ABSTRACT
Systems and the enterprises they supported were viewed as relatively independent entities and were treated that way. First, industrial engineers and then systems engineers have been quite successful in dealing with them as well- bounded systems with repetitive and predictable operational characteristics. These system characteristics are changing in significant and fundamental ways. There is a growing trend toward the concept of net- centricity and connectivity in a global economy as indicated by a study conducted for the army by the National Academy of Engineering on “network science”. Concepts of general systems theory, or system science, were utilized in the origin and continued evolution of systems engineering. Although useful, these concepts were often highly abstract and needed to be incorporated in a systems engineering discipline to support practical applications. The applications of industrial engineering to such areas as public works and manufacturing clearly drew on system principles and are fundamental efforts for the discipline of systems engineering.
