Service support system modelling language for simulation-driven development of functional products

A functional product (FP) comprises of an integrated package of hardware and support services sold under a performance-based contract. A barrier to the adoption of FP is the lack of tools for obtaining predictions of availability and support costs during product development. A previous paper by the authors described a simulation-driven development strategy for designing FP that are optimised for functional availability and support costs. This iterative strategy involves representing the FP design in a modelling language; using a software code to automatically generate and analyse a simulation model from this representation to produce detailed performance predictions; and using these predictions as feedback to improve the design. The use of a modelling language facilitates the representation of the design details within the hardware and support system that influence availability and support costs. This includes the maintenance process design, maintenance strategy design and maintenance resource availability design. In this paper, an overview of a modelling language the authors have developed for this purpose is described.