Uni Reading List
Index / 001 EN
Systems Engineering and Analysis cover

Engineering

Engineering

Systems Engineering and Analysis

Benjamin S. Blanchard; Wolter J. Fabrycky

A standard systems engineering textbook by Benjamin Blanchard and Wolter Fabrycky that treats systems engineering as a life-cycle discipline. It follows a system from need identification through conceptual, preliminary and detail design to test, operation and retirement, and supplies the quantitative tools, from decision and economic models to reliability and supportability analysis, used to evaluate design alternatives.

Prerequisites: Introductory engineering coursework, basic probability and statistics, and some exposure to engineering economics.

Difficulty Level
Intermediate
Academic Level
Undergraduate
systems engineeringlife-cycle engineeringdesign for reliabilitydecision analysisengineering managementTextbook

01 / Reading Guide

Reading Guide

Citation

Blanchard, B. S., & Fabrycky, W. J. (2010). Systems Engineering and Analysis (5th ed.). Pearson.

Chapter Summary

The fifth edition, which the authors call the thirtieth-anniversary edition, has 19 chapters in five parts plus a sixth part of eight appendices, in close to 800 pages. The preface states the book's two concerns: the engineering of human-made systems, following the process of bringing a system into being from the identification of a need to disposal, and systems analysis, the improvement of systems already in being. Analysis models and methods are embedded in the systems engineering process, which is the book's overarching theme. Every chapter ends with a "Summary and Extensions" section and a set of questions and problems; the preface counts more than 300 illustrations, about 450 problem exercises and over 200 references.

Part I, Chapters 1–2: Systems Science and Engineering; Bringing Systems Into Being

Chapter 1 defines systems and their elements, classifies them, and places systems engineering within science, systems science and technology, ending with the "transition to the systems age". Chapter 2 introduces the engineered system, system life-cycle engineering, the systems engineering process, design considerations, synthesis, analysis and evaluation, and how systems engineering is implemented in an organization.

Part II, Chapters 3–6: Conceptual System Design; Preliminary System Design; Detail Design and Development; System Test, Evaluation, and Validation

The design process step by step. Chapter 3, the longest of the four, covers problem definition and need identification, advanced system planning and architecting, feasibility analysis, operational requirements, the maintenance and support concept, technical performance measures, functional analysis and allocation, trade-offs, the system specification and the conceptual design review. Chapter 4 carries these down to subsystems with specifications, design criteria, design tools and trade-off studies. Chapter 5 deals with detail design: integrating system elements, design data, engineering models, prototypes, design reviews and design changes. Chapter 6 covers categories, planning and preparation of system test and evaluation, data collection and feedback.

Part III, Chapters 7–9: Alternatives and Models in Decision Making; Models for Economic Evaluation; Optimization in Design and Operations

The analytical toolkit begins here. Chapter 7 treats decision evaluation theory, multiple criteria, the decision evaluation display, and decisions under risk and uncertainty. Chapter 8 is a compact engineering economy: interest formulas, equivalence, evaluating single and multiple alternatives, and break-even analysis including under risk. Chapter 9 covers classical optimization (unconstrained and constrained), optimization with multiple criteria, and linear programming.

Part III, Chapters 10–11: Queuing Theory and Analysis; Control Concepts and Methods

Chapter 10 presents queuing systems, Monte Carlo analysis of queues, and single-channel, multiple-channel, non-exponential and finite-population models. Chapter 11 covers control concepts: statistical process control and control charts, optimum policy control, project control with CPM and PERT, and total quality control.

Part IV, Chapters 12–14: Design for Reliability; Design for Maintainability; Design for Usability (Human Factors)

Part IV turns to the design characteristics that the preface identifies as most significant for successful operation and user satisfaction. Each chapter follows a similar pattern: definition, measures, the characteristic in the system life cycle, analysis methods, and test, evaluation or demonstration. Chapter 13 adds availability and effectiveness measures; Chapter 14 adds personnel and training requirements.

Part IV, Chapters 15–17: Design for Logistics and Supportability; Design for Producibility, Disposability, and Sustainability; Design for Affordability (Life-Cycle Costing)

Chapter 15 covers logistics and system support, including the system-of-systems environment and supportability analysis. Chapter 16 introduces producibility, disposability and sustainability with their measures and a life-cycle value-cost diagram. Chapter 17, the longest chapter in the book, presents life-cycle costing: cost over the life cycle, a generic costing process, money-flow modelling and economic optimization, and the applications and benefits of the method.

Part V, Chapters 18–19: Systems Engineering Planning and Organization; Program Management, Control, and Evaluation

A short management part. Chapter 18 covers program planning, the systems engineering management plan (SEMP) and organization for systems engineering. Chapter 19 covers organizational goals, outsourcing and supplier selection, program leadership, evaluation and feedback, and risk management.

