Model‐Based Switching Costs

Abstract

AbstractIn product development, rarely a product is developed from scratch. In many cases, a product is developed from a prior design or several prior designs. The associated development cost is actually a switching cost (or some called reuse cost), representing the cost incurred from developing the product from prior designs. So far, no proven works in switching cost estimation were found for products developed using MBSE (Model‐Based Systems Engineering). Today, MBSE is being widely adopted. It is important to develop switching cost estimation methods that leverage models and support model‐based development needs. This paper, per the best of our knowledge, is among the firsts that developed switching cost methods for MBSE. Our work identifies different use case scenarios/phases in an MBSE development cycle, and provides corresponding switching cost estimation methods, laying down the fundamental methodology for the model‐based switching cost estimations. Using SysML, an example use case of derivative airplane electrical power system is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.