Tutorial 1 – Defining a System

IE2141 Systems Thinking and Dynamics

Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Management (ISEM)

College of Design and Engineering
National University of Singapore

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 Acknowledgement
The preparation of this module has been made possible by the
support from IE2141 teaching team, and the past teaching
materials developed by A/Prof. Aaron Chia.

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 Q1 – Laws of Systems Thinking
Having learnt the laws of systems thinking, match the situation to the most
relevant systems thinking principle, and justify your answer. Note that there
might be more than one law to be matched for each case.

1. Today’s problems come from yesterday’s “solutions”.

2. The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back.
3. Behaviour grows better before it grows worse.
4. The easy way out usually leads back in.
5. The cure can be worse than the disease.
6. Faster is slower.

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 Q1 – Laws of Systems Thinking
Having learnt the laws of systems thinking, match the situation to the most
relevant systems thinking principle, and justify your answer. Note that there
might be more than one law to be matched for each case.

7. Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space.
8. Small changes can produce big results, but the areas of highest leverage are
often the least obvious.
9. You can have your cake and eat it too – but not at once.
10. Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants.
11. There is no blame.

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 Q1.a – Laws of Systems Thinking
a) Cane toads were introduced in Australia to control the beetle population.
However, it was unable to control the beetle population as the beetles
lived at the top of the sugarcanes in the fields. The toads were not able
to climb the cane to feed on them, instead the native retile population
went down drastically as they fed on these poison-containing cane
toads, killing the predators. As a result, beetle population ballooned.
Answer:

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 Q1.b – Laws of Systems Thinking
b) Once there was a rug merchant who saw that his most beautiful carpet
had a large bump in its centre. He stepped on the bump to flatten it
out—and succeeded. But the bump reappeared in a new spot not far
away. He jumped on the bump again, and it disappeared —for a
moment, until it emerged once more in a new place. Again and again, he
jumped, scuffing, and mangling the rug in his frustration; until finally he
lifted one corner of the carpet and an angry snake slithered out.
Answer:

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 Q1.c – Laws of Systems Thinking
c) You are a petroleum engineer. There is an oil leak happening dropwise
in the refinery, and an oil puddle is beginning to form. You investigate
and find that a leaky valve is causing the problem. You investigate and
find again that the company purchase cheap valves that has a higher
tendency of leakage. You realise company policy is causing the oil
puddle to form and could potentially endanger those who work in the
plant.
Answer:

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 Q1.d – Laws of Systems Thinking
d) John was offered a promotion to Managing Director in company XYZ.
However, if he accepts the promotion, he will need to work on Saturdays
to join management meetings. Ideally, John would like to be promoted to
Managing Director but also keep his Saturdays free for his family.
Answer:

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 Q1.e – Laws of Systems Thinking
e) Your desktop PC is running slow, and hence you decide to upgrade the
parts. However, you only have enough to upgrade either the CPU or
GPU and decide to upgrade the current embedded intel graphics card to
a RTX3070. After mounting the RTX3070 onto the motherboard and
while testing, you found that the PC lags more than your previous
configuration. A whole host of other problems has also arisen such as
higher PC temperatures.
Answer:

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 Q1.f – Laws of Systems Thinking
f) In the 1960s there were massive programs to build low-income housing
and improve job skills in decrepit inner cities in the United States. Low-
income people migrated from other cities and from rural areas to those
cities with the best aid programs. Eventually, the new housing units
became overcrowded, and the job training programs were swamped with
applicants. All the while, the city’s tax base continued to erode, leaving
more people trapped in economically depressed areas.
Answer:

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 Q1.g – Laws of Systems Thinking
g) There is a pest infestation in a farm. Farmers introduce wasps in their
greenhouses to control other insects that feed on the greenhouse crop.
The presence of wasps is self sustainable. It reduces pest populations
and results in less damage to crops. And even those pest that had drilled
inside the plants were removed by the wasps. Although the solution is
effective it is not intuitive to use insects against the insect problem.
Answer:

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 Q1.h – Laws of Systems Thinking
h) There is an outbreak of a new variant of COVID19 in many countries,
some believe the new variant came from Africa. Many feel that countries
and continents should not be blamed for the emerging variants. Instead,
the international community should pay more attention to medical
assistance and vaccine distribution to developing countries.
Answer:

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 Q2 – Classification of Systems by Characteristics

Having learnt about the classification of systems in Lecture 1, identify the

types of systems from the qualitative examples below.

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 Q2.a – Classification of Systems by Characteristics

a) America-On-Line experienced initial success on a fee-per-minute business model.

Their competition offered a flat rate for connecting and accessing the internet. To
recapture their eroding market share and grow subscribers, AOL began an aggressive
marketing campaign, flooding the market with CDs designed to make subscribing and
connecting easy and attractive.

