Update: the recording of this webinar is now available online here.
A Support Engineer, trying to do the right thing, attempting to conduct support analyses, to carry out Through Life Cost predictions, in the earlier stages of a system’s life cycle will often be told that it is too soon for such activities. The arguments for this seem reasonable enough; the design is not mature and hence there simply is no data.
Then Too Soon, suddenly becomes Too Late, with no apparent intervening interval. We now realise that the system design is now pretty much fixed, it’s now too late to influence the design; and because the trials have not begun, we still have no data!
The Support Engineering community faces many problems, both technical and political, but the availability of data (or rather the unavailability) is one of the most common and critical.
The result is that effective analyses are not carried out, system modelling does not occur, trade-offs are not conducted, the Mission System is not optimised and Through Life Cost [TLC] is not estimated. If you can’t estimate TLC how can you conduct effective investment appraisals? How can you evaluate different options, alternative strategies, for support? How can you conduct a Combined Operational Effectiveness and Investment Appraisal [COEIA] that addresses TLC, or prepare a cost effective Through Life Management Plan?
The problem may seem insuperable, but it can be overcome if appropriate systems thinking and systems engineering approaches are applied.
Aspîre’s next webinar will explore this problem and strategies for addressing it.
Update: the recording of this webinar is now available online here.
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