Although technical solutions have a vital role to play, they must be complemented and tailored to accommodate innovations within social systems, such as teams, organisations and communities. Social systems share similarities with technical systems but also possess unique and distinctively human characteristics, requiring a design process fundamentally different from that applied to technical systems. So, how might we design for social-technical interaction? As Dr van der Bijl-Brouwer put it, we can use systemic design to “let go of controlling behaviour [and] enable the inherent knowledge, creativity and motivation in the system.”

Collaboration for continuous evolution

Following this keynote, participants had their first opportunity to visit the poster and innovation markets. The former featured information on the MasCot programme, in which NWO and TNO-ESI have created an environment for projects on mastering complexity in the design of high-tech systems, and the ZORRO project that aims to scale up intelligent diagnostics to tackle the sheer complexity of cyber-physical systems. In the innovation market, meanwhile, visitors could attend presentations by TNO-ESI and partners ASML, Canon Production Printing, Philips, Thales, Vanderlande, Capgemini Engineering, Incose, Obeo and Strypes. In total, 14 demonstrations of methods and tools by TNO-ESI and its partners and relations took place during the event.

To maximise the topics covered and provide a customisable experience, the morning also saw participants choose between two parallel sessions. In ‘Digital transformation, the road ahead’, Roel Aalbers of Thales, Pernilla Ulfvengren of KTH and Wouter Leibbrandt of TNO-Digital Systems highlighted the escalating complexity challenges facing industry and emphasised the increasing need to consider multiple system properties in ever larger and more complex R&D organisations – all while coping with a shrinking workforce. This includes considerations beyond traditional factors like costs and performance, including security, safety and sustainability, and demands multifaceted strategies such as training, organisational restructuring and technological support like AI.

In the second parallel session, ‘Digital transition: continuous evolution’, Paul Hilkens of Canon Production Printing, Daan van der Munnik and Tim van der Horst, both of Philips, and Niels Brouwers of Capgemini Nederland explained that software maintenance doesn’t have to be a chore; it can be an ongoing adventure. With examples from how the three companies have professionalised their maintenance, their presentations underlined the role of legacy systems in innovation and urged attendees to hone their expertise, craft new methodologies and wield cutting-edge tools to unleash the full potential of such systems.

Paving the way forward
With the afternoon came two more parallel sessions, the first of which brought featured Maarten Verhoeven of Vanderlande, Marcel Verhoef of ESA and Jelm Franse of ASML on the subject of ‘Digital engineering in brown field’. Their presentations nicely complemented one another, detailing transitions towards model-based systems engineering, code generation for controllers and the versatile use of 3D CAD models. In addition, all speakers highlighted practical challenges and opportunities within their respective topics, emphasising the importance of close collaboration with ecosystems such as suppliers.

Elsewhere in the theatre, ‘Increasing R&D productivity’ was divided into three talks by Gernot Eggen of ASML, Lena Filatova of Philips and Dennis Dams of TNO-ESI, and Jos Vaassen of ASML and Yuri Blankenstein of TNO-ESI/CGE. The common thread of this session was tooling based on proper data, including the costs and requirements associated with collecting quality data. In addition, the speakers discussed the potential of self-monitoring systems for automatic error detection and compared the use of modelling and AI techniques to understand data, highlighting the sheer amount of knowledge that can be captured in data.

From TNO-ESI, many thanks to those who presented and those who attended this year’s symposium.
We hope to see you in 2025!