The System Life Cycle Turbine: A proposal for a Universal System Life Cycle Model in Aerospace and Defense

Over decades many (product or system) life cycle models have evolved. More than 46 life cycle models from Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Systems Engineering (SE), and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) have been reviewed. Most models are from an engineering perspective. Hence, engineering topics are dominant in life cycle models. However, the complexity of modern systems demands more: Consideration for business, support, and operational aspects during life cycle; the visualization of system evolution, from an imaginary version and the digital twin to a (cyber-) physical system of systems; possible negative impact for performance of systems of systems through time drifts in production. Furthermore, Obsolescence Management (OM), Change Requests (CR), Midlife Upgrades (MLU) and Product Generation Engineering (PGE) trigger jumps from one life cycle phase to another. As a result, these 46 life cycle models have been consolidated into a new model which has been further developed to meet also the aforementioned requirements. The resulting model called System Life Cycle Turbine (SLCT) may be applied to different (hardware) systems (or products). This paper presents the development of the SLCT model for its universal validity in aerospace and defense (A&D).