Diagnose
Impact Assessment
An improvement plan that works in isolation needs to benefit the system as a whole. Whether the proposal is a new policy rule, an increase in node capacity, or a redesign of routes, the Impact Assessment calculates the actual effect on the pathway's sustainable performance before the change is made.
The result is a clear answer: whether the plan delivers what you expect, or whether it interacts with the existing configuration in ways the design stage could not see.
What this delivers
A calculated verdict on what the plan will actually deliver
A before-and-after comparison of the pathway's structural health score under the proposed change. If the plan improves mathematical feasibility, the model confirms it and shows by how much. If the expected gain does not materialise, the model identifies why.
Whether the plan performs as intended in the full configuration
A change that improves one part of a pathway can interact with existing rules and structure in ways that were not visible at design stage. The assessment establishes whether the proposal delivers its intended effect in the context of the full configuration, not in isolation.
A defensible audit trail
Every change that has been tested carries a model-traceable record. When scrutiny asks why a policy was designed as it was, why a capacity decision was scoped as it was, or why a pathway was configured as it was, the answer is a calculated verdict, not a governance narrative reconstructed after performance has failed.
How it works
The validated Logic Twin of the existing pathway serves as the baseline configuration. The proposed change, whether a new policy rule, an adjustment to node capacity, or a modification to the routes and structure of the pathway, is introduced as a parameter change and run through the Pathway Engine. The model solves the system logic under the new configuration and returns the updated System Reliability Rating — the percentage probability of meeting the target every month — and the binding constraint profile. The comparison between the two states is the assessment output.
Most improvement plans are sound. The assessment confirms that, or surfaces an interaction that the design stage did not have the information to detect. The Knot Factory does not operate only through policy: a capacity increase at the wrong node can tighten a downstream constraint, and a redesigned pathway can alter feasibility in ways that are not visible from the pathway diagram alone. The Impact Assessment applies the same calculation to all three change types and returns a verdict either way.
The assessment can be run pre-implementation, to test a proposal before it enters a governance or investment decision, or post-implementation, to attribute recent performance changes to a specific modification. It can be completed for any proposed change, regardless of whether the pathway already holds a current Baseline Assessment.