Living system simulator analysis: Intersecting system dynamics and statistical monitoring

Managing a complex technical system, which incorporates extensive human-technology interface, is difficult due to its inherent systemic unpredictability. Management often wants to create a shift in an underperforming system, but is uncertain about how an intervention will affect it. A living systems simulator would be useful to engineers and technical managers in monitoring policy decisions for shifts in the trend of performance. The creation of a tool to monitor living systems will require the fields of system dynamics and statistical process control to converge. A State of the Art Matrix approach identifies the literature intersecting the fields of system dynamics and statistical process control. A review of the literature found an opportunity to implement linear profile monitoring within systems dynamic simulation, and room for improvement in the use of general systems tools. A scorecard approach evaluates the potential of existing capabilities of system dynamics software to simulate and monitor living system. These exploratory reviews find that there is an untapped potential to research and build living system simulators with the current technological capability.