Open Design Systems

A.R.M. (Rogier) Wolfert

Open Design Systems

Authors

A.R.M. (Rogier) Wolfert

Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Keywords: Management, Technology, Engineering

Synopsis

Current systems design and decision management methodologies can be single-sided, ignoring or failing to capture the dynamic interplay between multi-stakeholder preferences (‘what they want’) and system performances (‘what they can’). In addition, these methodologies often contain fundamental modelling errors and do not provide single best-fit solutions. This leaves designers or decision-makers without unique answers to their problems. Above all, mainstream higher education primarily applies instructivist and research-based learning methods, and therefore does not adequately prepare students for designing solutions to future complex problems.

This book introduces both a state-of-the-art participatory design methodology (Odesys), and a design-based learning concept (ODL), which together overcome the aforementioned issues. Odesys is a pure act of open design integration to confront conflicting socio-technical interests and is the key to unlocking these complexities to deliver socially responsible systems. Odesys’ design engine, the Preferendus, enables stakeholders to cooperatively identify their best-fit design synthesis. It employs a novel optimisation method that maximises the aggregated preferences, integrating sound mathematical and extended U-modelling via open technical-, social-, and purpose cycles. The art of ODL is a constructivist design-based and well-proven learning concept fostering students’ design capabilities to become open and persistent problem solvers. It is a reflective, creative, and engaged learning approach that opens human development and unlocks new knowledge and solutions.

The author also introduces new management features such as the corporate social identifier (CSI), the ‘socio-eco’ threefold organization model and U-model based open loop management. Finally, the author places Odesys & ODL within the integrative context of empiricism, rationalism, spiritualism, and constructivism to unite the open design impulse.

This book will be of interest to both academics and practitioners working in the field of complex systems design and managerial decision-making, and functions as a textbook on systems design and management for master students from diverse backgrounds.

DOI: 10.3233/RIDS10

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Author Biography

A.R.M. (Rogier) Wolfert, Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Prof.dr.ir. A.R.M. (Rogier) Wolfert has been appointed professor of engineering
asset management in the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Delft
University of Technology since 2013. Here he has lectured within several MSc curricula
and was an advisor of several PhD and MSc students. He has worked with
R&D groups at various universities and research institutes for the past 30 years,
both nationally and internationally. He gained R&D experience both at the level of
fundamental engineering design and at the level of applied engineering asset management.
He is the author of several papers published in scientific journals and/or
presented at international conferences. He has acquired both governmental funds
(EU and Dutch NWO/TTW) and industrial research funds, and managed the
associated projects. Rogier has built a proven track-record for operating various
industrial management roles both within infrastructure service provider and engineering
projects & services contractors. Over the past 20 years, he has been involved
in the design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of various types
of inland and offshore infrastructures. He has contributed to the planning, development,
and management of leading projects and services contracts, all of which
have had a significant impact on Dutch society. He has extensive experience in
managing multidisciplinary and international teams with professionals from different
cultural backgrounds. He is used to working at different levels within the
organization. He has authored several industrial reports.
As a person, Rogier is focused, goal-oriented, fast in grasping the big picture,
and able to quickly put his finger on the key problems. As a problem solver, he is
effective in implementing solutions to get results. As a systems integration thinker,
he is very much able to connect different domains and parties while retaining
their strong individual values. As an open design systems engineer, he is able to
find the golden mean and is prepared to follow creative, non-conformist, and/or
non-conventional paths for seemingly insoluble problems. He is in his element in
dynamic and complex systems environments where new solutions must be found.
He is convinced that everyone has a designer inside themselves, and his purpose is
to foster Odesys & ODL to awaken them. Last but not least, Rogier considers both
the outer mechanistic-matter observation and the inner spiritual-mind experience
as companions on his journey into the emerging future.
Rogier holds both doctor (Dr.) and master (Ir.) degrees from Delft University
of Technology. He is 53 years old, married, and has four children.