Lessons Learned in an Aerospace Design for Reliability Program

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS This paper is intended to share lessons learned from an approach used to execute an Aerospace Design for Reliability (DfR) program in a Department of Defense (DoD) environment to achieve high reliability while maintaining a strict development schedule. Successful execution of a DfR program not only requires a solid understanding and application of the core principles of DfR, but also an ability to understand when the learning from a particular activity is sufficient to proceed with other follow on activities. The typical DoD program operates at an accelerated pace. This pace often puts pressure on a program to truncate certain activities as a trade for schedule. There are satisfactory compromises that can be reached. It is the role of the Reliability/Maintainability (R/M) engineer to balance between keeping to the schedule and maintaining good technical rigor. This does not mean providing an inferior analysis, but to ensure the following: 1. Deep integration of the R/M engineer into the design activities where design decisions are collaborative 2. Solid understanding the design's maturity 3. R/M analyses and activities are updated incrementally as the design evolves as opposed to looking for “done” 4. Clear communication of R/M goals and objectives There is ample information available on what to do in a DfR program, however, there is far less information available on when it is acceptable to move forward and the associated pitfalls with doing so.