System Models and Diagrams

Muhammad Ridwan Andi Purnomo, ST, MSc, PhD

Department of Industrial Engineering
Faculty of Industrial Technology
Universitas Islam Indonesia
2015

Introduction

System model: representation of all essential parts of a system.

Model can be iconic, analogous, or symbolic.
Iconic: reproductions of physical objects, usually to a
different scale and with less detail.
Example: A car model, the small-scale aircraft tested in a
wind tunnel for the aerodynamics of the real thing, or an
architectural mock-up of a building.

Introduction

Analogous: the model is able to mimic whatever aspect of

the real thing.
Example: The three-dimensional vision produced by
computer software on the screen, allowing the observer to
see an object from any desired direction or angle, or
enabling the observer to walk through a building.
Symbolic: representations of the relationships between
various entities or concepts by means of symbols.
Example:
A bar chart represents sales.
Mathematical model: s = 0.5gt2 , s = distance of freefalling object travels in t seconds while g = constant of

Essential properties of good model

Simple: easily understood,
Example:
Easily follow the logic of a spreadsheet than of a complicated
mathematical expression.
Assuming demand of product occurring at a constant period
instead of subject to small and possibly random fluctuation.
Complete: should include all significant aspects of a problem
situation that affect the measure of performance.
Example:
Since inventory cost is arranged based on holding and
ordering cost, then the costs must be considered when
modelling the inventory system.

Essential properties of good model

Easy to manipulate and communicate with: should be easy
for the user to prepare, update, and change the inputs and get
answers quickly with a reasonable amount of effort and
resources effects to variables definition.
Adaptive: reasonable changes in uncontrollable inputs and the
structure of the problem situation should not completely
invalidate the model. Any structural changes in the problem
situation may then require only modifications to one or a few
modules.
A model must be appropriate for the situation studied.
By this is meant that the model produces the relevant outputs
at the lowest possible cost and in the time frame required for
effective decision making.

Essential properties of good model

A model has to produce information that is relevant and

appropriate for decision making. Output of a model has to
have direct bearing on the decision process, has to be useful for
decision making, and has to be in a form that can be used
directly as an input for decision making.
Challenge:
How to develop model that is simple and robust but represents
completely the system studied with lowest cost ?

System Diagrams

Causal loop diagram

Depict cause-and-effect relationships between various
aspects, entities, or variables.
If item A affects item B, this causes one or more attributes of
item B to change, such as its numeric value or its status.
This is shown by connecting the two with a directed arrow.
A change in B may in turn become the cause of a change in
C, and so on, resulting in a chain of cause and effects.
A positive sign (or the letter s for same direction) attached
to the arrow head means that an increase in the value of
item A causes an increase in the value of item B, while a
negative sign (or the letter o for opposite) indicates that
the increase in A results in a decrease in B.

Diagram
Example of causal loop diagram of production/ inventory system.

System Diagrams
Influence diagram
Formal versions of causal loop diagrams.
Useful when using a process approach depict
diagrammatically the system transformation process.

System Diagrams
Example of influence diagram of investment system :

System Diagrams
Example of influence diagram of production/ inventory system:

Precedence Chart

Many projects consist of a large number of individual tasks that

have to be performed in a specific sequence.
While some may be done simultaneously, others can only be
started after one or several other tasks have been completed.
Example of precedence chart when build a building:

Spray diagram

Fault tree

Decision flow chart

Exercise

Draw a decision flow chart for the following situation:

A blood bank collects blood: from donors. The blood is first
tested for various pathogens (hepatitis, HIV, etc.).
Contaminated blood is discarded. The good blood is stored in
refrigerator A. Whenever surgery is scheduled (both elective or
emergency), the surgeon requests that a certain amount of the
right blood type is set aside. That blood is removed and stored
in a separate refrigerator B. If not used within 24 hours it is
returned to A. Every day, all blood stored in A is checked for its
age. Any blood that is older than 49 days is removed and
discarded.

END

Thank You !