Organizational Simulation for Model Based Systems Engineering

Organizations creating complex systems often have hierarchical team networks; this structure affects system performance because some teams have greater influence over dimensions of parts produced by other teams. Dimensional interdependencies among components produce ripple-effects; examples include load paths and thermal flows. Simulating such phenomena requires finite element and computational fluid dynamics models. Characteristics, like weight, cost, and reliability can be calculated for parts and summed to accumulate or roll-up the values at subsystem and system levels. This paper describes multi-agent models and simulations of an organization developing a complex system. One model determined that NetLogo can generate a hierarchical model of thousands of highly interconnected teams. A second model accumulates weights and reliabilities of components with some accretion at each level of integration and generates a system level weight and reliability. A simulation generates part dimensions based on team interaction. A second simulation uses a finite element model to demonstrate temperature gradients of parts and agents moving through the structure to transfer heat among the parts. Simulating physical characteristics in an organizational simulation enables an analyst to demonstrate how different organizational structures affect the system performance. NetLogo proved to be a powerful development environment for organizational and system simulations. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B. V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Georgia Institute of Technology