Systems Analysis

Systems Analysis

Xecon Associates believes that Systems Engineering and the associated discipline of Systems Analysis is singularly the most critical function of any engineering effort.  To have a major impact on a project, the systems engineering function must be exercised as the first and principal step in every effort.

The founder of Xecon spent his early years at two major systems engineering organizations, namely The MITRE Corporaton and 
TRW Systems Group. It is during these years that we developed and gained respect for this approach, and it has served us well over the years.

The principal function of this effort is to bring together under one umbrella all engineering disciplines so that a standard, coherent and logical approach can be uniformly applied across the project as a whole.  Possibly one of the best examples of such a process could be seen in the development of a new space satellite.  A satellite system is essentially a fully self contained world that (with the exception of occasional commands from the Earth) must stand alone and completely function by itself.  Accordingly, this class of object must literally contain every type of sub-system for self support including: power processing and distribution, thermal management, attitude control, system status monitoring (including telemetry, safe mode control, and in some instances internal redundancy control), command generation and distribution, communications processing, and payload management. These sub-systems must all be optimally partitioned, distributed and interconnected with each other across the system in order for the device as a whole to function properly.


The following is a broad generalized list of some of the subjects that must be examined during this systems engineering effort:
Size, weight and power limitations or constraints.  The optimum partitioning of the system into sub-systems or sub-assemblies. Reliability analysis along with redundancy and/or reconfiguration control.  System timing generation and distribution.  Real-time versus non real-time processing and control. Hardware, firmware, or software implementation.  Circuit selection. Inter sub-system communications, including protocols, bandwidths and cabling considerations. Signal processing analysis. Inter-system interference and cross-talk minimization. Communications, control and monitoring of the system from the external world.


The inclusion of realistic and thorough systems engineering effort at the outset of a new project will greatly increase the probability of its timely completion and success.

   

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