Systems Engineering
From its origins in early telephone laboratories in the 1940s to the latest space travel programmes, systems engineering is a skill that manages and enables the efficient and effective integration of multiple diverse specialist skills within controlled processes, to realise successful outcomes in complex projects.
DCA was originally founded to be one of the first multidisciplinary product development consultancies and a multidisciplinary philosophy remains the cornerstone of our approach to product design and development. We have had systems engineering at the core of our work for over 60 years. It’s inherent in how we think.
Our highly experienced team of Skill Leaders, Project Managers and Sector Managers provide system level integration plans and strategies to combine all the relevant skill sets required for the successful delivery of everything from large scale transportation projects to next generation smart drug delivery devices or consumer products. For us, system engineering is at the heart of every project.
Structured and agile development processes
Developed and proven through many hundreds of projects, our processes, methods and tools for multidisciplinary product development have been honed to create effective and efficient working practices. Structured around the requirements of ISO 9001 and ISO 13485, our development approach can be seen to closely match the systems engineering standards of ISO 15288 and ISO 12207.
Our core procedures are extended to cover medical device development, where specific procedures have been matched to the system engineering standards in IEC 60601-1 (for medical electrical equipment), IEC 62304 (for medical device software) and GAMP 5 (for computerised systems).
All of our procedures are written with the flexibility to be able to work alongside and within the needs of your own quality systems.
We have every facet of development covered
Our in-house specialists can provide experience and expertise in the full range of skills required to deliver challenging multidisciplinary systems-based development projects.
Being able to combine all these skills within our development teams allows us to work efficiently and effectively on the development of such systems, whatever their complexity. We bring these skills together to create system architectures that balance and integrate all the necessary disciplines. We then collaborate continuously throughout the development of the resulting systems without the barriers that traditionally exist between different skills.
Providing all the core skillsets internally means we can work in a lean and agile manner, with no need to create the additional interface specifications and documents that would be needed to engage with external third parties.
Requirements capture for complex systems
As products become smarter and more connected, they are increasingly required to integrate with and perform as part of a wider system.
Gaining a deep understanding of the requirements that must be met and the problems and opportunities that need to be addressed is the foundation for successful systems engineering. Our design researchers have a wealth of tools and experience to help us identify and capture a complete and meaningful set of system requirements.
Safety and risk management
At the outset of a design programme a number of alternative system architecture options may be possible.
A comprehensive, systematic approach to predicting potentially hazardous situations that might occur within a complex system, including determining where user mistakes could be made, is imperative to achieving high safety levels and low error frequency.
Typically, a task analysis forms the basis of risk and error identification. These can then be prioritised, based on their severity, likelihood and the ease with which they could be detected, and concepts for their elimination, prevention or mitigation can be developed.
Future technologies
In the fast-moving world of technology advancements, we can assemble experienced multi-disciplinary teams to identify and investigate technologies that have the potential to deliver commercially valuable innovation for our clients.
In so doing, we are able to deploy these technologies to create innovative solutions to the complex real-world problems that our clients regularly face in their markets.
