Systems Engineering – The Hard Way

Ship designers, builders, owners, insurers and class societies are becoming ever more aware of the complex interactions of the various systems found on all types of marine vessels. Therefore a design process that acknowledges these demands and assesses the risks posed, and manages them becomes ever more important. This paper seeks to explore some of the, sometimes apparently, conflicting requirements that are placed on designs of new marine platforms and looks at methods that enable these elements to be
expressed, understood and managed in the context of an integrated ship design.
The demands placed on new vessels include a range of requirements that move away from being solely based around the traditional functional requirements; including the ideas of designing for ease of shipbuilders, operators and maintainers; and now acknowledging the need of a through life safety case, cyber security case, and full obsolescence planning. This becomes ever more complex when consideration is given to how these through life elements are practically managed, with a range of methods, none of
which are without their own challenges.
It is important to note as these demands are discussed that often a ‘solution’ in the truest sense does not exist and the management of risk becomes a balance between the expected risk, the practicable solution, along with the potential compromises to both programmes and cost.
While these demands place huge constraints and drive complexity into design processes, the issues can, and regularly have, been further exacerbated when some of these, or other requirements, are introduced into the design or build phases of projects. Introduction of design drivers should not be undertaken lightly or without expected, and accepted, increases in required resources, both financial and calendrical.