ABSTRACT
The organization itself can be viewed as a system to which the principles of Systems Engineer (SE) would apply. In fact, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Systems Engineering Handbook describes total quality management as “the application of SE to the work environment. SE may already exist in the commercial aircraft company, either because it is a result of good engineering judgment or because it has been mandated by other outside agencies. The systems engineer will be continually challenged to justify SE on a value-added basis. The most frustrating aspect of being a systems engineer in the commercial environment is the lack of willingness on the part of others to accept all aspects of SE at once. A discussion of the organizational aspect of SE is rare in the literature with the exception of a discussion of integrated product teams. The challenge of introducing SE into a traditional organization is that most organizations are organized along technical and managerial lines.
