SystemConcepts

PengantarTeknik&SistemIndustri JurusanTeknikIndustriITS

Definition
Asystemisanorganized dassembly bl of fcomponents.Organized dmeansthat h there existspecialrelationshipsbetweenthecomponents. Thesystem y doessomething, g,i.e.itexhibitsbehaviours thatareunique q to the system. Eachcomponentcontributestowardsthebehaviour ofthesystemandits own behaviour isaffectedbybeinginthesystem. system Nocomponenthasan independent effectonthesystem. Groupsofcomponentswithinthesystemmaybythemselveshave properties. Thesystemhasanoutside anenvironment whichprovidesinputs intothe systemandreceivesoutputsfromthesystem. system Thesystemhasbeenidentifiedbysomeonetobeofspecialinterestfora given purpose.

SystemBoundary
Theseparationbetweenthesystemandits y environmentmeansthatthereisaboundary. Infact,boundaryselectionisthemostcritical aspectofsystemsthinking thinking. Outthere&insideusview

SystemsasBlackBoxes
Th Thecomplexity l it of freal llif lifemayb besuch hth that tweh havenoor onlyincompleteknowledge oftheinnerworkingsofa system,evenifweareabletoidentifythephysical components. Oftenthemajorreasonforthislackofknowledgeisthat thesystem behaviour isaffectedbyrandomaspects aspects. Inothercases,therelationshipsbetween componentsare onlypartiallyunderstood Inothersituationsthetransformationprocessisknown exactly.However, ratherthanrepresentitinfulldetail,it maybeadequatetoviewtheinnerworking asablackbox andsimplyexpressthevariousactivitiesofthe transformation processbyasinglefunctionalrelationship

HierarchyofSystems

DifferentKindsofSystem
Discretesystems(adiscretesystemchangesits stateatdiscretepointsintime)
Thenumberoftelephonelinesorthenumberof operatorsbusy Inapredator/preysystem,thestateisdescribedby thenumberofpredatorsand numberofpreyaliveat anypointintime Intheloom repair p system, y twostatevariablesof primeinterestarethenumberofmachines operating andthenumberofmachinesbrokendown

 ContinuousSystem(thestateofthesystem g continuously) y) changes

Manyindustrialprocesses,particularlyinchemical and petrochemicalplants,shouldbeviewedas continuoussystems. Theprocess usedbywarmbloodedanimalsto maintainthebodytemperaturewithinanarrow rangeisalsoacontinuoussystem system.

 Deterministic&StochasticSystem
Ifthebehaviour ofasystem y ispredictable p inevery y detailthesystemisdeterministic. Forexample, thesolarsystem, y ,animated neon advertising gsigns g thatgothrougharegularpattern,asequenceof trafficlights g along gaoneway ystreet Ifthebehaviourofasystemis notcompletely predictableandaffectedbyrandomorstochastic inputs,thesystemsarecalledstochasticsystems.

 ClosedandOpenSystems
Aclosedsystem y hasnointeractionswithany y environment.Noinputs,nooutput.Infact,ithas noenvironment. Incontrast,open systemsinteractwiththe environment byreceivinginputsfromitand environment, providing outputstoit. Inreallifethereexistnotrulyclosedsystems systems.

TheSteadyStateofaProbabilistic System
S Stochastic h i systemsin i the h long l runtend dtoapproach ha stateofequilibrium, alsocalledasteadystate.This stateofequilibriumisindependentofthe statethe systemstartsoutfrom. Fewstochasticsystemseverreachtheirstateof equilibrium.Smallorlarge randomdisturbances,e.g.a suddenrandomsurge g ofemergency g ycalls,orasevere storminanecologicalsystem,maydisruptsystem behaviour andpushitawayfrom theselongrun averages.But B ti ineach hcase,th thesystem t will illgradually d ll approachthe sameoranewstateofequilibriumagain.

FeedbackLoops
F Feedback db ki isacommonfeature f t of fmost tsystems, t bothhumanactivitysystemsand naturalsystems. Theyoftenarethemaincauseofcomplexity complexity. Feedbackcanactpositivelyornegatively.
Positivefeedbackincreasesthediscrepancy between thefuturestateofthesystemandsomereference state,suchasan equilibriumstateoradesiredtarget state. t t In I other th words, d the th system t state t t tends t d to t deviatemoreandmorefromitsreferencestate. Incontrast, contrast negativefeedbackdecreases the discrepancybetweenthefuturestateandthe referencestate

ControlofSystems
Threeconditions Th diti areneeded d dto t exercise i control t loversystem t behaviour: Atarget, g ,objective, j ,org goalforthesystem y toreach.Fora deterministicsystemthis maybeaparticularstateofthe system.Forstochasticsystemsitmaybea desirablesteady state. state Asystemcapableofreachingthetargetorgoal.The difficultyisthatforstochasticsystemstheremaybenoway of fguaranteeing t i th that t this thi goal lis i everreached. h d Somemeansofinfluencingsystembehaviour.Thesearethe controlinputs (decisions,decisionrules,orinitialstates). Howthesecontrolinputsaffectsystem behaviour isan importantaspectofstudyingsystems.

ThreeTypesofControl
OpenLoopControl ClosedLoopControl FeedForwardControl

OpenLoopControl
Inputs imposedonthesystembasedonlyon predictionof howthesystem y behaviour thep respondstothem.Noaccountistakenofhow thesystem actuallyrespondstothecontrol inputs.

