Publication

TARDEC's mission is to conduct full service life cycle engineering support to the TACOM Life Cycle Management Command and the Program Executive Offices associated with it, for all DoD ground vehicle system acquisition and life cycle management. The TARDEC Systems Engineering Group is constantly looking for systems engineering methods, tools and procedures (MPT) to support this mission. TARDEC has found that many systems engineers from the automobile industry have significant experience in systems engineering (SE), but lack experience in some of the competencies deemed critical to systems engineering in the DoD workforce. This research will identify the differences between education needs of system engineers in both industry and the DoD workforce, and develop methods, processes and tools to address the shortfalls in educating SEs in the DoD workforce. 

RT26 “Vehicle Systems Engineering and Integration Activities” was a SERC project sponsored by U.S. Army RDECOM/TARDEC in the period from 9/01/2010 to 6/30/2012. RT-26 was sponsored by the US Army RDECOM/TARDEC to develop Systems Engineering (SE) materials supporting the RDECOM/TARDEC SE Group. The project was executed with close coordination between WSU and RDECOM/TARDEC SE Group. During the course of the RT26 project, the RDECOM/TARDEC SE Group continued to develop and refine their SE practices and procedures. The specific focus and emphasis of the project evolved in coordination with developments in RDECOM/TARDECs SE practices and procedures. RT26 was executed by Wayne State University (WSU) . The project consisted of four technical tasks:

• Analyze TARDEC SE Needs
• Identify SE Education Gaps
• Conduct Case Studies Addressing the Needs and Gaps
• Disseminate Results

Summaries of the results of each of these tasks follow.The major technical effort was devoted to two case studies, described in sections 2 and 3. Detailed research products are contained in the accompanying digital files, and referenced in the text. The two case studies were identified through the analysis of TARDEC SE needs and identification of SE education gaps. The first case study was a short (3 month) effort to develop formalization for physical reserve capacity requirements for versatile ground vehicles. The second case study was an extensive effort consisting of six phases over 15 months, to illustrate the evolution of the “Project Plan” for SE and project management, required by RDECOM OPORD 10-065 issued in August 2010, for Science and Technology (S&T) projects.