SYSTEMS-ENGINEERING IN THE GROWING SERVICE ECONOMY

The focus of this paper is not new. Certainly, systems engineers have worked on service-related problems, including those arising in finance, health, education, government, food, trade, retail, wholesale, telecommunications, entertainment, and transportation. What is new-and critical-is the growing importance and complexity of services and the systems within which they operate. What is new-and exciting-is a set of new and evolving technologies which will enable us to practice our systems engineering trade with greater effectiveness and impact. What is new-and challenging-is the service-related issues that are amenable to our systems engineering approach. These are the issues considered in this paper.