Author: philipjboxer

On the naming of parts

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by Bernie Cohen
The field of modeling is rich in terminological confusion and misunderstanding, in which some of the terms have formal definitions that are radically different from their everyday usage. An eminent MIT Professor of Engineering used to introduce his students to the subtle concepts of precision, accuracy and significance with the following (non-PC) example.

  • You ask a lady her age and she tells you she is 35. This statement has a precision of plus or minus 6 months, could be inaccurate by as much as 10 years and, if she is attractive, has no significance whatsoever.

What follows is an attempt to cast some light on the terminological confusion and misunderstanding.

Managing the SoS Value Cycle

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by Philip Boxer
The need for Through-Life Capability Management (TLCM) represents a step-change in the relationship between purchaser and provider that involves both parties in the whole value cycle that requires systems to be understood as more than socio-technical, and makes it necessary to model the structure-determining as well as the structure-determined processes.

Strategy-at-the-edge

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by Philip Boxer
Strategy-at-the-edge requires that a double challenge be met which balances internal changes with external opportunities. The effects ladder provides a way of agreeing what this means for both customer and supplier where the customer’s demands are necessarily asymmetric.

The hole-in-the-middle

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by Philip Boxer
The challenge was the hole-in-the-middle. This was too expensive to satisfy on a bespoke basis, and too complex to run on a commoditised basis. The challenge was to find ways of managing the relationship with the customer differently – the enterprise had to develop an approach to managing infrastructure that could be dynamically customised from the edge of the business.

Asymmetric Leadership

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by Philip Boxer
We situate leadership between the asymmetry of self and of other, which presents a challenge: in meeting the needs of the other, to what extent must leadership go beyond what it knows of itself? And by what authority will it choose to do so? These are the questions that we want to follow here.