Formation of coal seam and coal-rich zone is an integrated result of a series of factors in coal accumulation process.The coal accumulation system is an architectural aggregation of coal accumulation factors.It can be classified into 4 levels:the global coal accumulation super-system,the coal accumulation domain mega-system,the coal accumulation basin system,and the coal seam or coal seam set sub-system.The coal accumulation process is an open,dynamic,and grey system,and is meanwhile a system with such natures as aggregation,relevance,entirety,purpose-orientated, hierarchy,and environment adaptability.In this paper,we take coal accumulation process as a system to study origin of coal seam and coal-rich zone;and we will discuss a methodology of the systematic analysis of coal accumulation process.As an example,the Ordos coal basin was investigated to elucidate the application of the method of the coal accumulation system analysis. Formation of coal seam and coal-rich zone is an integrated result of a series of factors in coal accumulation process. The coal accumulation system is an architectural aggregation of coal accumulation factors. It can be classified into 4 levels: the global coal accumulation super- system, the coal accumulation domain mega-system, the coal accumulation basin system, and the coal seam or coal seam set sub-system. The coal accumulation process is an open, dynamic, and gray system, and is meanwhile a system with such natures as aggregation, relevance, entirety, purpose-orientated, hierarchy, and environment adaptability.In this paper, we take coal accumulation process as a system to study origin of coal seam and coal-rich zone; and we will discuss a methodology of the systematic analysis of coal accumulation process. As a example, the Ordos coal basin was investigated to elucidate the application of the method of the coal accumulation system analysis.