The most important change lies on the new “ways of working” even more than on evolving the processes and tools. Digitalization is not about doing what we are currently doing better or in a smarter way, it is about changing what we do and the way we do it. The Digital Spacecraft is a way to change drastically the way Agencies, primes and supply-chain work together, switching from a 100% customer/supplier relation to a mix between co-engineering approach and contractual relation. This mindset change is the key enabler for future European success and digitalization is its enabler. Digital engineering come along with higher transparency, trust, partnership and objectives alignment.

In order to achieve the expected benefits of the digital transformation on spacecraft development and operations, the effort shall be focused on research and development in the four areas of the side figure.

The highest benefits -over 30% with respect to the present-, however, are foreseen when:

• predicting and detecting quality trend defects sooner,
• improving product specification, design, build and verification,
• improving operations, and
• facilitating collaboration.

[based on a dedicated analysis on primary and secondary research studies (i.e. NAFEMS survey, Dassault Systems/engineering.com survey, TT member pilot survey. BOCCONI CEMS study).

This figure indicates a number of benefits related to Model-Based Systems Engineering. The graph focusses on 3 questions of the SERC questionnaire (Q3, Q7, Q26) and indicates for each of them the number of times that the benefits (in the horizontal axes) were said to contribute to the question. This allows to identify the most recognized benefits of MBSE.

Benchmarking the Benefits and Current Maturity of Model-Based Systems Engineering across the Enterprise, Results of the MBSE Maturity Survey, Part 1: Executive Summary, March 19, 2020, Technical Report SERC-2020-SR-001 System Engineering Research Center