In the field of engineering like many others, foreign competitors are beating U.S. businesses to the punch in terms of bringing new products successfully to the marketplace. How can U.S. engineering companies compete? Simply by turning to this thought-provoking work which answers these and many other questions of successful design products and systems that are market driven and user oriented. Using a comprehensive methodological framework for human-centered design of complex systems, it covers four phases: naturalist, marketing, engineering, sales and service. A wide variety of tools and techniques are discussed within this framework, with illustrated case histories introduced early and developed throughout the chapters. This thorough and consistent framework for design, in combination with numerous how to'' tips, provides the reader with a self-contained, applications-oriented plan with which to pursue design concepts.

Explains multi-level models of enterprise systems and covers modeling methodology This book addresses the essential phenomena underlying the overall behaviors of complex systems and enterprises. Understanding these phenomena can enable improving these systems. These phenomena range from physical, behavioral, and organizational, to economic and social, all of which involve significant human components. Specific phenomena of interest and how they are represented depend on the questions of interest and the relevant domains or contexts. Modeling and Visualization of Complex Systems and Enterprises examines visualization of phenomena and how understanding the relationships among phenomena can provide the basis for understanding where deeper exploration is warranted. The author also reviews mathematical and computational models, defined very broadly across disciplines, which can enable deeper understanding. Presents a 10 step methodology for addressing questions associated with the design or operation of complex systems and enterprises Examines six archetypal enterprise problems including two from healthcare, two from urban systems, and one each from financial systems and defense systems Provides an introduction to the nature of complex systems, historical perspectives on complexity and complex adaptive systems, and the evolution of systems practice Modeling and Visualization of Complex Systems and Enterprises is written for graduate students studying systems science and engineering and professionals involved in systems science and engineering, those involved in complex systems such as healthcare delivery, urban systems, sustainable energy, financial systems, and national security.

Fundamental Economic Principles, Methods, and Tools for Addressing Human Systems Integration Issues and Tradeoffs

Human Systems Integration (HSI) is a new and fundamental integrating discipline designed to help move business and engineering cultures toward more human-centered systems. Integrating consideration of human abilities, limitations, and preferences into engineering systems yields important cost and performance benefits that otherwise would not have been accomplished. In order for this new discipline to be effective, however, a cultural change--starting with organizational leadership--is often necessary.

"The Economics of Human Systems Integration" explains the difficulties underlying valuation of investments in people's training and education, safety and health, and work productivity. It provides an overview of how the field of economics addresses these difficulties, focusing on human issues associated with design, development, production, operations, maintenance, and sustainment of complex systems.

The set of thought leaders recruited as contributors to this volume collectively provides a compelling set of data and principles for assessing the economic value of investing in people, not just in general but in specific investment situations. The early chapters provide the contexts for HSI and investment analysis, illustrating the enormous difference context makes in how issues are best framed and analyzed. A host of practical methods and tools for investment valuation are then presented. Provided are:

A variety of real-world applications of economic analysis ranging from military acquisition and automotive investment to healthcare and high-tech investments in general, in both the U.S. and abroad

A range of economics-based methods and tools for cost analysis, cost-benefit analysis, and investment analysis, as well as sources of data for performing such analyses

Differing perspectives on economic decision-making, including a range of private sector points of view, as well as government and regulatory perspectives

In addition, five real-world case studies illustrate how such valuations have been done and their major impacts on investment decisions. HSI professionals, systems engineers, and finance professionals who address investment analysis will appreciate the wide range of methods and real-life applications; senior undergraduates and masters-level graduate students will find this to be an excellent textbook that provides theory and supports practice.

The principles of successful market-oriented and human-centered design are used to analyze the formation of a good business enterprise. Focusing on technology based enterprises, the author elaborates on the powerful methods for planning, organization and control; and on starting, growing and maturing organizations that create human-centered products and systems. Case studies include the aerospace, computer and electronics industries, as well as technology-oriented government institutions.

