Caroline Twomey Lamb

Systems Thinking as an Emergent Team Property: Ongoing research into the enablers and barriers to team-level systems thinking

This paper describes ongoing research exploring systems thinking at the team level. Termed collaborative systems thinking by the authors, the concept of higher level systems thinking is envisioned as a means both to build workforce competency and to explicitly deal with system complexity at a higher level within an organization. This paper introduces the key research questions, an initial definition of collaborative systems thinking, demographic and technical motivators, and summarizes the research progress to date and plan for completion. The results of this research will inform the design of technical processes and provide empirical knowledge to support workforce development interventions aimed at developing systems thinking within engineering teams. The role of organizational culture is also considered as a factor in enabling collaborative systems thinking.

Empirical Research on Systems Thinking and Practice in the Engineering Enterprise

The paper discusses recent and ongoing research on engineering systems thinking and practices within the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. . The research seeks to impact the effectiveness of systems engineering in modern enterprises through development of new empirical-based knowledge related to systems thinking and practice in engineering. The paper will discuss research progress and outcomes to date as they apply to improving the effectiveness of systems engineering practice and competency development in industry, government and academia. The research involves highly collaborative engagement, use of grounded theory methods, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The challenges and lessons learned in performing research of this nature and applying non-traditional methods in systems engineering research are discussed.

Performance-Based Geometric Tolerancing of Compressor Blades

The relationship between statically measured geometric parameters (tolerances) and the aerodynamic performance of an airfoil are investigated in this paper. The goal is to determine which geometric parameters are critical to control during manufacturing, such that a blade will have acceptable aerodynamic performance. A probabilistic model of geometric variability for a three-dimensional blade is derived. Using this geometric model, probabilistic aerodynamic simulations are conducted to analyze the variability in aerodynamic performance. Tolerance optimization is then applied in which tolerance ranges are modified to best sort blades according to some arbitrary performance limit. The optimization is performed for several limits, expressed as a percent of nominal performance, to observe both which parameters best predict performance and the accuracy of that prediction at each limit. Two blade cases are considered, both based on the same compressor blade: the base compressor blade with nominal manufacturing noise; and a probabilistic redesign of the blade geometry designed to minimize the impact of manufacturing noise, also analyzed with nominal manufacturing noise. Results show the best static indicators of meanline performance are parameters concerning the LE of the airfoil, and the effectiveness of these parameters vary greatly depending on the chosen performance limit. In addition, it was shown that the optimized tolerances for the redesigned blade were consistently looser, or less restrictive, than those for the original blade population for a given performance limit. The differences in observed optimized tolerance ranges are small for less restrictive performance limits but at more aggressive performance limits, there is a 20–30% increase in tolerance range for the redesigned blade population.Copyright

Collaborative systems thinking: Uncovering the rules

As the aerospace workforce braces itself for the “silver tsunami,” more emphasis is needed on how to develop systems skills in engineering workforce. Research has shown this knowledge is tacit and based in experience. However, with nearly one-third of the industrys employees eligible for retirement, this systems-level knowledge is at risk of being lost. This focuses on the team as the unit of analysis and the elements of design process and team culture that foster collaborative systems thinking teams. Eight pilot interviews, ten full case studies, and 14 abbreviated case studies were used to explore “collaborative systems thinking,” or team-level systems thinking. From these data, a definition of collaborative systems thinking is derived and generalizations about collaborative systems thinking teams are presented.

Collaborative systems thinking: Uncovering the rules of team-level systems thinking

As the aerospace workforce braces itself for the ‘silver tsunami,’ more emphasis is needed on how to develop systems skills in engineering workforce Research has shown this knowledge is tacit and based in experience. However, with nearly one-third of the industrys employees eligible for retirement, this systems-level knowledge is at risk of being lost. This paper focuses on the team as the unit of analysis and the elements of design process and team culture that foster collaborative systems thinking teams. Eight pilot interviews, ten full case studies and 14 abbreviated case studies were used to explore ‘collaborative systems thinking,’ or team-level systems thinking. From these data a definition of collaborative systems thinking is derived and generalizations about collaborative systems thinking teams are presented.