The engineering design process has long been a complex, multidisciplinary endeavour, requiring the coordination of diverse teams, management of vast amounts of data, and navigation of intricate challenges. Traditionally, this process has relied heavily on document-based approaches, with information spread across numerous files, drawings, and specifications. While these methods have served the industry for decades, they are increasingly strained by the growing complexity of modern products and systems.

Enter the era of digital transformation in engineering. Advanced technologies such as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and the model-based enterprise are revolutionizing how products are concepted, designed, produced, and brought to market. These digital approaches promise to address many of the limitations inherent in traditional methods, offering a more integrated, efficient, and agile framework for product development.

At its core, this digital shift represents a fundamental change in how engineering data is created, managed, and used throughout the product lifecycle. Instead of relying on disparate documents and drawings, MBSE and model-based approaches centre around a unified digital model that serves as a single source of truth. This model captures not just the physical attributes of a product, but also its behaviour, requirements, and interactions with other systems.

The potential impact of these technologies extends far beyond mere digitization of existing processes. They offer the promise of enhanced collaboration across disciplines, improved system-level understanding, faster design iterations, and significant reductions in errors and rework. Furthermore, they provide a foundation for exploiting other cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital twins.

This series of blogs explores the transformative potential of MBSE and model-based enterprise approaches in the engineering product development process. We will examine the key concepts behind these technologies, the challenges they address, their promised benefits, and strategies for successful implementation. By understanding and embracing these digital technologies, engineering organisations can position themselves at the forefront of innovation, ready to tackle the complex challenges of tomorrow's products and systems.

What is Digital Engineering?

To understand the transformational potential of digital technologies in engineering design process, it's crucial to understand the concepts of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and the Model-Based Enterprise (MBE). Collectively, we can refer to these as ‘Digital Engineering’: the evolution of engineering practices to take advantage of massive cloud computing power, secure collaborative working tools, advanced data connectivity and analytics, and advances in modelling and simulation methods.

These approaches represent a change in the way of working from document-centric to a continuous and interconnected digital thread that runs throughout the product lifecycle, from conception to end-of-life, or further still into reuse or reclamation. They represent a shift in the balance of demonstrating confidence in a system through physical prototyping, to demonstrating the quality and integrity of the data and models that define it, and the enterprise that supports it.

Definitions

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

MBSE is an approach to systems engineering that uses a coherent model as the primary means of information exchange between all stakeholders, and across different domains. It encompasses the processes, methods, and tools used to support the engineering of complex systems throughout their lifecycle. Important concepts are:

• The System Model: A comprehensive digital representation of the complete system of interest, including its structure, behaviour, requirements, and relationships.
• Models: The constituent building blocks of the system model, representing components, interfaces, functions, and other system aspects.
• Viewpoints: Different perspectives of the system model tailored for specific stakeholders or purposes.

Model-Based Enterprise (MBE)

MBE is a broader concept that extends the principles of MBSE across the entire organisation. It's an integrated approach where digital models drive all aspects of the product lifecycle, from concept to disposal, and it shifts the MBSE viewpoint from the physical system, to the development, production, and operational systems that surround the product. In addition to the components of MBSE, MBE introduces the following concepts:

• Digital Thread: A communication framework that allows a connected data flow and integrated view of the product's data throughout its lifecycle and across the enterprise. This is closely linked to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), an approach to managing the data flow.
• Digital Twin: A virtual representation of a physical product or enterprise system, used for various purposes including simulation, integration, and testing.
• Model-Based Definition (MBD): A practice where a 3D model provides all the detailed product information necessary for all downstream processes.

Core Principles

Both MBSE and MBE are built on several core principles:

• Model-Centricity: The model serves as the single source of truth, replacing document-based information exchange.
• Traceability: All elements within the model are interconnected, allowing for end-to-end traceability from requirements to implementation.
• Reusability: Models and model elements can be reused across projects, promoting efficiency and standardization.
• Simulation and Analysis: Models can be directly used for various simulations and analyses, providing early stage virtual validation and verification.
• Collaborative Environment: Models facilitate better communication and collaboration among different stakeholders and disciplines.

Leveraging the principles and methodologies of MBSE and MBE, organisations can create a more integrated, efficient, and agile approach to product development. The model-based paradigm enables better decision-making, reduces errors, and ultimately leads to higher quality products delivered in less time and at lower cost.

In his next blog Amit explores the challenges of design and how MBE can offer solutions