A methodology for identifying flexible design opportunities in large‐scale systems

Abstract

Despite many uncertainties, industrial fields such as energy (eg, oil rigs), utilities infrastructure (eg, telecommunications), space systems, transportation systems, construction, and manufacturing make large and mostly irreversible investments in systems with potentially long life cycles. The life cycle value of such systems may be increased significantly by designing in the flexibility to make future changes. This paper presents a systematic methodology for designers to identify flexible design opportunities (FDOs) more comprehensively and earlier in the system design process. The methodology guides designers to generate flexible design concepts that can be assessed, selected, and integrated into a design during an early stage of the design process. We demonstrate and validate the FDO methodology on a case in the offshore drilling industry.

Incorporating changeability for value-robust product-service systems: an integrative review

“…The possibility of external changes during the operational phase introduces many uncertainties in the design decision-making process (Ross et al 2008; Gaspar et al 2012; Allaverdi & Browning 2020). In this case, uncertainty can be defined as “ things that are not known, or known only imprecisely ” (McManus & Hastings 2005, p. 2).…”

“…For example, change absorbers, as additional resilient objects (Panarotto et al 2023), are special kinds of margins incorporated to mitigate change propagation. Such objects are typically called “enablers” when exercising a change option (Cardin 2013; Allaverdi & Browning 2020). Enablers need not necessarily be components; they can also be attributes, such as modularity, that support changeability.…”

The Need for Systems Awareness to Support Early-Phase Decision-Making—A Study from the Norwegian Energy Industry

“…Allaverdi et al concentrate on the lack of focus on the usage context during the early phase [27], stating that this combined with a highly regulated environment leads to a more risk-averse industry that "endorses system designs that primarily fulfill their initial requirements with limited anticipation and embedment of properties into the system that have long-term value." They propose a Flexible Design Opportunities (FDO) methodology to systematically and comprehensively account for uncertainty in the early stage of the design process [7].…”

“…In such industries, where the end-user is not directly involved in the development, operational requirements and life cycle considerations often have lower priority than minimizing initial capital expenditures. However, understanding the interactions of all products, systems, and services is key to developing systems that operate as intended [7]. Architecting and designing good constituent systems requires awareness of the context in which they operate and understanding of the system's role in a larger capability [8].…”