I recently helped a team completed a project for a client where we needed to get from an idea (starting from an animation of a concept for an innovative automated drilling rig machine) to providing an answer to the question: "will it work?" and the obvious follow-up: "show me!". This was an exciting opportunity to introduce a Model-Based approach to engineering systems for a new machine as well as implement an accelerated development process.
My client had a contract to develop the hydraulics and controls systems for an innovative automated drilling rig machine. The overall concept for the machine's functions were already worked out (structures and mechanisms) and there were animations of many of the operations. What had yet to be done was to prove out that the operations in the animations could actually be achieved cost effectively and without requiring a redesign of the machine's major structures and mechanical systems. It was understood that a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) approach of the proposed machine's dynamic performance was critical, but the project had started without system-level models being developed, critical customer requirements were not captured well, and machine performance could not be simulated or visualized.
I was able to work with the existing team and lead the effort to put the team on track to meet the expectations of their customer. This was achieved through facilitated Design Thinking sessions to focus attention on customer requirements and by implementing an accelerated development process. The workflow (graphically depicted in the figure below) was developed to take rapidly take advantage of modern engineering analytical Modeling & Simulation tools. The team worked in short cycles (typically 1 week cycles) to rapidly develop a fully dynamic system model and then continually refining the model to improve the performance and reduce risk each cycle.
We chose Simscape Physical Systems Simulation tools from The MathWorks and used SolidWorks for creating engineering models for the structures and mechanical components. Because simulation of the machine-level performance was now able to be assessed, overall risk to the project was reduced by ensuring that performance requirements were able to be met and cost-effective components could be selected to support the requirements. We were able to document the results in a requirements dashboard that served as both a living document during development and as a deliverable as well. Visualization (animations based on the results of dynamic simulation) were easy to create and added significantly to the credibility of the approach. Documentation was generally created as living documents and eliminated the dreaded and inefficient "stop work" process of generating a final report.
By using a Model-Based approach and having the multi-disciplinary team collaborating better with a focus on addressing the system-level requirements the team succeeded in being able to communicate to the customer that it was a feasible concept. Executing the project this way represented a time savings at least 60% and probable development cost savings of over $150k over a traditional approach. This was a hugely satisfying effort especially because the team success was not due to just one thing - it took leadership, a new process, new tools, and coaching to pull it all together. It was not easy, but it was worth it.