Systems Methodology

CONTENTS

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TOPIC DESCRIPTION PAGES NO.

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2 INTRODUCTION 2

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMERY 2

3.1 BRIEF RECAPITULATION OF THE PROBLEM SITUATION 2

3.2 DEFINITION OF THE SCOPE OF THE ASSIGNMENT 3

4. SYSTEM ENGINEERING SPECIALITIES 4

4.1 SELECTION OF SYSTEM ENGINEERING SPECIALITY 4

4.1.1 Life cycle costing 4

4.1.1.1 Cost breakdown structure 9

4.1.1.2 Life cycle costing worksheet 10

4.1.1.3 Breakeven analysis 13

4.1.2 Risk analysis 14

4.1.3 Logistics and supportability 17

4.1.3.1 Developing the supportability plan 17

4.1.4 Testing Verification and Validation 24

4.1.4.1 Testing procedure 24

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 26

5.1 SUITABILITY OF THE SELECTED ENGINEERING SPECIALITY 26

5.2 PROS AND CONS OF THE SELECTED ENGINEERING SPECIALITY 27

6 REFERENCES 28

3. Executive summery:

3.1 Brief recapitulation of the problem situation:

Volkswagen Ltd is one of the largest car manufacturing companies among its contemporaries. Its engines are in service with more than 25 successful models. The company also supplies marine gas turbines for 25 navies and produces engines for industrial duties such as gas and oil pumping and power generation. However, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of car manufacturing companies. As a result, the competition has increased. The customers have recognised a need for a higher capacity engine and a better turbo speed capacity and a fuel-efficient engine. As a result, the company's turnover has reduced from what it used to be. In order to stay in the market the company introduced a new design for its engine. It was to have a profound effect on the future prospects of the company and its place in the market. The company made a research into building hydrogen-fuelled engine. With the introduction of hydrogen fuelled engine technology the sales of the cars was not as much as the company expected and the company was not making the proportionate profits. The main problems facing Volkswagen were:

* The newly developed hydrogen engine was very economical means of transport for the people, but the cost associated with the purchase of the car is very huge, which is a major drawback in the sales of the car.

* In the manufacturing of the parts the work-in-progress time and material cost has gone up. The new hydrogen engine. In addition, owing to the high work-in-progress effective inventory control has become a major problem with the company contributing to the increase in the cost.

* It was apparent that the future profit ability of Volkswagen depended on the manufacturing efficiency and the reduction in the cost and improvement of sales of the hydrogen car.

3.2 Definition of the scope of the assignment:

The scope/objectives of the assignment is given as below:

 To choose and examine the appropriateness and practicality of the chosen system engineering design to solve the problem for the first assignment. This is done by applying the engineering specialities which provide the knowledge to specific areas such as Design life cycle costing, verification and validation, logistics and supportability, documentation and specification, quality and performance control, managing changes, managing interfaces, managing human factors, systems engineering management planning, technical management planning, identification of risks.

 To identify the tasks to be performed and to draw a time line diagram.

 To identify the types of requirements in every speciality under consideration and to draw a functional flow diagram.

4. SYSTEMS ENGINEERING SPECIALTIES:

4.1 SLELECTION OF SYSTEMS ENGINERING SPECIALITY:

The system, which is, selected deals with the resolution of the problem, which deals with the sale of the hydrogen-fuelled car. The system uses a soft system methodology in the attempt to solve the problem. Applying the engineering speciality can check the practicality and the appropriateness of the selected system engineering method. The speciality, which would check the feasibility, would be

* Doing a life cycle costing analysis of the system

* Risk analysis

* Verification and validation

* Logistics and supportability analysis of the selected system

4.1.1 LIFE CYCLE COSTING:

Life cycle costing is the total cost to the customer in acquisition, ownership and disposal of a product/system over its entire life. It includes the cost of development, production, operation, support, and disposal. The estimating for the life cycle costing is not always exact and is subject to change over a period. Life cycle costing is a methodology for calculating the whole cost of a system from inception to disposal. The items may be further subdivided until the cost of each element can be defined. The four main phases in the life cycle costing are

* Systems research and development: - The elements in this phase are initial planning, market analysis, feasibility study, product research, engineering design, design documentation, software, test and evaluation of engineering models, and associated management functions. The systems research and development is divided into three stages- conceptual design stage and preliminary system design stage and detail system/product

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