Bas Koomen

Technical Director at Cadmes

Demystifying Systems Engineering from Scratch: A
Multidisciplinary Case Study of a “Useless Box” Using the
RFLP Methodology

Bio.
Bas Koomen is Technical Director at Cadmes and has more than 30 years of experience helping manufacturing companies improve their product development processes through the implementation of CAD, CAM, CAE, PDM, and PLM solutions. Throughout his career, he has worked predominantly with small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, supporting their transition from traditional engineering practices to digitally connected product development environments.   His expertise lies at the intersection of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), digital transformation, and business process improvement. He advises organizations on how to leverage engineering data, collaboration platforms, and digital technologies to increase efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness. In addition to his industry role, Bas conducts doctoral research into the evolution of PLM value propositions for manufacturing SMEs and regularly contributes to discussions on digital transformation in industry.

Abstract.

Systems Engineering (SE) training and literature often rely
on retrospective case studies of large-scale,
safety-critical aerospace or infrastructure projects. In
these examples, the problem space is clean and the solution
path is predefined. While illustrative, this creates a
significant pedagogical gap: it inadvertently signals to
practitioners that SE introduces unnecessary overhead
rather than tangible value, and it fails to convey why
specific SE steps are taken or how they guide design
decisions in real-time. Consequently, the SE community
lacks accessible, small-scale, “from-scratch” benchmarks
that demonstrate the immediate return on investment (ROI)
of SE in rapid, multidisciplinary product development. To
bridge this gap, this paper presents a comprehensive SE
case study centered on a highly relatable, mechatronic
system: a “Useless Box”—a device whose sole function is to
flip its own power switch off after a user turns it on.

By utilizing a small-scale yet complex device, we
demonstrate how SE methodology drives co-design across
mechanical, electrical, and software domains without the
weight of traditional administrative overhead. The project
was executed within the 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA environment,
strictly adhering to the Requirements, Functional, Logical,
and Physical (RFLP) methodology. The physical architecture
integrates a 3D-printed chassis, an Arduino controller,
servo motors, and electronic components, while the software
is driven by Arduino C++ code. Furthermore, Modelica was
used to simulate system behavior and test human-machine
interaction (HMI) virtually before physical prototyping.

Our findings yield two critical insights that address
current limitations in SE education. First, the active,
real-time maintenance of requirements emerged not as a
static administrative burden, but as a dynamic tool that
directly prevented integration conflicts between hardware
and software during rapid design iterations. Second,
behavioral simulation allowed for the virtual prototyping
of nuanced, “human-like” interaction patterns,
significantly shortening the physical debugging phase.
Ultimately, this paper fills a crucial gap by translating
complex, enterprise-level SE principles into an engaging,
storytelling format. It offers the SE community a scalable
pedagogical tool and a powerful narrative to demonstrate
that SE is not a barrier to agility, but an enabler of
successful multi-disciplinary innovation.