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The field of
engineering is changing rapidly. Systems and product complexity are increasing
at an accelerating pace, as are the complexities of operating in an environment
where technical, natural, and social systems increasingly intersect. In
addition, the world faces unprecedented social concerns in an expanding global
marketplace. Systems and products today must be environmentally benign and
health-protective, and in some cases must even meet baseline aesthetic standards
in order to avoid legal, political, and other barriers to success in the
marketplace. This requires an integrative approach in which engineering
professionals view the technological components as part of a larger engineering
system.
In response to
the changing design environment, some universities have developed systems-based
programs. MIT has been in the vanguard of this effort with a wide range of
systems-related initiatives in education and research. Five master's-level
interdisciplinary educational programs at the Institute are serving over 400
students today. These educational programs include Leaders for Manufacturing
(LFM), System Design and Management (SDM), Technology and Policy Program (TPP),
Master of Science in Transportation (MST), and Master of Engineering in
Logistics (MLOG)).
Several research
centers have also been active in focusing on engineering systems problems. They
are the Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD), Center for
Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID), Center for Transportation
Studies (CTS), and Industrial Performance Center (IPC)). These centers are
interdisciplinary, involving faculty from engineering, management, and the
social sciences.
The Engineering
Systems Division (ESD), created in December 1998, brings together these academic
programs and research centers to facilitate cooperation among the participating
faculty. ESD provides an intellectual home and institutional framework for the
faculty to "go the next step," building upon the successful programs already
developed.
ESD's mission is
to establish engineering systems as a field of study focusing on complex systems
and products, where these systems and products are viewed in their broad social
and industrial context, and to use the new knowledge gained to improve
engineering education and practice.
Motivation for
the Division
Industry has
recognized the need to respond to the aforementioned new design and competitive
factors and to have all of them considered in achieving design solutions. It is
useful to look at these factors more closely in order to fully understand and
appreciate the need for a more integrative approach in which engineering
professionals view the technological components as part of a larger engineering
system.
As an example of
the broadened perspective of engineering systems, consider how changes in
automotive design have motivated new educational and research initiatives at
MIT. The automobile, once considered a technologically mature product, is now
influenced by new technology, including lightweight materials; "smart"
electronic components, and alternative propulsion systems to the internal
combustion engine. The globalization of the automobile industry has caused
locational shifts of both design and manufacturing facilities from a national to
international context. Concerns such as quality, management of human resources,
and time-to-market have motivated fundamental changes in automotive product
development, manufacturing, and supply-chain design. And new approaches such as
just-in-time inventory control, integrated product development teams, and lean
production techniques have reshaped companies' automobile production processes,
while social concerns such as air pollution, recycling of materials, global
warming, and safety also have had a major impact on auto design and production.
Furthermore,
design and manufacturing are only part of the automotive system. Government
policies determine the role of automobiles in providing personal mobility,
ensure automotive safety, and affect the impact of automobiles on the
environment and urban development. The formation of these policies requires not
only technical expertise but also an understanding of institutions, human
behavioral responses and other non-technical considerations.
These changes in
automotive systems have served as an impetus for the development, over the
years, of many new MIT educational and research programs sponsored by automotive
companies. GM, Ford, and Chrysler are members of LFM and GM and Ford are also
sponsors of CIPD. Ford has the largest number of students enrolled in SDM of any
company. Volkswagen is a sponsor of the CTS Supply Chain Management Program. All
the world's auto companies participate in the International Motor Vehicle
Program at CTPID. TPP offers a proseminar on the electric car as an automotive
system. CTPID has a global mobility program and CTS has an intelligent
transportation systems program and numerous other transportation research
projects.
Automotive
systems provide but one example of how MIT has developed new educational and
research programs that focus on complex engineering system problems. Increasing
complexity can also be found in many other systems (e.g., telecommunications
systems, energy systems, and aeronautical systems), which are the bases for
similar programs.