The campaign was an enormous success, so much so that the demand completely
overwhelmed their technical capacity to deliver service. Not only were new subscribers
alienated, so too were existing subscribers who left in significant numbers.

Hint: consider the marketing campaign as the input, number of subscribers as the
output.

Answer:
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 Q2.b – Classification of Systems by Characteristics

b) A manufacturing facility experiences periodic problems reaching production targets as

a result of difficulties making adjustments to changing production requirements. Each
time the R&D people, who know the product very well, are called upon to fix the
problem. When the problem symptoms disappear, the incentive to fix the underlying
problem likewise disappear. Additionally, since the production staff has received no
training to improve their ability to respond to the problems, they feel disaffected and
leave.

Hint: consider adjustment of production requirement and target as an input, and level
of reaching production target as an output

Answer:

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 Q2.c – Classification of Systems by Characteristics
c) From 1897 to 1914, a naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany took place.
British concern about rapid increase in German naval power resulted in a costly building competition
of Dreadnought-class ships. This tense arms race lasted until 1914, when the war broke out.

An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in increases in military personnel and
material. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a
competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and the aim of superior
military technology, the term is also used to describe any long-term escalating competitive situation
where each competitor or competitive group focuses on out-doing others.

Hint: assume research and production capacities are constant and sufficient for both competitors
and consider the scale of armed force of United Kingdom as the input, and the scale of armed forces
of Germany as the output. The history after 1914 is not considered.

Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
Read the following essay on “Heroin Supply” and answer the questions which leads
to the definition and composition of the system.

When Heroin Supply Cut, Crime Rises, Says Report

Boston Globe, Apr 22, 1976, By Saul Friedman

The next time you hear of a big drug bust and the seizure of large quantities of heroin, don’t go believing
that your city’s streets are necessarily any safer.

Most people believe that the stronger law enforcement works by the Police Department to get drugs off
the streets, the safer those streets become. Evidence from the Drug Abuse Council, however, challenges
the prevailing belief.

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
In fact, a new study of heroin traffic in Detroit has concluded that the tighter the heroin market, the
more likely you will become a victim of a robbery or a burglary by an addict in need of a fix.

The study, which is to be released in a week by the privately funded Drug Abuse Council, is in the
hands of Detroit officials. But it has implications beyond Detroit. It supplies the first substantial
statistical evidence challenging the conventional assumption that law enforcement campaigns to
reduce the supplies of heroin will lead to a reduction of crime.

‘If the price of a bag of street heroin increased from $7 to $9 in any given month,’ the Drug Abuse
Council said, ‘the number of revenues raising crimes which occurred at the rate of about 11,000 a
month would increase to almost 12,000 a month because of heroin alone.’

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
a) Identify the parts of the system, and the attributes and properties of each part.

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
b) Identify the connections among the parts of the system

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
b) Identify the connections among the parts of the system

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
c) Identify the boundary of the system

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
d) Identify possible sub-systems, the inputs and outputs of each sub-system

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
e) Connect the sub-systems to form the parent system, and identify inputs and
outputs of the system

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
f) Classify the system and its sub-systems based on the characteristics of the inputs
and outputs identified

Sample Answer:

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 Q3 – Definition and Composition of a System
g) Identify the stakeholders of the system

Sample Answer:

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 Assignment #1
Similar as the “heroin supply” case discussed in Tutorial 1, identify a real-life system problem with
your team and provide the following information. (Total 100 marks)
1) What is the system problem? (10 marks)
2) Why is the identified system problem significant to study? (10 marks)
3) Which laws of systems thinking can be applied to explain the system problems? (10 marks)
4) Identify the parts of the system, and the attributes and properties of each part. (10 marks)
5) Identify the connections among the parts of the system. (10 marks)
6) Identify the boundary of the system. (10 marks)
7) Identify possible sub-systems, the inputs and outputs of each sub-system. (10 marks)
8) Connect the sub-systems to form the parent system, and identify inputs and outputs of the
system. (10 marks)
9) Classify the system and its sub-systems based on the characteristics of the inputs and
outputs identified. (10 marks)
10) Identify the stakeholders of the system. (10 marks)
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 Simple Rubrics for Assignment Grading
For each assignment question, the marks will be given based on following criteria.

10 All Correct with Clear and

9 Concise Elaboration
8 All Correct
7
6 Partially Correct
5
4 Completed
3
2 Attempted
1
0 Not attempted
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THANK YOU
The preparation of this module has been made possible by the
support from IE2141 teaching team, and the past teaching
materials developed by A/Prof. Aaron Chia.

IE2141 Systems Thinking and Dynamics – ISEM Department, National University of Singapore 58