Optimal verification strategies in multi‐firm projects

IF 1.6 3区工程技术 Q4 ENGINEERING, INDUSTRIAL

Systems Engineering Pub Date : 2022-02-22 DOI:10.1002/sys.21615

Aditya U. Kulkarni, A. Salado, Christian Wernz

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Verification activities are intended to reduce the costs of system development by identifying design errors before deploying the system. However, subcontractors in multifirm projects are motivated to implement locally cost‐effective verification strategies over verification strategies that benefit the main contractor. Incentivizing verification activities is one mechanism by which the contractor can motivate subcontractors to implement verification strategies desirable to the contractor. Prior work on mathematical models of verification in systems engineering has neither explored optimal verification strategies nor incentives in multi‐firm projects. In this paper, we present a modeling concept for determining optimal verification strategies in multi‐firm projects. Our models are belief‐based, which means that contractors and subcontractors incorporate their at times limited knowledge about true verification state through a probabilistic assessment of possible states. We develop an initial two‐level model, where one contractor directly works with multiple subcontractors at the next lower level. This model is then extended to a general network model with multiple, multilevel contractor‐subcontractor relationship. We derive solution algorithms that characterize the optimal verification strategies and incentives for each of the firms. Our work contributes to the systems engineering literature by laying the foundation for the study of incentives as a mechanism to align verification activities in multi‐firm systems engineering projects.

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多公司项目的最优验证策略

验证活动旨在通过在部署系统之前识别设计错误来减少系统开发的成本。然而，多公司项目中的分包商更倾向于实施本地成本效益的验证策略，而不是有利于主承包商的验证策略。激励验证活动是一种机制，通过这种机制，承包商可以激励分包商实施承包商所希望的验证策略。先前关于系统工程中验证数学模型的工作既没有探索多公司项目中的最佳验证策略，也没有探索激励机制。在本文中，我们提出了一个模型概念，用于确定多公司项目的最优验证策略。我们的模型是基于信念的，这意味着承包商和分包商通过对可能状态的概率评估来整合他们有时有限的关于真实验证状态的知识。我们开发了一个初始的两层模型，其中一个承包商直接与下一层的多个分包商合作。然后将该模型扩展为具有多个、多层次承包商-分包商关系的一般网络模型。我们推导了求解算法，描述了每个公司的最优验证策略和激励。我们的工作通过为激励机制的研究奠定基础，从而为多公司系统工程项目中的验证活动奠定基础，从而为系统工程文献做出了贡献。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Systems Engineering 工程技术-工程：工业

CiteScore

5.10

自引率

20.00%

发文量

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Systems Engineering is a discipline whose responsibility it is to create and operate technologically enabled systems that satisfy stakeholder needs throughout their life cycle. Systems engineers reduce ambiguity by clearly defining stakeholder needs and customer requirements, they focus creativity by developing a system’s architecture and design and they manage the system’s complexity over time. Considerations taken into account by systems engineers include, among others, quality, cost and schedule, risk and opportunity under uncertainty, manufacturing and realization, performance and safety during operations, training and support, as well as disposal and recycling at the end of life. The journal welcomes original submissions in the field of Systems Engineering as defined above, but also encourages contributions that take an even broader perspective including the design and operation of systems-of-systems, the application of Systems Engineering to enterprises and complex socio-technical systems, the identification, selection and development of systems engineers as well as the evolution of systems and systems-of-systems over their entire lifecycle. Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a coordinated team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to realization to operation. Increasingly important topics in Systems Engineering include the role of executable languages and models of systems, the concurrent use of physical and virtual prototyping, as well as the deployment of agile processes. Systems Engineering considers both the business and the technical needs of all stakeholders with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs. Systems Engineering may be applied not only to products and services in the private sector but also to public infrastructures and socio-technical systems whose precise boundaries are often challenging to define.