What are The Benefits of Model-Based System Engineering?

MBSE is a modern approach to basic system engineering that gained massive popularity in the last few years, mainly because it has many key benefits over other traditional approaches. MBSE is an approach that specializes in models to analyze different complex systems. 

You may ask - what is a model? Well, a model is an abstract representation of a system that captures all the details, behaviors, and main interactions of the system itself. You can use these models to analyze your system tendencies, evaluate unique design options, and recognize issues, all within the very first stages of planning the system. So, how are these benefits come to hand when it comes to basic system operation? During this article, we decided to explain to you everything you need to know to gain some insights about model-based system engineering.

So, What Are the MBSE Benefits?

•  Improved Communication and Collaboration - MBSE's advantages include offering its users a standardized visual language that can bridge everything related to communication gaps between different teams in a way that helps significantly improve Communication and Collaboration in the workspace. For instance, engineers can use MBSE to create models that are meant to highlight everything related to the interactions between various components of a certain aircraft. In that way, you can get extraordinary and effective communication between all the teams involved in the process, ensuring everything will be done accordingly. 
•  Risk Mitigation - Through simulation and modeling, the usage of model-based system engineering comes in very handy when it comes to identifying potential risks while also gaining insights into their impact on the system. Identifying risks early is essential for successfully operating a system, mainly because by knowing all the potential risks ahead you could easily re-adjust your system in a way meant to prevent those risks and their impact on your system, and by doing so, you can improve your system significantly. As an example, a space agency that uses MBSE could simulate the trajectory of a certain spacecraft while evaluating the effects of various scenarios, minimizing the risk of mission failure using the insights gained to improve the spacecraft system in a way that will prevent future failures.
•  Maintenance - MBSE models are being continually updated if the systems evolve. As systems continue to evolve, MBSE models can be adjusted accordingly. This adaptability means that the model will remain relevant and useful for maintaining the system and even upgrading it for an exceptionally extended period, making employing MBSE a great solution when it comes to Long-Term Maintenance.
•  Reusability - MBSE helps with the creation process of reusable components and templates. Model-based system engineering encourages creating standard building blocks that can be reused in multiple projects and a variety of scenarios, saving the different companies who employ MBSE precious resources such as time and effort. Just like the pieces of a puzzle, these components all fit together in various configurations that help with maximum reusability. For instance, you can imagine a software company that needs to create reusable modules for authentication, user profiles, or payment processing. These modules can be re-used across many different projects in a way that's saving the development team a lot of time and energy so they can focus on their next missions with ease.
•  Verification and Validation support - Employing MBSE enables testing through different simulations. These tests help ensure that the system is operating and behave as intended in a way that meets its requirements. By identifying issues early, MBSE helps tremendously with getting a reliable and perfected product. 

How to employ Model-Based System Engineering?

Nowadays, there are a lot of different MBSE tools which a lot of different companies can use to constantly improve. For this reason, it is especially important to do examinations that are meant to help you evaluate the different options to choose the best options for your company's requirements. While you do so, it is recommended to take into conclusion the complexity of all the different systems that are in the early development stages and the size of the design team. Once you choose the MBSE tool that would be suitable for your company, it is especially important to instruct your design team that it's going to use this tool, to ensure the team will use it as effectively as possible. The instruction can be general and mostly train the team about the various principles of model-based system engineering, while you could also guide your team about the specific MBSE tool and the diverse ways they are going to use it to improve the overall function and productivity.

In conclusion

Employing Model-based system engineering can help improve your company function in a variety of ways, such as minimizing risks and errors to create the perfect product while also improving the communication and collaboration of all teams involved in the process. However, to benefit from all those amazing advantages of mbse, you need to choose the specific tool that will fit your company the most. After you choose your MBSE tool, it is also essential to guide your design team on its usage to make sure they know how to employ it correctly. By guiding your design team and providing them the right instructions, there’s no limit to the benefits and improvements your company will experience.

Do you need help developing complex systems? We invite you to read more about ptg and the services we offer to organizations here.