Vortrag: Tag des Systems Engineering 2013, 08. November 2013, Stuttgart (Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg)
Most product development processes are based on technology platforms that already exist e.g. automobiles, planes, cell phones or television. They have evolved over time, with design efforts spanning over years, decades or even centuries. The functional architecture of these technology platforms remain almost constant in contrast to their actual technical implementation.
The engineering knowledge about these technology platforms are often distributed in textbooks, scientific papers, company-internal knowledge bases, PLM systems, or even just as practical know how in the minds of engineers. Nowadays, in the age of increasing complexity, globalization and ever-increasing market pressure, it is crucial to grant timely access to such knowledge to all relevant stakeholders.
In this paper, we introduce the term base architecture and state that it represents the fundamental knowledge of a system’s architecture for a certain technology platform. In addition, we demonstrate that a model-based approach with OMG SysML™ may be an appropriate, stable and reusable representation of such a base architecture. Furthermore, we show a way how a user-oriented functional architecture generated using the FAS method, may be combined with the platform-specific base architecture.