http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1612 Wed, 22 May 2013 15:31:22 GMT 2013-05-22T15:31:22Z http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1829 The importance of being process Blockley, DI The purpose of the paper is to outline the particular interpretation of systems thinking developed at the University of Bristol over the last 30 years. The importance of process and uncertainty are central themes. Put at its simplest, systems thinking is joined-up thinking. It is getting the right information (what) to the right people (who) at the right time (when) for the right purpose (why) in the right form (where) and in the right way (how). The three ideas at the heart of delivering systems thinking are thinking in layers, thinking in connected loops and thinking about new processes. Everything has life cycle and hence is a process ␣ but one that is set in the context of a system containing other connected processes ␣ some at higher and some at lower levels of definition. All processes have attributes that are characterised using why, how, who, what, where, when. There is a need to integrate hard and soft systems. This requires us to be very clear about the meaning and usage of the terms subjective and objective when we argue that engineering judgement is both valid and important. It is argued that truth is to knowledge as the inverse of risk is to action. The three attributes of uncertainty are stated as FIR ␣ fuzziness, incompleteness and randomness. Robustness and its inverse, vulnerability have been neglected. Systems thinking is not simply an engineering approach rather it is a philosophy for solving many practical problems such as joined-up government, social work, dealing with climate change and terrorism. Finally it is argued that our journey to 2030 requires us to adopt an evolutionary observational approach using systems thinking. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1829 2010-09-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1828 Modelling a school as a socio-technical system for the purpose of managing greenhouse gas emissions Freeman, RAJ; Yearworth, M; Preist, CW There is a need to better understand the dynamic interactions between people, organisation, and physical infrastructure when working to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) emissions and utility bills in organisations. This paper presents a Systems Dynamics approach to the problem that combines both the social and the technical factors affecting a building’s carbon emissions over time in a single model. Through assigning variables to represent both the soft aspects of the building system – organisational culture, roles and responsibilities, energy management attitudes, etc.; and the physical infrastructure – rated power of plug load equipment, building services equipment, building fabric, etc. – a SD model can indicate which factors are most important. We anticipate there will be several long-term benefits from the use of this model, namely: 1) helping to bring clarity to a very messy problem, 2) providing a picture of how carbon and energy issues change over time, 3) getting people within an organisation to incorporate carbon management into their everyday work life. GHG emissions are often overlooked in organisations but we believe that proactive, ongoing carbon management should be as important as meeting legal or health and safety requirements and that it is essential for an organisation’s long-term resilience. Mon, 14 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1828 2012-05-14T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1787 Bridging from phenomenological research methods to systems interventions: a case study of SSM Edwards, G; Yearworth, M The development of systems practitioners at the doctoral level in Engineering has revealed the need to address the integration, or bridging, between the basic research methods of engineering management and systems problem structuring methods (PSMs). The metaphor of bridging is appropriate since this emergent need is not entirely addressed by the use of multimethodology. Whilst action research might be viewed implicitly as the research strategy of systems practice, sitting within the overall paradigm of phenomenology, we argue that basic research methods, in the broadest sense, require practical integration with PSMs in order to meet the needs of socio-technical systems research projects that span the boundary between engineered hard systems and social systems. Our observations arise from the experience of delivery of an Engineering Doctorate (EngD) in Systems Programme of research that now includes more than 65 individual projects with a wide range of engineering companies spanning the water industry, defence aerospace, energy production, rail transport and construction. In this paper we explore this need for integration with respect to the case of Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), although the approach could have been applied to other PSMs. We conclude that integration in this case needs to focus on a number of key aspects across all stages of the SSM methodology. Prominent among these are widening the range of techniques for initial exploration of the problem situation, early consideration of potential ethical issues involved in system intervention, improved modelling approaches to describe purposeful activity holons, advanced hard systems modelling and longitudinal studies to capture learning from a series of sequential interventions, and active definition of additional detailed data gathering and research to support the stakeholder debate on initial intervention options. Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1787 2011-08-31T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1782 Systems modelling of new media services Yearworth, M; Schien, D; Preist, CW; Shabajee, PJS Energy consumption has long been identified as a major sustainability issue through its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and the limited supply of non-renewable resources. Current research on energy consumption for online media distribution identifies server operations as a main contributor. Based on work with an online news-publishing group we explore the system dynamics of energy consumption in the distribution of media. Building on concepts developed in a causal loop model based on previous work we present a system dynamics model of energy consumption for online digital media distribution and explore a number of scenarios. According to the model we have developed the future dynamics of energy use for the delivery of media services are apparently bounded by three factors; i) the overall energy efficiencies deliverable by the ICT supply chain into the data centre, ii) the overall media “richness” of content and how that is effected by investment, mutualisation and content synergy, and iii) growth in the user base. Questions arising from the use of the abstractions for richness, synergy, and mutualisation in the modelling have opened up a profitable area of further work to explore. An updated version of a previously submitted conference paper Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1983/1782 2011-07-01T00:00:00Z