Technology life cycles are becoming shorter as is the time for those technologies to become ubiquitous in the society. The Industrial Revolution took about 150 years; but the computer revolution took only 50 years. Cell phones, which hit the market in the early 1980s took only 25 years to become a global phenomenon. Computers and cell phones are two examples of a growing number of products that marry hardware, software, communications, and physical components into what are called cyber physical

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... systems. Even though humans are, for the most part, only users of these systems, they are already having a considerable impact on the evolution of society. In this paper, we focus on the next stage of that evolution, cyber-physical systems. We also focus on changes in how these systems are engineered. Formally designed only by OEMs, these systems are now engineered across the supply chain. A number of companies now provide engineering services. We discussed a number of existing approaches to systems engineering and concluded that they are inadequate. Finally, we propose a new, consilience-based approach that draws on the disciplines and practices that can inform and help resolve those inadequacies.