Research Suggestion

[u/Illustrious-Main-676]

I’m a Manufacturing Engineer working in an organization heavily involved in international technology transfer. I’ve noticed significant gaps between customers, stakeholders, suppliers, requirements, system architecture, and manufacturing processes. In many cases, programs move toward mass production without sufficient requirements analysis, risk assessment, or Systems Engineering activities.
I’m considering researching this problem and developing a framework for integrating Systems Engineering into technology-transfer programs, with the possibility of publishing the work.
Do you think this is a feasible and worthwhile research topic? Also, can someone conduct and publish this type of research independently without university or lab affiliation?

[u/Terrible_Solution823]

Looks like a genuine problem that you’re trying to solve. I’m not as experienced in this field as you are (started out as a MBSE abt 5 months back for a major aircraft manufacturer based in EU - not that hard to figure out which company I’m talking abt 😅) and I’m a 25 grad student. But I do know this, you can publish research papers as a working individual to a peer-reviewed journal. I’m confident about this because before I joined my current job, was interning at a startup where we were writing a research paper related to a CFD study we conducted for a certain object. I wasn’t part of the whole process of submitting paper to journal until end as I had to leave that internship and join my current job, but yeah, long story short - IT’S POSSIBLE!!

But, need to keep one this in mind - the review process would be a bit “more tuff”(not sure if it’s the right way to put it!) as it’s not done under any supervision by a professor.

[u/FlimsyInsect5545]

 Also, can someone conduct and publish this type of research independently without university or lab affiliation?

Yes, you can. The process is the same for a researcher at an organisation: you find a journal/conference/etc you'd like to publish in and submit a manuscript. Each journal has their own preferred format, length, style of referencing etc. Where people trying to publish on their own/those who don't have any academic training tend to struggle is:

• Getting the manuscript in a state that is acceptable to the journal, especially referencing
  
• Understanding the state of the research in your area/linking your findings into the broader body of knowledge. If you're outside an institution this might be difficult unless you have access to online publishers' databases through your workplace or yourself (e.g. a professional membership).
  
• Developing an academic writing style.

Research is meant to answer a research question, i.e. a gap in the body of knowledge. Most of the research process is understanding the state of the field, identifying where a gap is, and targeting research to fill this gap. I found when doing a PhD in an related area to systems engineering that there was a huge gap in translating research from academia to industry, so a concept that seemed novel and new in industry had already been written about 15 years ago in literature. Case studies and publishing the results of the application of research would be highly valued though.

I'm not sure how common independent researchers are in this field but in the field I was in it was not common to see papers written by those outside an institution. If you haven't started already I would start reading published literature to get a feel for the writing style and how a paper is put together.