How does integrated MBSE solutions prevent insane product development? Well, you’re probably familiar with one definition of insanity attributed to Albert Einstein “…doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome”.   In our travels, we are surprised by the amount of design insanity going on in organizations… repeating costly mistakes over and over.

For example, I talked to one young automotive engineer who was given a customer complaint to track down… “water on the knee”.   During the investigation, she discovered water would come through the door speakers when the bass was turned up. (we’ve all been pounded by the amped-up bass of a nearby vehicle’s woofers).

Looking inside the door, she found that water which should have drained harmlessly out of the weep holes in the bottom of the door was splashing up onto the speaker wire and following it down and into the speaker, leaving the bass vibrations to do the rest. Looking at the speaker wire’s revision history, she saw the previous version wire had a loop held by a tie wrap. The loop naturally carried the water below the speaker. From its history, she saw the speaker wire revision switched back and forth between loop/no loop on about a 6-month cadence. 

Of course, you know what happened, someone looking at extra wire length, cost, etc., and not understanding the reason behind it eliminated the loop saving a few pennies but causing the problem to return—i.e. insane design behavior.