THE ROLES OF MODELING AND SIMULATION AT BOEING

The activities of system development, through all of its lifecycles, h ave been affected by the changing business environment and the march o f technology, just as in every other field. The ''megatrends'' of the past and present decades are reshaping our view of how to research and develop new products. In the past, this process began with a design b ased on our knowledge of the field Then a physical prototype was built and tested. After extensive modifications and more physical prototype s, the product was as ready as if could be to face the market. As the information age has come about, computers have been employed as tools to handle the ever-growing amounts of data, and modeling and simulatio n (M&S) have become part of our toolset. The explosion in computing po wer has led to more comprehensive computer models and simulations. The advance of technology has enabled us to use simulation to test proces ses and products before fielding. The narrowing profit margins availab le to re-invest in the company's products have forced the adoption of simulation as art R&D tool. Designs that historically were tested only in a physical model can now be tested and modified without ''bending metal.'' We can now use virtual--not physical-prototypes to examine ho w we analyze, design, acquire, operate, train and make decisions. As a result, we have more iterative development and earlier changes that d ramatically reduce costs and significantly compress schedules [3]. The focus of this paper is on the ''real-world'' application of modeling and simulation (M&S) within the Boeing Company The paper focuses on Tw o particular areas. First it describes the application of M&S to each of the system lifecycle phases. Ir discusses how and when simulation c an be used, providing specific examples. The second focus of the paper is a presentation of a current research initiative on model-based des ign. This effort, being applied to the multiple programs, is an approa ch to system engineering in which requirements, designs and the models which represent them are fully machine-intelligible and machine-inter rogable.