Integration of operations in process systems: Complexity and emergent properties

Abstract

The problem of system Integration in the context of an Industrial Enterprise is a multidimensional problem with fundamental dimensions those of: (i) Purpose, goals and objectives, (ii) Overall process operations, (ii) Overall System Design/Redesign, (iii) Information, Data and Software, and (iv) Verification, validation and assurance. Each of the above areas is addressed by respective groups which consider their area as representing the entirety of the problem and they frequently ignore the other important dimensions. The aim of this paper is to consider first the general problem of integration from all its fundamental aspects and focus on the key paradigm of Global Operations. Within this area we consider the issues of system organization and in particular the problems relating to hierarchical organization of the different operational functionalities, the issues of aggregation and disaggregation and the related problems of the “top-down” and “bottom up” approaches. System complexity is considered within this framework and the notion of emergent properties is then considered as a problem of aggregation of behaviours, which may be also seen as projections within the setup of a control and information architecture. Such an architecture is defined for the multi-level hierarchical organisational structure that we consider. We show that systems and control concepts and problems play a central role the development of an overall integration methodology and interpreting the features of the different emergent properties. The subject of modelling emerges with a central role in the effort to develop a methodology for systems integration, as well as quantifying the predictors of relevant emergent properties. The approach introduced here is intimately linked to Multilevel hybrid systems (Hierarchy of Operations), and provides a complementary dimension to issues of System Design (and Re-design) dominated by the theory of Structure Evolving systems [10] (in the total Design and Life-cycle analysis) emerges as the central approach. This paper provides an overview of the subject area and focuses on the development of the general conceptual framework for integration. We additionally develop and propose a systems framework for the evolutionary integration in this paper.