Maurice Pinault (Deputy CEO) Zodiac Aerospace was a French aerospace group founded in 1896 that supplied systems and equipment for aircraft. It had around 100 sites across the globe and employed nearly 35,000 people. In October 2018 it was acquired by French aerospace and defense company Safran.
Abstract This paper presents the transformation journey of Safran Seats from traditional systems engineering practices to a holistic “engineering‐the‐system” approach, guided by the INCOSE Competency Framework. Six years after the initial deployment of systems engineering, Safran Seats launched a comprehensive project to modernize its tools and processes. Recognizing that the mere introduction of systems engineering and MBSE tools was insufficient, the initiative expanded to address organizational competencies and structure. The project included a thorough mapping of internal roles, processes, and competencies against international standards such as INCOSE and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288. This comparative analysis revealed both overlaps and gaps, highlighting the need for a tailored competency framework that incorporates Safran‐specific requirements, including cybersecurity, safety, and product line management. Beyond reporting an industrial deployment, this study provides a critical assessment of the INCOSE Systems Engineering Competency Framework when applied in a large aerospace organization. It highlights structural gaps in the current framework — particularly regarding safety, cybersecurity, and product line engineering — and proposes concrete extensions to improve its applicability in regulated, product‐based industries. The results contribute to advancing systems engineering knowledge by clarifying how competency frameworks can effectively support organizational and cultural transformation, beyond tool adoption. The paper details the methodology used, the challenges encountered, and the outcomes achieved, offering recommendations for defining roles and responsibilities, fostering collaboration, and ensuring that systems engineers adopt a holistic, design‐oriented perspective. The findings provide valuable insights for organizations seeking to enhance their systems engineering capabilities in line with international best practices.
Abstract Product Line Engineering (PLE) is a fundamental pillar of systems engineering. However, developing product lines extends beyond the system domain and must encompass both software and hardware components, integrating Application Lifecyle Management (ALM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Achieving this requires establishing a single source of variability across the entire product lifecycle. Leveraging Safran Seats' real‐world experience, this paper proposes a framework for scaling PLE from ALM to PLM and lays the foundation for advancing this new frontier in PLE.
Small studies show that 0° head positioning of patients with large vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke improves penumbral blood flow and clinical stability. Understanding whether 0° head position maintains clinical stability would allow for optimal patient positioning before thrombectomy. To determine superiority of 0° over 30° head positioning at maintaining clinical stability in patients with LVO before thrombectomy. This was a prospective randomized clinical trial with blinding to study enrollment/end points conducted from May 2018 to November 2023. There were 3 planned interim analyses, and the study was conducted at certified thrombectomy hospitals in the US. Included in this analysis were consecutive consenting individuals with computed tomography (CT) angiography–positive anterior or posterior LVO who were candidates for thrombectomy (baseline mRS 0-1) and had viable penumbra (CT perfusion or Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score ≥6) within 24 hours of stroke onset. Enrollment of systemic thrombolysis more than 15 minutes from consent was discouraged to prevent confounding of head position effects; in addition, patients with disabilities who lacked a legal representative could not participate due to lack of consent. Randomization to 0° or 30° head positioning with monitoring every 10 minutes using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) until movement to a catheterization table. The primary outcome was worsening of 2 or more NIHSS points before thrombectomy. Safety outcomes included severe neurologic deterioration (worsening ≥4 NIHSS points) before thrombectomy, hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) during hospitalization, and all-cause death within 3 months. Planned enrollment included 182 patients. Before data and safety monitoring board study closure, a total of 92 patients (mean [SD] age, 66.6 [14.4] years; 48 male [52.2%]) were randomized: 45 patients to the group with 0° head positioning and 47 patients to the group with 30° head positioning. Patient characteristics were similar between groups; however, patients with head position at 30° experienced worsening on the NIHSS of 2 points or more, whereas patients with head position at 0° showed score stability (hazard ratio [HR], 34.40; 95% CI, 4.65-254.37; P < .001). One patient with 0° head positioning and 20 patients with 30° head positioning experienced worsening on the NIHSS of 4 points or more during positioning (HR, 23.57; 95% CI, 3.16-175.99; P = .002). No patients developed HAP; all-cause death occurred in 2 patients (4.4%) in the 0° group, compared with 10 patients (21.7%; P = .03) in the 30° group. Results suggest that 0° head positioning for patients with acute LVO was a protective maneuver to maintain clinical stability in the prethrombectomy phase while awaiting definitive treatment. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03728738
Abstract. The aviation industry is constantly making compromises when designing comfortable airplane cabins. Providing passengers with a pleasant acoustic environment without adding weight to the cabin structure is a field of tension that challenges cabin interior designers. The aim of this study was to investigate whether noise levels affect the comfort and physical discomfort experienced by airplane passengers, and whether control influences comfort perception. To this end, 30 participants experienced three conditions (silence, aircraft engine noise at 75 dB, and the same noise with the ability to use earplugs), and comfort and discomfort were measured using a questionnaire. It was concluded that aircraft engine noise negatively affected the airplane passengers’ comfort experiences. Having the ability to control this noisy environment with earplugs resulted in the lowest reported physical discomfort.
Finite element models (FEM) of human body models (HBM) are used to analyze static seating discomfort mainly in terms of interface pressure distribution on the seat surface. However, most of the HBMs are not validated under actual seating conditions due to the difficulty of measuring internal body loads such as soft tissue deformation, intervertebral disc pressures, etc. The rare HBM-related studies claiming validation have only analyzed the interface pressure distribution. Recent experiments conducted with and without foam for different seat pan inclinations using open MRI indicate that soft tissue deformation below the ischial tuberosity (IT) is affected by both contact pressure and shear and thus could be an objective indicator in seat discomfort assessment. The aim of this present study is to report a preliminary evaluation of FE-HBMs against these subject-specific experimental data in terms of interface pressure and soft tissue deformation.
