About the Showcase

The MBSE Learning Journey Showcase is the one event that carries the practice of an MBSE methodology to the engineers behind every stage of the life cycle (concept, development, production, utilization, support, retirement), and above all to those working in concept, development and production.

Background

At the heart of MBSE is capturing the subject in the Abstract so as to give the implementation Freedom. Capture the system abstractly and integrate everything into a single model, from the market requirements that set the work in motion through to the design decisions, and engineers are then free to choose any concrete design that realises what has been decided in the abstract. Freedom of implementation arises from that cross-cutting process of deciding.

Abstraction gives more than freedom. A complex system expressed simply; simple enough to be understood, and understood well enough to be talked about. Abstraction and simplification build the ground on which people across departments and disciplines can hold the same conversation.

That is what takes waste and strain out of development work. Even so, its spread across Japan is still ahead of us. One reason is that there are few chances to meet an MBSE methodology in a form you can actually apply in your own work.

What follows is familiar: rework, and judgments that live only in one person’s head, become the normal state of things, and effort goes anywhere but into the work that creates value for the customer. A great many development teams stand in front of that same wall.

What is needed is a way to set out the grounds for a judgment so they can be shared, and checked for consistency, and to hold it to a standard where you can use it yourself, in real work, without leaning on tacit knowledge. The Showcase exists to open that door wide. It is a day for taking in the thinking behind the MBSE methodology, how it is approached, and what it does for you, through talks and conversation with people who do this work for real.

Its relationship to the study group

MBSE Learning Journey is an invitation-only study group for committed practitioners at private-sector manufacturers. Meeting mainly on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, on-site and online, it pursues hands-on learning and research with an MBSE methodology. The Showcase is a rare chance for people outside the study group to experience what goes on inside it.

Who it is for

People in the manufacturing industry doing real development work

• Interested in an MBSE methodology
• Have already touched MBSE at work but have felt nothing come of it
• Have not been able to turn the problems in front of them into concrete improvement

People in the manufacturing industry responsible for development processes and competence management

• Process owners (ISO 9001 / IATF 16949)
• Engineering process improvement teams
• Leaders responsible for competence management
• Assessors who carry out assessments and propose improvements

University students who intend to work in development in the manufacturing industry

• Mechanical engineering, mechanical systems engineering, intelligent mechanical engineering, precision engineering
• Mechatronics, robotics
• Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, electrical and electronic engineering
• Electronic and information engineering, information engineering, information and communication engineering
• Control engineering, systems and control engineering, systems design engineering, aerospace engineering

We have in mind engineers working in any stage of the life cycle as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 sets it out: concept, development, production, utilization, support, retirement.

We also have in mind those responsible not for the development itself but for its processes and for competence management. What an MBSE methodology sets out is not how to draw diagrams but how processes, work products and the competence each role needs are defined.

The Showcase is for people employed at an organization that develops or manufactures its own products or systems, engaged in the day-to-day work of development or production or responsible for its processes and competence management, and for university students who intend to work in development in the manufacturing industry. It is a place to bring the problems from your own floor and take something back. You do not need to be part of the study group, but please do not register if you have no direct connection to the manufacturing industry.

Registration requires your company name, department and current role (or your university, faculty and year of study if you are a student).

At a glance

For the date, venue and program of each edition, see Editions.