Explores the nature of academic enterprises, including why they work the way they do and where such enterprises are headed, with the goal of gaining insights into where change can and will happen This book looks at universities from a whole-enterprise perspective. It explores the steady escalation of the costs of higher education and uses a computational economic model of complex academic enterprises. This model includes component models of research, teaching, administration, and brand value. Understanding the relationships among practices, processes, structure, and ecosystem provides the basis for transforming academia, leveraging its strengths and overcoming its limitations. More specifically, this architecture helps the reader understand how various elements of the enterprise system either enable or hinder other elements of the system, all of which are embedded in a complex behavioral and social ecosystem. Each topic is explored in terms of the levels of the architecture at which it primarily functions. Levers of change within each area are discussed, using many experiences of pursuing such issues in a range of academic enterprises. Provides a new methodology by taking a more systems-oriented approach to education systems as a whole Shows how various elements of the enterprise system either enable or hinder other elements of the system Offers alternative strategies for transformation of academic enterprises Universities as Complex Enterprises: How Academia Works, Why It Works These Ways, and Where the University Enterprise Is Headed is a reference for systems scientists and engineers, economists, social scientists, and decision makers. William B. Rouse is the Alexander Crombie Humphreys Chair within the School of Systems & Enterprises and Director of the Center for Complex Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. He is also Professor Emeritus, and former Chair, of the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia. Rouse has written hundreds of articles and book chapters, and has authored many books, including most recently Modeling and Visualization of Complex Systems and Enterprises (Wiley, 2015).

Of related interest… Design for Success A Human-Centered Approach to Designing Successful Products and Systems William B. Rouse This groundbreaking book offers a comprehensive, methodological framework for the human-centered design of complex systems. This dynamic new approach to system design includes four phases — naturalist, marketing, engineering, and sales and service — which cover the entire product life cycle, including:

• Evaluating users’ needs and preferences
• Concept and market evaluation of alternative ways to satisfy these demands
• Detailed design and engineering evaluation of products and systems
• Fielding and ongoing in-use evaluation

A wide variety of methods and tools is discussed within this methodological framework. Applications are illustrated with case studies of actual applications in a variety of industries. This book makes human-centered design very concrete and readily applicable to practical and realistically complex design problems. "How to" guidance is provided in the form of case histories and almost 100 figures and tables, as well as principles and guidelines for implementing the design "toolbox" outlined throughout the book. 1991 (0471-52483-2) 287 pp. Strategies for Innovation Creating Successful Products, Systems, and Organizations William B. Rouse Concentrating on technology-based businesses, Strategies for Innovation presents a comprehensive methodology for business planning and market development. The author demonstrates these principles with actual plans successfully implemented in his own innovative software company. In addition, he has included a wealth of real-life examples, case studies and vignettes, with which he explores marketing strategies, business techniques, and planning methodologies that have worked for companies ranging from technology-based Fortune 500 companies to small new venture start-ups. The book includes more than 100 figures and tables that provide easy access to critical information, and an extensive bibliography. This highly practical guide is an important resource for executives in technology-based businesses, as well as systems engineers and engineering managers. It is also an excellent text for MBA candidates and graduate students and teachers in areas related to the design and management of technology-based enterprises. 1992 (0-471-55904-0) 272 pp.

Praise for Essential Challenges of Strategic Management

"Bill Rouse provides helpful insight to make any business, and in particular any high- tech business, perform better."(Dennis A. Roberson, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer Motorola)

"A well-organized, easy-to-understand bible for all strategic managers and leaders."(Dr. Stanley G. Rosen, Director of Strategic Planning Boeing Satellite Systems)

"A must-read for managers seeking clarity and focus as they lead organizations through chaotic times."(William C. Kessler, Vice President for Enterprise Productivity Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company)

From TQM to business process reengineering to knowledge management, the last several decades have witnessed the rise and fall of many a management panacea. As a consequence, a general feeling is now brewing among disillusioned managers worldwide that perhaps the time has come to abandon the impractical quest for an all-encompassing solution to management problems and get back to basics. Essential Challenges of Strategic Management takes a major step towards realizing that goal.

