Lecture 5: Systems Thinking PDF

LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. SUBJECT: I.E. AS A DISCIPLINE SYSTEMS THINKING PROF. DANILO P. DONES SUBJECT TEACHER  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition The educational system in the Philippines has these parts: Preschool Eleme...

LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. SUBJECT: I.E. AS A DISCIPLINE SYSTEMS THINKING PROF. DANILO P. DONES SUBJECT TEACHER  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition The educational system in the Philippines has these parts: Preschool Elementary school – Grades 1-6 Junior High School– Grades 7-10 Senior High School – Grades 11-12 Higher Education, including 2-year vocational and 4-year colleges and universities.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition We call this list of parts a “system” because the parts interact with each other to achieve overall goals, such as an educated population. The parts may interact through cause and effect or through the exchange of information or material. We can think of the input and output of the overall system, and we can also think about the input and output of each part; for example, some of the students who graduate from junior high school(an output) go on to senior high school (an input). We can also think of the parts as being processes in the educational system.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition In his book, Total Quality Control, Feigenbaum defines a system as: – A group or work pattern of interacting human and machine activities, directed by information, which operate on and/or direct material, information, energy, and/or humans to achieve a common specific purpose or objective.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition Clearly this definition relates closely to industrial engineering and explains why some industrial engineering departments are called industrial and systems engineering. UTA’s department is called Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering. However, systems engineering is also used sometimes in a more limited meaning, to refer to designing a computer and information system.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition When we define a system, we implicitly draw a line around some parts to include those parts and to exclude others. For example, the educational system includes the schools, but not the roads students travel on to get to school or the organizations that employ students after they graduate. Generally, looking at a larger system is more accurate but harder.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition We can understand some aspects of the educational system without considering these other parts, but some aspects require looking at the larger system. We can still examine the educational system if we remember to include in our study its interactions with its environment, such as the transportation system and the employment system.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Definition For the IE, the systems approach is important because it reminds us to consider the environment surrounding the system we are studying and to move the boundaries outward as much as possible so that we consider a problem in its larger context.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Analysis Some systems have feedback. Feedback in a system is when outputs are fed back in as inputs for future system action. This is sometimes called a feedback loop. The educational system doesn’t tend to have a lot of feedback and that may hamper improvement of the system. Have you ever been asked by your high school to give feedback on how well your education prepared you for college or for work?  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Analysis The operation of a system that has evolved without conscious design or a system that has been designed piece by piece almost always can be improved. Analysis means to take a system apart to understand how the parts work; systems thinking stresses synthesis, that is, understanding how the parts work together and how the system works as a whole.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Analysis Understanding how each part of the educational system works is not enough for a good understanding and certainly not enough for making recommendations for improving the educational system; better recommendations would come from understanding how the parts of the system work together also.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Analysis A system has the property that a change to one part can have effects, sometimes surprising effects, on other parts. A state might require that students entering state- funded four-year universities meet certain standards (for example, knowledge of a foreign language). The effects of such a change might be good for the universities, but the effects on the high schools must also be considered; they might, for example, must provide more language classes and hire more teachers.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Analysis Improving one part of system may have good or bad consequences on another part of the system. Using antibiotics to cure diseases has had the consequence of creating bacteria that are immune to some antibiotics; within the system of individual patient and doctor, having the patient take antibiotics makes sense, but in the larger system, we might want to be more cautious about their use.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Properties and Archetypes A system may have emergent properties, that is, properties of the whole that are not the property of any part. For example, living systems are alive, but one can’t isolate that property in any part of the system; it is a property of the entire system.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. System Properties and Archetypes A system can further be classified in these ways: Natural (for example, a river) or man-made (for example, a bridge) Static (for example, a bridge) or dynamic (for example, the U.S. economy) Physical (for example, a factory) or abstract (for example, the architect’s drawing of the factory) Open (interacting with its environment) or closed (interacting very little with its environment)  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. 10 System Archetypes – William Braun 1. Limits to Growth 6. Tragedy of the (aka Limits to Commons Success) 7. Fixes that Fail 2. Shifting the Burden 8. Growth and 3. Eroding Goals Underinvestment 4. Escalation 9. Accidental 5. Success to the Adversaries Successful 10. Attractiveness Principle  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. Systems Thinking In this book, The Fifth 1. “Today’s problems comes Discipline, Peter Senge from yesterday’s argues that organizations ‘solutions.’” must become learning – Solutions can have organizations by building unintended and undesired knowledge of four effects. disciplines: personal 2. “The harder you push, the mastery, mental models, harder the system pushed shared vision, and team back.” learning. – “Compensating feedback” The “fifth discipline” is may keep a system in the systems thinking, and he state it started. gives these laws of complex systems:  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. Systems Thinking 3. “Behavior grows better 5. “The cure can be worse before it grows worse.” than the disease.” – Actions that make short – Some easy solutions term improvement may become addictive. cause long term disaster. 6. “Faster is slower.” 4. “The easy way out – Any organization has an usually leads back in.” optimal rate of growth. – Easy and obvious solutions 7. “Cause and effect are not would have been done closely related in time and already if they would have worked. space.” – Hard work is needed to find the real solution.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. Systems Thinking 8. “Small changes can 10. “Dividing an elephant produce big results – but in half does not produce the areas of highest two small elephants.” leverage are often the – Some problems must be least obvious.” solved by improving the whole system. 9. “You can have your cake and eat it too – but 11. “There is no blame.” not at once.” “You and the cause of your problems are part of – For example, an improvement in quality a single system.” pays off eventually in improved profits.  LYCEUM OF ALABANG INC.INC. Systems Thinking While most engineers design physical objects (cars, bridges, and so forth), IEs design and improve production systems. A production system is a system that produces goods or services for customers. IEs must think about how a production system works as a system by using the types of ideas just described.