ClosedLoopControl
Information aboutthesystembehaviour, possibly p yin response p top previouscontrol inputs,isfedbacktothecontrollerfor evaluation This mayleadthecontrollerto evaluation. adjustthecontrolsignals. There h aretwomechanism: h
Feedbackcontrol Selfregulation

FeedForwardControl
Reacts tochangesinsomecriticalstatevariables or outputs.Ratherthanreacttoeventsafterthey havehappened,afeedforwardcontrol mechanism p predictshowchanges g ininputs p (uncontrollableorcontrollable)arelikely toaffect systembehaviour andthensendscontrolsignals thatwillmaintainsystem behaviour ascloselyas possibleonthedesiredcourse course,thereby counteracting the effectsofinputdisturbances

TheProblemSituation
PengantarTeknik&SistemIndustri JurusanTeknikIndustriITS

TheProblemSituation
Thecontextwithinwhichthep problemoccurs.Itisthesum or aggregateofallaspectsthatcanormayaffectorshapethe problemorissueof concern.

SixElementsofaProblem
Thedecisionmaker Thedecision maker makers sobjectives Theassociateddecisioncriterion Theperformance measure Thecontrolinputsoralternativecoursesof action The contextinwhichtheproblemoccurs

Objective&DecisionCriterion
A Anobjective bj ti is i the th end dt towards d which hi heffort ff tis i di directed, t d an aim,goalorendofaction anambulanceservicewants tofindthebestlocation inasmallcity,wherebestis interpretedasreaching anyemergencyasquicklyas possible Criterion isdefinedasthe theprincipleorstandardonwhicha judgment ordecisionisbased.Bothprincipleand standardimplyarule.Soacriterionis theruleusedfor judgingwhetherorhowwelltheobjectivehasbeen achieved tominimizethesumofall timestoreach everyroadlocationintown,tominimizethesumofthe squared dtimes, ti to t minimize i i i th themaximum i ti timeb between t theambulanceservice andanylocationsinthecity.

Exercise1
Definethesixproblemelementsfor
Emergency g ycallcentreproblem p Vehicleroutingproblem

Stakeholders
Thedecisionmaker,otherpartiesaffectedbut ycontroloverthesituation, and withoutany theanalyst Categories:
Theproblemowners Theproblemusers Thep problemcustomers Theproblemanalystsorsolvers

Exercise2
Definethestakeholdersfor
Emergency g ycallcentreproblem p Vehicleroutingproblem

TheAidstoDepictaSystem
Goals: G l
Acquiringasufficientlycompleteanddetailed understanding d t di of fthe th problem bl situation it ti for f a successfulsystemintervention Getting a thorough thoroughfeel feel foranythingthatmayimpact ontheoutcome

Diagrammaticaidstodepictasystem:
Mindmaps Rich picturediagrams Cognitive maps

MindMap
Whenyouthink Wh hi kabout b something hi aphenomenon, h an issue,oraproblem ahostofthoughtsareevokedin yourmind:things, things aspects, aspects andconcepts, concepts includingfears andaims,dataandfacts,andthepossibleactionsand reactionsby yyourself y orotherpeople p p orentitiesinvolved andtheirconsequences, bothplannedandunplanned, desirableandundesirable,thatresultfromsuchactions, and dthe h wider d contextorenvironmentof fitall. ll Amind d mapisallthis(orajudiciously chosensubset)putdown onpaperinheadings, headings slogans, slogans orsentences

Thethingsarearrangedinameaningfulwayby gaspects p closely yrelated ing groups, p by y showing linesthatconnectthingswhicharerelated,and byarrowsthatindicate causalrelationships betweenitems.Noformalconventionsareused.

RichPictureDiagram
Rather R h than h show h the h various i aspectsin i words d orshort h sentences,P.Checkland [1993/99]suggestsdrawinga cartoonlikepictorialsummaryofeverything(oralmost everything!)theobserverknowsaboutthesituation studied. Notethattermrichp picturedoesnot, ,inthefirst place,meanadrawing.Itis simplyamorecolourful term forasituationsummary.Itscartoonlikerepresentation iscalled ll darich hpicturediagram. d However,this h israther h clumsyandlong.Soifitis clearfromthecontext,wewill refertothediagramsimplyasarichpicture picture.

CognitiveDiagram
Cognitive C iti mapping i is i atool t lthat th tC.L. C L Eden Ed [1983]adapted d t dfrom f G.A. GA Kellys(1955) personalconstructtheory.Incontrasttomindmapsand richpictures,whicharesuitable torepresentanindividualspersonal aswellasagroup groups saggregateperception oftheproblemsituation, situation a cognitivemaponlycapturesthesubjective,personalperception ofan individual.Ittakestheformofanetworkofstatements,expressing concepts ideas,goals,concerns,preferences,actions andtheir contrastsoropposites. Theconceptsarelinkedtogetherbyarrows, whichindicatethedirectionof connections,i.e.whichconceptleads logically g ytowhichotherconcept(s). p ( ) Cognitivemapshavesomesimilaritytomindmapsthat capturemeansendorcauseandeffectrelationships.(Theyarealso relatedtocausal loopdiagrams) )

SystemModel
A system t model d li isarepresentation t ti of fall llessential ti l partsofasystem Amodelmaybe: be
Iconic Analogousorsymbolic Mathematical

Characteristicsofagoodmodel:
Simple Complete Easytomanipulate&communicatewith Adaptive p

SomeExamples CausalLoopDiagram

InfluenceDiagram

Material/InformationFlowchart

PrecedenceChart

Fishbone/SprayDiagram

FaultTreeDiagram

DecisionFlowchart

SystematicModel
CONSTRAINTS DECISION

INPUTS

PROCESSES

OUTPUTS

FEEDBACKS