A systems analysis of the corps of engineers approach to design and construction

This systems analysis of the Corps of Engineers approach to design and construction comprises a year's research by the Civil Engineering Systems Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University. The study is perhaps unique in its application of systems engineering to a large and complex engineering system in being; the Directorate of Military Construction (DMC), Office of the Chief of Engineers, and its design and construction mission. The study is parallel to other efforts being made in the building process to cope with today's many and varied problems in design and construction. The word that characterizes today's design and construction is "complex." A recent method that has proved to be successful in coping with large complex operations, such as the DMC, is systems engineering or the "systems approach." The purpose of this study is to determine the present modus operandi the Corps of Engineers uses to accomplish its military construction mission for the Army, Air Force, and NASA; and to structure this operation as a system. The study notes feedback processes and best use of available data for use in investigations, future designs, and research programs in present projects. Preferred sequences are prepared within existing regulations and organizations for decision making in design, construction, and research operations. The study accomplishes three objectives: First, it structures the present methods as a system so that present and future operations can be viewed in the light of systems engineering. Second, it determines the major problems in design, construction and research operations and their scope, frequency and magnitude, and points out that the solution to these major problems is necessary in implementing a systems approach. Third, it presents preferred sequences based on the Corps operation and the advanced state of the art to accomplish the present mission. The Corps of Engineers is an historical organization with many procedures and techniques which have become policy over the years. With the availability of the new technique of systems analysis, it is only appropriate that the Corps of Engineers be studied to review those operations that have evolved over the years. The study makes the suggestion as to how the Corps can change its present operation so that it can be similar to the new engineering technique of systems engineering. A final objective of this study is to present to the Corps an organization that the Corps would want if it was being founded today. The entire study is an analysis of the Corps military design and construction mission viewed from the new engineering discipiline of systems engineering.