Systems Engineering and Design Science Research for Effective Product Development

The value of Design Science Research (DSR) is well known for producing artifacts from research. The context is shifted slightly in this paper to show the value of using a combination of Systems Engineering (SE) and DSR in a product development context. SE is a well-established framework for bringing systems into being, with well-defined resources to support development in a system's full life cycle. SE is useful to place focus on system relevance by using requirements management in a formal way, while research provides novelty and decision support in the SE and business processes. A case is provided for development of mine safety equipment. SE was used to develop a winch signaling system, with research conducted on the system's effectiveness in terms of reducing both production downtime and hazardous exposure. As the developed system was a safety system, it was imperative to conduct research in a simulated environment on relevant simulation models to prevent harm to end-users. For different technology options, end-user risk appetite was translated to behavioral failures and each technology option's effectiveness evaluated for an integrated system as if in operation. Operational risk and productivity were thus modeled using a new method called Activity Based Risk (ABR). The ABR method showed the sensitivity of an integrated production system with respect to technology variation in high-risk environments. It was concluded that combining SE and research resulted in a well-defined DSR framework that produced both a physical artifact and an improved acquisition process for mines.