Explore the vast range of titles available.

The first book to address the underlying premises of systems integration and how to exposit them into a practical and productive manner, this book prepares systems managers and systems engineers to consider their decisions in light of systems integration metrics. The book addresses two questions: Is there a way to express the interplay of human actions and the result of system interactions of a product with its environment, and are there methods that combine to improve the integration of systems? The systems integration theory and integration frameworks proposed in the book tie General Systems Theory with practice.

Purpose This paper aims to propose a space-oriented solution as an interface enabling the knowledge transfer between the building and the facilities management (FM) industry. Design/methodology/approach The research gap is explored based on practical investigations in six large-scale hospitals in China. The theory of engineering systems integration inspires the proposed solution. A practical scenario is demonstrated to explain the workflow of this solution. Findings It is founded that lagging information updates of FM systems in hospital project are one of the main reasons for inefficient and costly FM workflow. Building information modelling (BIM) model could provide accurate building information to the FM systems at the building handover stage. However, few researchers focus on the continuous information transfer solution from the BIM model to FM systems during the building in-use phase. An interface should be established for the “conversation” between the frequent changes of building and the FM systems in the post-construction period. Practical implications The information updates in three FM systems due to space changes in a hospital project is considered as a practical scenario in this paper. It is presented with the workflow and the data logic chain. Originality/value The originality of this paper is to propose a solution to integrate the space information provided by the BIM model with the parameters of particular FM systems. This solution deploys a BIM model for the FM industry. The solution could allow the FM personnel to ease operations and maintenance workflow by updating the space information in the BIM model.

This chapter focuses on how effective integration impacts program performance. It discusses the results of the analysis, indicating that greater integration does indeed coincide with superior program performance. The chapter presents a case study that highlights practical examples of how integration and its key elements contributed to improved program performance. To develop insight about how integration impacts program performance, System Dynamics Modeling techniques were used to create a simulation model of a generic program to investigate how the different elements of integration between program management and systems engineering influences program execution. Increasing levels of integration helps teams deliver better program results. The systems engineering measurement process helps define the types of information needed to support program management decisions and implement systems engineering leading practices to improve performance. Finally, the chapter focuses on the relationship between integration and common program performance metrics.

This chapter looks specifically at five groups that can play a role in driving program management and systems engineering integration: academia, enterprise leaders, policymakers, professional societies, and researchers. Each of these groups gives effort to integrate deeply and fully systems engineering and program management. Enterprise leaders care about outcomes, the achievement of strategy or mission. Achieving outcomes requires that organizations have an engine that is capable of effectively implementing strategic objectives. Achieving the new mindset, to which systems engineering and program management must align practices in order to better enable collaboration and deliver greater value and customer satisfaction. It is imperative that executive leaders first model through their own actions, then hold program managers and chief systems engineers accountable for demonstrating the behaviors and attitudes that will embed the mindset within their teams. Talent management activities help support the right mindset, empower individuals to do their part, and sustain critical changes.

Flexible multibody system dynamics (MSD) is one of the hot spots and difficulties in modern mechanics. It provides a powerful theoretical tool and technical support for dynamic performance evaluation and optimization design of a large number of complex systems in many engineering fields, such as machinery, aviation, aerospace, weapon, robot and biological engineering. How to find an efficient accurate dynamics modeling method and its stable reliable numerical solving algorithm are the two core problems of flexible MSD. In this paper, the research status of modeling methods of flexible MSD in recent years is summarized first, including the selection of reference frames, the flexible body’s kinematics descriptions, the deductions of dynamics equation, the model reduction techniques and the modeling methods of the contact/collision, uncertainty and multi-field coupling problems. Then, numerical solution technologies and their latest developments of flexible MSD are discussed in detail. Finally, the future research directions of modeling and numerical computation of flexible MSD are briefly prospected.

The current study on digital factory (DF) meets some problems, such as disconnected manufacturing sites, independent digital models, isolated data, and non-self-controlled applications. In order to move current situation of DFs forward towards smart manufacturing, this paper attempts to present an overview of current digital situation of factories, and propose a systematical framework of cyber-physical integration in factories, with consideration of the concept of digital twin and the theory of manufacturing service. Particularly, the proposed framework includes four key issues, i.e., (a) fully interconnected physical elements integration , (b) faithful-mirrored virtual models integration , (c) all of elements/flows/businesses-covered data fusion , and (d) data-driven and application-oriented services integration . The corresponding implementable solutions of these four key issues are discussed in turn. As a reference, this paper is promising to bridge the gap in factories from current digital situation to smart manufacturing, so as to effectively facilitate their smart production.

