Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introducing Lean Systems Engineering and Lean Enablers for Systems Engineering
This book was written for two purposes: to popularize the emerging field termed Lean Systems Engineering (LSE), and to serve as a textbook and reference for the first major product created under it: Lean Enablers for Systems Engineering (LEfSE).
The discipline of Systems Engineering (SE) was created to help with the development of complex systems that must work unconditionally. It was first shaped in the ballistic missile program by Si Ramo1 and Dean Wooldridge in 1954, with the first formal contract to perform systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA). Under this contract, Ramo and Wooldridge developed some of the first principles for SE and applied them to the ballistic missile program—considered one of the most successful major technology development efforts ever undertaken by the U.S. government [Jacobsen, 2001]. SE is the practical engineering realization based on systems thinking, a comprehensive design process of a system that satisfies all customer needs during an entire system life cycle. The process demonstrates reliable execution of system development programs and leads to extraordinary technological successes in space, air, naval, and ground systems and weapons. The International Council on System Engineering (INCOSE), the professional society of Systems Engineers, offers the following definition of Systems Engineering:
Systems Engineering
(SE) is an ...
