Leveraging Mission Solution Configuration Through MBSE And Tradespace Exploration
Mohamed Eldesouky, Marcus Vinicius Pereira Pessoa (University of Twente) Vlad Stefanovici (Thales Netherlands)
Keywords
Systems Engineering;Tradespace Exploration;Variants Management;Pareto-Optimization;Product Management
Abstract
is a worldwide leader in innovative radar and mission solution systems used by naval ships. As the demand for personalized products increased through the time, shifted from a project-oriented to a product-oriented approach, so that it can exploit variants and reuse to create diversity and, at the same time, reduce the occurrence of specific tailoring, which needs to be performed by projects. In this context, established a mission solution configuration process (SCP) to facilitate the selection of product variants to compose a system during the bidding phase. The SCP’s current state, thought, limits the solution space exploration to predefined system solutions with have limited freedom for choosing variants. Furthermore, the SCP is not directly integrated to engineering process and the actual systems information. As a consequence, the proposed systems sometimes fall short from the most optimal solution the client could get. Therefore, the objective of this work is to develop and validate an improved mission solution configuration process that facilitates the efficient creation and selection of product variants/mission solutions, aligning them more effectively with the client’s needs and operational requirements, particularly within the bidding phase at . The developed method combines Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Tradespace Exploration (TSE). In the MBSE part, ARCADIA (ARChitecture Analysis and Design Integrated Approach) is used as the method and the language, and MELODY is the used tool. A descriptive model is created, which includes the relevant information to create an analytical model to be used during the TSE, where the Multi-Attribute-Utility-Theory (MAUT) and Pareto-Optimization were used in evaluating and selecting between the most optimal mission solution variants. The method was validated through a coast guard mission case study closely resembling a real scenario of 125 solution variants. The results revealed the Pareto-optimal solution variants achieved through optimization for overall performance versus total cost. We conclude that the proposed method enhances that current configuration process by harmonizing client and operational needs with ’s sales and product teams, thereby ensuring accurate interpretation of operational requirements and mitigating the potential for information inconsistencies in creating and selecting the most optimal solution variants. Using the case study results to pinpoint technological gaps in the variant designs to channel their research and development efforts towards sub-systems or components that exhibit heightened competitiveness and wield substantial influence over the overall system’s performance.