Time-varying mesh stiffness is one of the main excitation sources of a gear system, and it is also considered as an important factor for the vibration and noise of gears. Thus, this excitation is usually taken as an input into the gear dynamic model to obtain the system dynamic responses. However, the mesh stiffness of a gear pair is actually nonlinear with respect to the dynamic mesh force (DMF) that fluctuates during the operation of gears. Therefore, the dynamic model of gears with the quasi-static mesh stiffness calculated under a constant load is not accurate sufficiently. In this paper, a dynamic model of spur gear is established with considering the effect of the force-dependent time-varying mesh stiffness, backlash and profile deviation. Due to the nonlinear relationship between the mesh stiffness and the load for each tooth pair, it needs first to determine the load sharing among tooth pairs and then calculate the overall mesh stiffness of the gear pair. As the mesh stiffness and DMF are related, the mesh stiffness is no longer directly taken into the gear dynamic model as an input, but is jointly solved with the numerical integration process using the gear dynamic model. Finally, the dynamic responses predicted from the established gear dynamic model are compared with the experimental results for validation and compared with the traditional models to reveal their differences. The results indicate that the established dynamic model of spur gear transmission has a wider application range than the traditional models.

The integration of building information modelling (BIM) and geographic information system (GIS) in construction management is a new and fast developing trend in recent years, from research to industrial practice. BIM has advantages on rich geometric and semantic information through the building life cycle, while GIS is a broad field covering geovisualization-based decision making and geospatial modelling. However, most current studies of BIM-GIS integration focus on the integration techniques but lack theories and methods for further data analysis and mathematic modelling. This paper reviews the applications and discusses future trends of BIM-GIS integration in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry based on the studies of 96 high-quality research articles from a spatio-temporal statistical perspective. The analysis of these applications helps reveal the evolution progress of BIM-GIS integration. Results show that the utilization of BIM-GIS integration in the AEC industry requires systematic theories beyond integration technologies and deep applications of mathematical modeling methods, including spatio-temporal statistical modeling in GIS and 4D/nD BIM simulation and management. Opportunities of BIM-GIS integration are outlined as three hypotheses in the AEC industry for future research on the in-depth integration of BIM and GIS. BIM-GIS integration hypotheses enable more comprehensive applications through the life cycle of AEC projects.

This work investigates the amplitude-dependent dynamics of a locally resonant metamaterial beam with bistable attachments. The concept that was previously demonstrated for a discrete chain is extended to a continuous system, and the enhancement in vibration attenuation bandwidth is investigated through a cantilever beam under base excitation. The analysis approach combines the harmonic balance method and time-domain numerical integration to capture periodic and aperiodic responses for up-sweep and down-sweep harmonic excitation. The bistable attachments are shown to exhibit linear intrawell, nonlinear intrawell and nonlinear interwell oscillations for low, moderate, and high base acceleration levels. As a result, the metastructure leverages linear locally resonant bandgap under low excitation intensity, and nonlinear wideband attenuation due to chaotic vibrations of the bistable attachments under high excitation intensity. This is first demonstrated through frequency sweep numerical simulations for a broad range of excitation amplitudes. Experimental validations are then presented for a base-excited cantilever beam hosting seven magnetoelastic beam attachments. For moderate-to-high amplitude excitation levels, the interwell oscillations of the attachments produce an attenuation frequency range that is 350% wider than the corresponding linear locally resonant bandgap (observed for low-amplitude excitation levels), yielding the suppression of modes outside the bandgap with increased excitation intensity.

Industrial and technological growth, sponsored by the new organizational systems generated by the fourth industrial revolution, require adapt new business management ways in the companies. Within the organizational and business area we can conceive all activities as an operations set that are linked to computer systems and information management in the network, achieving more efficiency in the flow, in addition, this new industry perception and businesses includes different analytical tools which are useful to support the customer service efficiency improvement. The research objective is to propose and validate a methodological tool, for evaluating the technological and operational criteria within companies and place them in the right level for a transfer to the new industrial revolution, considering as well the vertical and horizontal systems in Industry 4.0.