Part VI: Appendices A–H

Functional flow block diagrams with examples, design and management review checklists, probability theory and Monte Carlo analysis, statistical tables, interest factor tables, finite queuing tables, a bibliography organized by topic, and a list of websites.

Key Concepts

Parts I–II: The life cycle and the design process

  • Bringing systems into being: the sequence from need identification through requirements, functional analysis and allocation, design synthesis and evaluation, validation, operation and support, to disposal.
  • Life-cycle engineering: considering the whole life of a system, including support and retirement, from the start of design.
  • Functional analysis and allocation: describing what a system must do and assigning those functions to subsystems and components.
  • Technical performance measures: quantitative targets used to track whether a design meets its requirements.
  • Design reviews: formal reviews at the conceptual, preliminary and detail stages.

Part III: Systems analysis

  • Decision evaluation: comparing alternatives against multiple criteria and under risk and uncertainty.
  • Economic equivalence: comparing costs and benefits that occur at different times.
  • Optimization and queuing models: mathematical models for design and operational decisions.
  • Statistical process and project control: control charts, CPM and PERT.

Parts IV–V: Design for operational feasibility and management

  • Reliability, maintainability and availability: measures of how dependably a system works and how readily it can be restored.
  • Supportability and logistics: designing the system and its support together.
  • Life-cycle costing: estimating total cost of ownership to make design decisions on affordability.
  • Systems engineering management plan (SEMP): the plan that organizes systems engineering work in a program.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

  • A complete life-cycle view. The structure follows a system from need to disposal, and Part IV gives full chapters to reliability, maintainability, human factors, supportability, producibility, disposability, sustainability and life-cycle cost.
  • Quantitative depth. Part III and Chapter 17 supply worked mathematical models (decision analysis, engineering economy, optimization, queuing, control charts, life-cycle cost models) together with the probability, interest and queuing tables needed to use them.
  • Rich exercise material. About 450 problem exercises, consistent "Summary and Extensions" sections and a bibliography of over 200 items organized to map onto the systems engineering process make the book usable for self-study and course design.
  • Authors' long experience. The preface notes that many examples come from the authors' industrial and research experience over several decades and that the book draws on their other texts in operations research, engineering economy and logistics.

Limitations

  • Dated in places. Published in 2010, the book's table of contents does not mention model-based systems engineering or SysML; its modelling tools are functional flow block diagrams and analytical models. Its design-tools sections should be supplemented with current practice.
  • Heavy and long. Nearly 800 pages and a large mathematical component make it more than one course can cover; the analytical chapters in Part III, which draw on the authors' separate books on operations research and engineering economy, amount to a substantial course in themselves.
  • Management treated briefly. Systems engineering management, including risk management, occupies two chapters at the end, so readers interested mainly in program management will need other sources.
  • Case studies are illustrative. The preface describes its case-study applications as hypothetical or abstracted examples of real-world applications, not documented histories of actual programmes.

Where It Fits in the Course

In this systems engineering course, Blanchard and Fabrycky provide the life-cycle and analysis backbone. Kossiakoff and colleagues' Systems Engineering Principles and Practice covers the same life cycle with a stronger emphasis on the systems engineer's role in managing interfaces, risk and trade-offs; a course can use one as the main text and the other for a second view. Jon Holt's Systems Engineering Demystified is a beginner's introduction centred on model-based systems engineering with SysML, which supplies the model-based approach that Blanchard and Fabrycky's table of contents does not cover.

Buede and Miller's The Engineering Design of Systems is a model-based treatment of requirements and functional and physical architecture, and Crawley, Cameron and Selva's System Architecture is a graduate text on early architectural decisions; both go deeper into the conceptual design stage of Blanchard's Chapter 3. Dym and colleagues' Engineering Design: A Project-Based Introduction is a first course in engineering design methodology that can precede this book.

How to Use This Book

The publisher pitches the book at senior undergraduates and first- and second-year graduate students, and the preface also addresses practising professionals. Readers need basic probability and statistics (Appendix C reviews the essentials) and comfort with calculus for the optimization chapter; Chapter 8 teaches the engineering economy it uses.

A practical plan for one semester:

  • Core: Chapters 1–6, the life cycle and the design process; work through functional analysis with Appendix A.
  • Analysis by need: Chapter 7 on decision making and Chapter 8 on economic evaluation are widely useful; Chapters 9–11 (optimization, queuing, control) can be skipped if covered in operations research courses.
  • Design for operational feasibility: choose two or three chapters from Part IV according to the course focus, and include Chapter 17 on life-cycle costing, which draws on Chapter 8.
  • Management: Chapters 18–19, ideally alongside a team project that produces a simple SEMP.

Use the checklists in Appendix B when reviewing project designs, and the end-of-chapter "Summary and Extensions" sections to find further reading. Pair the book with a source on model-based systems engineering to bring its methods up to date.