These programs
educate engineering systems professionals who view the technological system as
part of a larger whole. For them, the context in which the system operates is a
design variable rather than a constraint. Thus, they are concerned with
the design of the organization that has to manufacture the product, the
regulations and public policies governing its use and disposition, the marketing
of it, and the relationship with suppliers, distributors and other participants
in the value chain. From this perspective, the design process includes: the
physical attributes which are the domain of traditional engineering; the process
attributes, which are the domain of both engineers and managers; and the context
attributes which traditionally have been the domain of managers, governments,
and social scientists.
In spite of
numerous accomplishments over the past several years, both industry and the
academic community have been moving incrementally, largely independently, and
with no widely accepted strategic vision of engineering systems to guide them.
In the early stages of a major change in the practice of engineering, such
incrementalism makes sense. However, with the experience base developed to date,
the time is right for the first comprehensive effort to define the nature of
engineering systems, and to encourage both industry and the university community
to act on the resulting vision. Indeed, given the pace of change, the need for
such an effort grows more urgent day-by-day.
Such an
initiative represents a massive challenge. In the post-World War II era, MIT
revolutionized engineering by developing engineering science as a new and
broadly applicable approach in many engineering disciplines. The primary results
of this effort were the publication of a now classic engineering science
approach, and the impact of MIT graduates schooled in the new approach on
universities throughout the world.
The move to
engineering systems is expected to have similar impact; yet it also represents a
considerably more complex undertaking. To be truly effective, engineering
systems requires leaders who are well-versed in a range of areas beyond the
elements of the core engineering disciplines; these areas include management and
the relevant social sciences. These new educational and research programs
require different engineering approaches from those of the traditional
engineering science paradigm which has served as the driving force in the School
of Engineering during the past several decades. We need to develop an
integrative approach to engineering systems problems that considers the context
in which the systems are initiated, designed, manufactured, constructed,
implemented, and maintained.
What is the
Engineering Systems Division?
In response to
this need, ESD was first proposed by the Eagar Committee, which was appointed by
the Dean of Engineering in 1995 and chaired by Tom Eagar, Head of the Department
of Material Science and Engineering. The Committee concluded that to be a leader
in engineering education and research well into the next century, MIT required a
mix of faculty, staff and students involved in engineering systems. Moreover,
the Committee found that leadership in engineering education and research
requires that MIT have strengths in as well as a balance between both the
disciplinary aspects of engineering science as well as the integrative aspects
of engineering systems.
A survey of
Engineering School department heads and center directors conducted by the
Committee found the School of Engineering had only about half as many faculty
spending time on integrative activities in engineering systems as was needed.
These current engineering systems faculty were too few and too dispersed among
departments to form a critical mass. Additional faculty members in engineering
systems were needed to work with the existing limited faculty resources.
Furthermore, these faculty members needed an intellectual home for educational
and research programs in engineering systems. The Committee therefore
recommended in its August 1996 report the creation of a Division of Engineering
Systems within the School of Engineering and the appointment of an Associate
Dean of Engineering to head the Division.
ESD was described
in the Eagar Report as "an organizational unit with porous boundaries that would
cut across, and interact with, the eight engineering departments. An important
function of the division structure is preventing the isolation of faculty in
this area and the removal of valuable resources from existing departments that
might occur with a departmental structure."
In September
1997, Dean of Engineering Bob Brown appointed Daniel Roos as Associate Dean of
Engineering Systems and established the Engineering Systems Council and the
Extended Engineering Systems Council. The Engineering Systems Council consisted
of the heads of the interdisciplinary engineering systems academic programs and
research centers in the School of Engineering. The Extended Engineering Systems
Council was a group of approximately 30 faculty from organizations throughout
MIT who had an interest in engineering systems.
At the request of
Dean Brown, both Councils developed further the concepts of engineering systems
and an implementation plan that served as the basis for the Division's creation.
That plan was discussed by the Faculty Policy Committee and Academic Council, as
well as at the Institute Faculty meeting. The Executive Committee of the
Corporation subsequently approved it and ESD began operations on December 1,
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