AMWG becomes SGMWG

The NAFEMS Analysis Management Working Group (AMWG) was formed in 2004 as the successor to one of our first working groups, the Quality Assurance Working Group. The AMWG name was adopted because the group’s scope was extended to look beyond quality assurance to the management of the engineering simulation processes.

During the fourteen years that the working group has been in existence, it has focussed on the topic of quality assurance; including the mapping of the key International Standard ISO 9001 to the engineering simulation domain. This has been accompanied by the development and release of NAFEMS publications relating to the management of simulation processes.

Aside from V&V, the working group has been addressing the management of engineering simulation processes. It became clear to the group that production level management needs to be able to share information with board-level management. The senior executive managers may not have a simulation background; indeed, they may not be engineers. To this end, the working group began discussions on the scope of simulation governance which focusses on the responsibility of senior management to ensure that practices, processes, resources, and organisational understanding are in place to maximise the effectiveness of engineering simulation.

In that time, NAFEMS has expanded its coverage to a broader scope of engineering simulation, including to some extent physical testing. As such, the AMWG has expanded its reach to include higher-level engineering simulation management responsibilities, and therefore, decided that it was time to rename the working group as the NAFEMS Simulation Governance and Management Working Group (SGMWG). The intent is to address all levels of the engineering simulation management process.

As with all NAFEMS working groups, the AMWG/SGMWG is always open to considering new members. Anyone who feels they can contribute to the group’s efforts should get in touch.

The group meet twice a month via WebEx, and often invite discussion contributions from prominent members of both NAFEMS and the general engineering simulation communities.