices, or both. Refrigerators are being used as spambots. Your greeting cards just don’t convey the messages printed within, they can record your own voice to go with it.
The ubiquity of software providing value in many products is, I believe, one of the tipping points toward systems engineering. People need to understand how these complex bundles of mechanisms, electronics, and software will behave in planned, and increasingly unplanned, scenarios. (This is one reason that CIMdata formed our Systems Engineering Knowledge Council.) Just as with other problems in product development in and around PLM, this issue is being addressed by a range of solution and service providers, as shown in the figure below. (If you think I missed any major category, please comment!)
How you address systems engineering depends on your perspective, and which box (or boxes) you find yourself playing in. For example, INCOSE and NAFEMS, leading influencers across the top of the diagram, recently announced a historic partnership to “provide mutual assistance and support for international standards and develop a joint approach for interfacing with other organization.” They are just getting started, but this could help advance model-based systems engineering (MBSE), a set of practices that spans their two groups. A number of Simulation and Analysis (S&A) solution providers are also active here, including:
- ANSYS Systems & Multiphysics Solutions
- Altair ProductDesign
- LMS Mechatronic Simulation
- Comet Solutions, COMSOL, and many others
These firms are providing a set of solution offerings, service offerings, and work for hire (common among many in the S&A and systems engineering space). Some, like LMS, also offer physical testing. The LMS acquisition brings Siemens PLM Software a wealth of S&A solutions, systems engineering expertise, and skilled service people well-versed in applying systems engineering in industry.
If we shift to the bottom of the chart, some recent moves by leading PLM solution providers help them better support this problem area. PTCs acquisition of MKS brings application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, and embedded software/systems engineering expertise to PTC to combine with their strong PLM portfolio. Two Dassault Systèmes acquisitions help them deliver on their Requirements-Functional-Logical-Physical (RFLP) support that is core in V6:
- Dynasim AB brought systems modeling tools that are now embedded in CATIA V6 as CATIA Systems
- Geensoft brought them a tool integration technology (Reqtify), and hardware in the loop technology
Of course, CIMdata’s definition of PLM is quite broad, so there are a range of other PLM solution providers that are quite active in this space. For example, EDA companies can fit across all of these blocks, particularly for chip design. Mentor Graphics Model Driven Development for Systems Engineering is one such offering.
IBM is also big in this space with their Rational and Telelogic portfolios, all wrapped with IBM Global Business Services to help people implement and use them effectively. For example, the Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager (RELM) seeks to link disparate development threads, supporting information capture, sharing, and management. They achieve this end in their Jazz platform, and by employing Web and Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration standards.
This is only a smattering of what is out there, and certainly is not meant to be exhaustive. (If you think you SHOULD be here, holler at me in the Comments section.) There is some interesting stuff going on in applying social business collaboration tools and techniques that I will save for a future post.
What’s next? I hope all of you will tell me and then we will BOTH know. Follow Stan on Twitter at @smprezbo.
Subscribe to our RSS feed to have future blog postings delivered to your feed reader.
