<p>Industry-wide simulation platforms are increasingly needed to address complex societal challenges, such as decarbonization. However, their development is often hindered by diverse stakeholder interests, fragmented models, and evolving regulations. The Maritime and Ocean Digital Engineering Laboratory (MODE), an 18-company industry–academia consortium, exemplifies this challenge in developing a shared simulation platform for maritime decarbonization. This study proposes a quantitative system architecting framework to prioritize development pathways, shifting the focus toward architecture-based system integration. The framework employs object-process methodology (OPM) and design structure matrices (DSM) to define a connection coverage metric, which quantifies how effectively a set of models captures critical cross-domain interactions. Applying this framework to the MODE project, we conduct a comparative simulation between ad hoc and architecture-based development strategies. The analysis reveals that the former suffers from significant periods of “synergy lag,” during which development effort accumulates without realizing system-level desirability due to uncoordinated modeling. In contrast, the proposed framework identifies a Pareto-efficient roadmap that minimizes this lag. Monte Carlo simulations show that architecture-based planning generates value both earlier and more efficiently than random bottom-up construction. When aggregated over the entire development horizon, the integrated impact of the architecture-based strategies is more than three times larger than that of the random bottom-up approach, indicating substantially higher cumulative value for the same modeling investment. The proposed framework thus provides systems engineers with a structured, quantitative method to build consensus and maximize the return on modeling investment in complex, cross-industry projects.</p>