Simulation of Kanban-based Scheduling for Systems of Systems: Initial Results

Systems engineering processes for evolving systems of systems (SoS) are often software-driven and software-intensive. At the same time, SoS have multiple levels of abstraction that correspond to the various levels in the SoS hierarchy where these SoS engineering processes take place. Multiple levels of management make it difficult to capture the actual state and relative value of work in these kinds of environments. The Kanban-based scheduling system (KSS) applies lean concepts to coordinate work queues to better to address these issues. The motivation to apply agile methodologies in multi-organizational multi-level environments is based on lean principles that encourage increased visibility of work in progress, limited work in progress, and identification of issues causing blocked work. Current research is focused on formulating the KSS principles and estimating expected performance of the KSS. This paper describes the KSS work flow, Kanban scheduling principles and a simulation model designed to estimate the KSS performance.