Systems Integration Initiative

The projects

Note that there is also a quick-reference table of projects

 

From the first call:

SI1-04: Complexity in the Supply Chain

Academic team: Frizelle,Cambridge; Efstathiou, Oxford
Idea: the presence of complexity inhibits systems integration. Supply chains are an important example. Measuring the sources of complexity can highlight problem areas leading to improved integration.
Project abstract

SI1-05: DOMAIN: Dynamic Operations Management Across the InterNet

Academic team: Kehoe, Liverpool
Idea: from supply chain to supply web
Project abstract

SI1-06: MAPPSEE: Managing Asynchronous Product and Process Structures in the Extended Enterprise

Academic team: Boardman, De Montfort, de Pennington et al, Leeds
Idea: '3D Concurrent Engineering' for the aerospace industry
Project abstract

SI1-07: COMPANION: Common Model for Partners in Automation

Academic team: Harrison, Weston, Loughborough
Idea: development of a distributed engineering environment based on a component based model of manufacturing equipment design
Project abstract

SI1-21: PiCSI: Process Control Systems Integration

Academic team: Hope, Bangor; Fleming et al, Sheffield; Wellstead et al, UMIST
Idea: *Really* distributed Distributed Process Control
Project abstract

 

From the second call:

SI2-03: AMASE: Advanced Multi-Agency Service Environments

Academic team: McLoughlin, School of Management; Dobson, Dept. of Computing Science & Corford, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, Newcastle
Idea: the notion of 'brokerage' of services to inform the design of service architectures, so as to facilitate the integration of the information systems required for 'joined up services'
Project abstract

SI2-04: Mass Customisation for Manufacturing Enterprises: Fundamental Science, Strategic Decision Making and Systems Design

Academic team: MacCarthy, Notingham & Efstathiou, Oxford
Idea: to enable companies to choose the most appropriate customisation strategies and to aid the design of operational systems
Project abstract

SI2-05: SIMP (Systems Integration for Major Projects)

Academic team: Maiden, City; Fenton, QMW & Sutcliffe, UMIST
Idea: to investigate whether Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs), coupling analysis and scenario analysis can help with risk, uncertainty and requirements conformance management in major projects.
Project abstract

SI2-06: MASTERING SERVICE CAPABILITIES IN COMPLEX PRODUCT SYSTEMS

Academic team: Hobday & Gann, SPRU, Sussex University; Rush, CENTRIM, Brighton University
Idea: to develop and validate a capability model to enable businesses to position themselves in the process of moving from delivery of products to integrated product and service delivery
Project abstract

SI2-10: Managing New Product Development as a Complex System of Decisions

Academic team: McCarthy, Warwick University; Allen, Cranfield University
Idea: to understand how the NPD process operates as a complex adaptive system of decisions, and to provide support so this 'system' may operate more effectively
Project abstract

SI2-15: Evolution of Spacecraft Manufacture by Vertically Integrated Systems for Bill of Materials Interpretation

Academic team: Maropoulos, Durham University; Ristic, Imperial College
Idea: to try to achieve the benefits of flexible and lean manufacturing for short-run complex products
Project abstract

SI2-20: DIMS: Dynamically Integrated Manufacturing Systems for Agile Manufacturing

Academic team: Zhang, Exeter
Idea: Autonomous Agent Network (AAN) to provide the basic infrastructure of an integrated decision platform to manage the operation and reconfiguration of complex manufacturing systems
Project abstract

SI2-21: USING KNOWLEDGE OF ACCIDENT CAUSATION TO MITIGATE DESIGNERS' AND OPERATORS' MUTUAL MISCONCEPTIONS

Academic team: Chung, Loughborough & Busby, Cranfield
Idea: to find a new way to integrate design and operation processes so as to avoid mutual misconceptions which lead to safety problems
Project abstract

SI2-22: RICES: Reasoning About Information Consistency Across Enterprise Solutions

Academic team: Henderson, University of Southampton
This was a feasibility study, which has been followed by a three-year project - see SI4-14 below.

SI2-30: SITE: Semantic Integration Environment

Academic team: Paul & Macredie, Brunel
Idea: the dynamic ‘jigsaw puzzle’ - might flexible information systems, driven by the dynamic needs of business, be achieved using a component-based approach to development?
Project abstract

 

From part one of the third call ..

