Paper Info
Title
A Socio-Technical Perspective On Interdisciplinary Interactions During The Development Of Complex Engineered Systems
Abstract
This study investigates interdisciplinary interactions that take place during the research, development, and early conceptual design phases in the engineering of large-scale complex engineered systems (LaCES) such as aerospace vehicles. These interactions occur throughout a large engineering development organization and become the initial conditions of the systems engineering process that ultimately leads to the development of a viable system. This paper summarizes some of the challenges and opportunities regarding social and organizational issues that emerged from a qualitative study using ethnographic and survey data. The analysis reveals several socio-technical couplings between the engineered system and the organization that creates it. Survey respondents noted the importance of interdisciplinary interactions and their benefits to the engineered system as well as substantial challenges in interdisciplinary interactions. Noted benefits included enhanced knowledge and problem mitigation and noted obstacles centered on organizational and human dynamics. Findings suggest that addressing the social challenges may be a critical need in enabling interdisciplinary interactions during the development of LaCES. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Georgia Institute of Technology
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.procs.2013.01.120
2013 CONFERENCE ON SYSTEMS ENGINEERING RESEARCH
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Interdisciplinary, Engineering Research, System Design, Complex Systems, Socio-Technical
Journal
16
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1877-0509
3
0.51
References 
Authors
2
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Anna-Maria Rivas McGowan130.51
shanna r daly241.14
wayne e baker330.51
Panos Y. Papalambros4639.97
Colleen M. Seifert54611.73