Leveraging Systems Engineering Concepts In Operations

Several articles in this websites article series emphasize systems engineering, described as the “technical leg of project management”.  A few systems engineering fundamentals are summarized as follows:

• Product requirements management and validation
• Product requirements flow-down, allocation and traceability
• Ensure product verification versus (valid) requirements

Let’s consider an ongoing operational process, and use a similar framework. 

First, let’s assume there is “ongoing” project management…which stretches the definition of a project having a beginning and end.  However. an operational process still has project-related needs (for example, the need to purchase a piece of equipment.)

What, then, is the technical leg of project management for an operational process?  The answer is: lean six sigma.  

Let’s use the previous bullet points on systems engineering fundamentals and replace the word “product” with process.

• Process requirements management and validation
• Process requirements flow-down, allocation and traceability 
• Ensure process verification versus (valid) requirements

Recall that a product requirement answers the question “what the design shall provide (output) at input conditions” therefore a process requirement answers the question “what the process shall provide (outputs) at input conditions” in order to meet an internal or external customer need.

Developing a process is no different from developing a product: begin with business or process requirements in order to meet an internal or external customer need.

Some examples of high-level process or business requirements might be to add capacity to meet demand, improve product/process margins, improve order fulfillment cycle time to key customers. Of course, there is almost always room for improved product quality, reduced lead times, inventory or costs.

We can now construct a table of some systems and process engineering fundamentals, how they related to lean six sigma:

Systems Engineering	Process / Value Stream Engineering	Lean Six Sigma Toolset Examples
Requirements management & validation.  Verify product performance vs. requirements.	Determine what the high-level process shall provide (outputs) at input conditions. Verify overall process capability.	Value Stream Analysis, Capacity vs. Demand, Cycle Time vs. Takt Time, Inventory Turns, Supply Chain Management, Waste Elimination, KPIs   Finished product quality and   measures of overall process quality.
Requirements flow-down, allocation and traceability.	Determine what the individual process steps shall provide (outputs) at input conditions   Verify individual process step capability.	Process Capability (Cp, Cpk), PFMEA, DoE, Kanban (manage part availability). Part or subassembly performance, measures of process quality.

Three different disciplines are therefore illustrated herein:

• Project Management
• Systems Engineering
• Lean Six Sigma / Value Stream Engineering

An engineering function may be sub-optimized without project management and systems engineering skillsets. Similarly, operations may be sub-optimized without project management and lean six sigma skillsets.

In summary, there is a “technical leg” associated with any operation that would benefit from a lean six sigma skillset.  Also note that a complex process is a complex system requiring ‘engineering’ to optimize. This resource can engineer (or re-engineer) the entire value stream, or multiple value streams to meet new process requirements. 

Position titles could further re-enforce this concept, with a value stream leader, value stream engineering and value stream project manager (depending on the scope of your operation). Improved focus on value streams, balancing metrics and new/improved process requirements can make a significant difference in your operation.