‘IN CONVERSATION’ with Dr Padman Nagenthiram (CEO of Padman Enterprises) – “Who Took it Out? Putting Systems Thinking Back into Systems Engineering”

Systems thinking has been practiced in some form or another since the time of the pyramids. Modern systems thinking has its foundation in the field of system dynamics, founded in 1956 by MIT professor, Jay Forrester. However, in its 70+ year history, systems engineering has not embraced systems thinking or widely accepted it as a design paradigm. Even today, systems engineering practices are primarily based on experience, using heuristics which were developed over time, to tackle complex problems systematically and holistically, focusing on specific domains. More recently, new approaches to systems thinking have received prominence as a means of mitigating the escalating cost and time of developing and maintaining complex systems, especially in the Aerospace and Defense industry. Additionally, systems thinking is gaining momentum, as systems engineering is being increasingly applied in non-traditional industries such as biomedical, transportation and energy.

This presentation described the current state of systems thinking as it applies to systems engineering practice in the United States and compare it to practices in other parts of the world, like Europe and Singapore. Ideas to accelerate the integration of systems thinking into systems engineering, based on the speaker’s experience, was presented.