49004 Systems Engineering for Managers

Learning Material Exercises (RME)

The RME assessments mainly comprise exercises from the subject Study
Guide. There may be some questions in addition to those in the Study Guide.
The exercises are repeated/listed below. They require you to read the material
indicated in the topic study guides. The exercises are to be completed and
submitted as indicated in the General RME Instructions available in the
Assessments Folder in UTS Online. They are due via UTSOnline BEFORE
5pm of the day nominated below in the Program in the Subject Outline,
unless otherwise advised via UTSOnline Announcements. The link to
submit your responses will no longer be available after 5pm of the due date.
DO NOT EMAIL your responses or use other assignment links to submit
them.
Each RME will be marked out of 3 marks, and your total marks for all the
RME will be scaled to 10%, which is the component of the subject marks
allocated to this assessment item.

RME 1:
1.

System boundaries do not exist in reality. True or false? Justify your

answer. (No more than 50 words)

2.

In bullet point form list what you understand to be the key concepts of
systems thinking

3.

Everything is a system. True or false? Explain. (No more than 80

words)

4.

What is the significance of the distinction between an entity, a referent

and a representation as discussed in the Myers and Kaposi reading? (No
more than 50 words)

Due: See Subject Outline

RME 2:

Part A: Soft Systems Methodology:

1. Why is a study of soft systems approaches appropriate to Engineering or
Project Managers? (No more than 50 words)
2.

Given the following root definition, perform a CATWOE analysis and

indicate the elements (i.e. customers, owners etc.):

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Within the university guidelines, a student union operated student

support system that ensures that new students to the university get
appropriate orientation to university life, facilities and study.
3.

Engineering Change Request (ECR) is a mechanism used by

engineers and clients on a project to request changes to be made to
agreed to requirements, approved designs or approved processes. The
configuration management system accepts the ECR, analyses it for
completeness, correctness and validity. The system classifies each ECR
as change class 1, 2 or 3. Each request is then forwarded for approval
to the appropriate authority for authorization or rejection of the ECR of
that class. The system tracks the ECR to ensure that the request is
processed in the specified timeframe, which can be altered by the
Project director. Once the decision has been reached, the system
notifies the requester, and closes the ECR. Construct an SSM type
conceptual model for this system.

Due: See Subject Outline

Part B: System Dynamics:
A sales manager wishes to ensure that she has enough inventory to cover 10
days worth of sales. Inventories are stocked by ordering from the vendors,
who take 5 days from receipt of order to deliver. Inventories decrease
through sales. The manager monitors the sales (perceived sales). Higher
sales mean higher perceived sales. If sales increase, then the inventories
deplete faster, and need to be replenished to maintain the desired level of
stock. The manager does not react to every sales surge, but waits for 3 days to
see if the there is a trend to higher sales. This is called perception delay.
Neither does she order all the required stock in one go, but only orders one-
third of the shortfall at a time, so that she can be sure of the trend.
Your tasks:
n Construct a Causal loop diagram for the situation.
n Construct a corresponding stock and flow diagram.
n Formulate relevant equations that you will need for simulating
the behaviour of the system.
n Identify what type of behaviour is exhibited by this system.




Due: See Subject Outline


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RME 3:
1.

What does system life-cycle thinking add to engineering as currently

practiced? What are the expected benefits to be gained from such
thinking? (Refer textbook chapter 2.)

2.

Textbook Chapter 4 Problems 23, 26

3.

Textbook Chapter 3 Problems 4,15

4.
Study Guide Topic 3.2, Exercise 1

Due: See Subject Outline

RME 4:
1.
2.

Textbook Chapter 12 Problems 5.

A decision needs to be made whether to buy two, three or four diesel
generators for the power system of an oil platform. Each generator will
normally be working and can supply up to 50% of the total power
demand. The reliability of an individual generator may be specified by a
constant failure rate of 0.21 per year. The generators are to be
simultaneously tested and proved at six-monthly intervals.
(i) If the required system reliability is to be at least 0.99, how many
generators must be bought?
(ii) Calculate the MTTF for the chosen system.

Useful formulae:

3.

eaxdx = (1/a) eax

!
MTTF = !

A system is made up of a temperature sensor (T), a humidity sensor (H),

a pressure sensor (P), a processor (Proc), a display unit (Disp) and an
audible alarm unit (Audio). The processor processes inputs from the
sensors and provides visual and audible outputs for system users. The
system finds application in various situations. Three such applications
are as follows:
a. An application where the system must provide either an audible
or visual indication from at least one of the sensors.
b. An application where both types of outputs are required from
all the sensors.

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c. A system where at least one sensor output is required. The

output must be both auditory and visual.
Construct System Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) for each of these
applications. Are the RBDs different? Using appropriate notation
derive expressions for the System Reliability in each case. What general
conclusion can you draw from this exercise regarding the construction
of RBDs?
4. Textbook Chapter 13 Problem 8 and Problem 25.

Due: See Subject Outline

RME 5

1. Why is there an emphasis on Trade Study in Systems Engineering?

2. Relate the notion of models discussed in class to the concept of
representation discussed in the reading by Myers and Kaposi.

3. You have been appointed the systems engineering manager on a project.
List some of the items that you would be concerned with in this role?
List some of the key risks that you would focus on?
Due: See Subject Outline


Relevant Topics:

For your convenience the relevant topic indicated in the Study Guide for each
RME assignment is repeated below:

RME # Study Guide Topic
1
1.1
2
2.1 and 2.2
3
3.1A and 3.1B
4
3.3
5
3.4 3.6

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