Multidisciplinary Engineering Models: Methodology and Case Study in Spreadsheet Analytics
This addresses the problem of time-consuming use and limited adoption of complex spreadsheet-based models for engineers and practitioners in multidisciplinary sustainability analysis, though it is incremental in improving existing tools.
The paper tackles the complexity and low adoption of multidisciplinary engineering models in spreadsheets, such as Integrated Resource Management models for urban sustainability, by presenting a methodology that extracts, visualizes, and analyzes model slices to reduce complexity and risk, with application to industrial cases showing generated insights.
This paper demonstrates a methodology to help practitioners maximise the utility of complex multidisciplinary engineering models implemented as spreadsheets, an area presenting unique challenges. As motivation we investigate the expanding use of Integrated Resource Management(IRM) models which assess the sustainability of urban masterplan designs. IRM models reflect the inherent complexity of multidisciplinary sustainability analysis by integrating models from many disciplines. This complexity makes their use time-consuming and reduces their adoption. We present a methodology and toolkit for analysing multidisciplinary engineering models implemented as spreadsheets to alleviate such problems and increase their adoption. For a given output a relevant slice of the model is extracted, visualised and analysed by computing model and interdisciplinary metrics. A sensitivity analysis of the extracted model supports engineers in their optimisation efforts. These methods expose, manage and reduce model complexity and risk whilst giving practitioners insight into multidisciplinary model composition. We report application of the methodology to several generations of an industrial IRM model and detail the insight generated, particularly considering model evolution.