Drawing upon the experiences of literally thousands of executives and senior managers working in all industry sectors, as well as government and nonprofit organizations, this book zeros in on the fundamental challenges faced by every senior manager, regardless of the business he or she is in, and describes a range of approaches to those challenges developed by women and men working at many of today’s leading organizations.

Designed as a ready source of inspiration and ideas for busy executives and senior managers, Essential Challenges of Strategic Management consists of concise, independent chapters, each dedicated to a different strategic challenge. Throughout, celebrated entrepreneur, Fortune 500 consultant, author and educator, William Rouse uses fascinating and instructive case studies and vignettes to illustrate the best practices in strategic management and vividly describes various approaches, tools, and techniques. Additionally, he provides clear-cut guidelines for selecting and implementing the solutions most likely to succeed in a given situation.

This title covers topics from modeling and simulation to games and entertainment. With contributions from leaders in systems and organizational modeling, behavioral and social sciences, computing and visualization, and gaming and entertainment, "Organizational Simulation" both articulates the grand vision of immersive environments and shows, in detail, how to realize it. This book offers unparalleled insight into the cutting edge of the field, since it was written by those who actually researched, designed, developed, deployed, marketed, sold, and critiqued today's best organizational simulations.The coverage in this book is divided into four sections. Introduction - it outlines the need for organizational simulation to support strategic thinking, design of unprecedented systems, and organizational learning, including the functionality and technology required to enable this support. Behaviors - it covers the state of knowledge of individual, group, and team behaviors and performance, how performance can best be supported, how performance is affected by national differences, and how organizational performance can best be measured.Modeling - describes the latest approaches to modeling and simulating people, groups, teams, and organizations, as well as narrative contexts and organizational environments within which these entities act, drawing from a rich set of modeling methods and tools. Simulations and Games - illustrates a wide range of fielded simulations, games, and entertainment, including the methods and tools employed for designing, developing, deploying, and evaluating these systems, as well as the social implications for the associated communities that have emerged. Addressing all levels of organizational simulation architecture with theories and applications, and enabling technologies for each, "Organizational Simulation" offers students and professionals the premier reference and practical toolbox for this dynamic field.

Strategic planning expert William Rouse cuts to the heart of the most common causes of failed business plans and strategies and shows how to overcome them. He encourages strategic thinkers and planners to spend much more time analyzing a situation instead of jumping to ready solutions. The tone is tongue-in-cheek, but the keen observations and sage advice Rouse offers aptly address a serious subject. It's a fast-track primer in critical thinking and evaluation planners and managers at every level can use to approach their work more effectively.

The Serendipitous Path to Effective Problem-Solving and Planning for Complex Systems

This innovative book enables you and your organization to pursue goals and achieve success in ways that you might never have imagined. It does not prescribe a rigid methodology and plan. Instead, the author sets forth a process known as Human-Centered Design, which focuses on enhancing the abilities and overcoming the limitations of people within organizations. This process enables you to move forward and, at the same time, be on the alert for and recognize serendipitous events that enable you to solve complex systems problems in unexpected ways in order to meet and surpass your goals.

Specifically, the process described in this book helps you discover critical distinctions and connections across industries, disciplines, and cultures. As a result, unexpected hybrid approaches emerge, forming the basis of new insights and ideas. These hybrid approaches, or transdisciplinary approaches as termed by the author, represent an integrated framework populated with concepts from a range of disciplines.

At the heart of this book is an understanding of how people operate, maintain, design, research, and manage complex systems. This understanding stems from author William Rouse's almost four decades of experience in the fields of individual and organizational performance, decision support systems, and information systems. His approach has proven successful with a broad range of organizations, from private industry to government agencies to academia.

Case studies and examples are presented throughout the text, illustrating how Human-Centered Design works in practice. If you are seeking to harness thepower of the individuals in your organization to make your enterprise more effective, efficient, and successful, this text sets you on the right path.