SI3-02: Reducing rework through decision management

Academic team: Sommerville & Hughes, Lancaster; Alderson, Stafford
Idea: analysis of the whole complex of decisions made during the life of a system to inform the choice of architectures which support better the integration of systems as our requirements and our understanding of the requirements for those systems evolve
Project abstract (not yet available, but web site at: www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/research/cseg/projects/tracker )

SI3-04: Using Problem-domain Architectural Modelling to Understand System Evolution (Feasibility Study)

Academic team: Addis, Portsmouth; Galal, Middlesex
Idea: architectural analysis of application domains so as to reveal structural features which are not revealed by conventional ‘requirements engineering’
Project abstract

SI3-06: Bio-Robotic Walking Orthoses – Phase 1

Academic team: Virk, Portsmouth; Allen, Southampton
Idea: while grounded in the specific technological problems of walking robots, the work will explore the more generalised isssue of modularity and specifically the approach of the CLAWAR network
Project abstract

SI3-07: PISCES: Product Innovation in Supply Chains using Enterprise Systemics (Network)

Academic team: Boardman, DMU
Idea: a network which does much more than simply connect a set of researchers in seeking to make strong connections between researchers and industry through specific mechanisms such as case studies, building upon research, further research collaborations, and migration of research into practice.
Project flier (20KB, PDF) and www.elipsis.com/pisces

 

From part two of the third call ..

SI4-02: Railway Vehicle and Track System Integration

Academic team: Madelin,Birmingham & Iwnicki, Manchester Metropolitan Univ
Idea: to understand the interaction between the various components, dynamics, and design and maintenance factors which affect rails and rail vehicles. This entails integration of models and information across organisational and disciplinary boundaries.
Project abstract

SI4-03: Bc-Asp: Assessing the Deployment, Hosting and Integration of Business-Critical Information Systems By Application Service Providers

Academic team: Currie, Brunel
Idea: to overcome inhibitions to development of the 'supply mesh' for systems integration (see ‘Systems Integration 2005’.) by facilitating the Application Service Provision market. The intention is to use a ‘risk assessment framework’ as a basis for understanding the structure of the market and for devising an appropriate strategy for ASP - particularly for suppliers to that market.
(Project abstract not yet available)

SI4-05: Integrated Systems For Retail Company Management Strategy: a Feasibility Study of Demand-Led Aspects

Academic team: Allen, Cranfield & Longley, UCL
Idea: to support organisational strategy by modelling organisations as collections of systems operating within and interacting with the complex set of systems comprising its environment. The focus for the project is the retail sector, but the approach will be generic.
(Project abstract not yet available)

SI4-06: Assessing the Strategic Supply Chain Positioning of a Manufacturing Organisation: a Feasibility study

Academic team: Baines, Cranfield & Hamblin, Luton
Idea: to help ‘middle tier’ suppliers with strategic supply chain positioning by ‘Competitive Space’ modelling and representation of the options available to an organisation.
(Project abstract not yet available)

SI4-07: Feasibility of Using the TRIZ Concept In Process Model For Workflow Implementation

Academic team: Fan, Cranfield
Idea: to determine whether the TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) approach, which has been applied with some success to product engineering, might be applied to business process modelling. The ambition is to devise process models, appropriate for greater automation - tighter integration - yet more acceptable to the people involved in the processes and therefore likely to be more successful in operation.
Project abstract

SI4-10: Semiotic Enterprise Design for IT Applications (SEDITA)

Academic team: Liu, Alderson & Sun, Staffordshire University
Idea: to model organisations as information systems, using an approach based upon organisational semiotics, as the basis for deduction of appropriate IT systems to support the organiasiton.
Project abstract

SI4-11: Managing Change and Dependency In Construction Projects

Academic team: Sun, Salford & Anumba, Loughborough University
Idea: to support better integration of construction processes through better integration of decision-making across the complex of organisations involved in construction projects.
Project abstract

SI4-14: RICES: Reasoning About Information Consistency Across Enterprise Solutions

Academic team: Henderson, University of Southampton
Idea: with everything connected to everything else in the coming information age, and with errors and temporal delays, the totality of information, even within subsystems, will almost inevitably contain inconsistencies. The intention is to establish a combination of an architecture for ‘Enterprise Application Integration’, ‘inconsistency-tolerant components’, and an approach to reasoning about consistency across a large-scale system. (This is a three-year project, following a successful one-year feasibility study.)
Project abstract

SI4-18: COPE: An investigation into the 'Decomposition-integration' problem in complex product development programmes

Academic team: Guenov, Cranfield University
Idea: that an approach to design decomposition drawing on ‘axiomatic design’ might ameliorate the problem that design decomposition, at least for military systems, is frequently driven by factors which inhibit achievement of the flexible, integrable, affordable systems which we seek.
Project abstract

SI4-19: Enabling the integration of diverse socio-cultural and technical systems within a turbulent social ecosystem

Academic team: Mitleton-Kelly, LSE
Idea: the ‘complexity community’ has modelled and analysed many natural and artificial complex systems leading to a much greater appreciation in recent years of the ‘modalities ‘ of complex systems. The aim here is to apply approaches based on such ‘complexity’ thinking in an industrial and commercial environment so as to guide organisational integration, and particularly reintegration arising from significant structural change.
Project abstract

 

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