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- Title
A Methodology for Assessing Affordability Maturity of U.S. Defense Systems.
- Authors
Long Si Dong
- Abstract
Systems are becoming more complex while development of these systems is facing challenges because of reduced funding and development schedules due to the fact that technologies emerge and quickly become obsolete. Cost and schedule overruns are common during defense systems development. However, "do more with less" is a recurring reality for the U. S. defense industry. As a result, affordability has become the dominant consideration in development of U.S. defense systems. The realization of affordability in major weapon systems development programs may not be at a tipping point given the fact that the biggest customer of weapon systems developers--the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)--will drive affordability through cost reduction and rapid development by employing the DoD's firm fixed price contract vehicle. This has become game-changing for the defense industry and will drive affordability from engineering offices and manufacturing floors to tier companies and suppliers. For every complex system development program, the cost to design a system is es timated or predicted before the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract is awarded. However, the estimated cost figure is evolving as systems engineering efforts take place throughout the design life cycle. As a result, without understanding the cost figures during the phases of a program, cost overrun is inevitable. For that reason, the need for mandating affordability maturity assessment throughout the acquisition milestones is long overdue. There are numerous processes, tools, best practices, and methodologies implemented by Systems Engineering communities that attempt to improve cost and schedule performances. Until now, the capability was lacking for assessing the organizations' ability to meet cost, schedule, and technical requirements. The author has validated such a gap and used systems engineering to develop a methodology needed to assess affordability during development. The methodology includes associated models for assessing an organization's ability to develop U.S. defense systems that meet contractual technical requirements within cost and on schedule. The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) method, the U.S. Defense Acquisition Strategy, DoDI 5000.02, and the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 15288 standard were used in development of the Affordability Maturity Assessment Methodology (AMAM), considering organization enablers, program management, external risk, and technical performance. This methodology provides a new ground-breaking systems engineering capability for determination of cost and schedule drivers, and the organization's ability to control, to manage, and to achieve contractual requirements leading up to meeting the overall system performance requirements.
- Subjects
DEFENSE Acquisition University (U.S.); SYSTEMS development; DEFENSE industries; SYSTEMS engineering; MANUFACTURING processes
- Publication
Defense Acquisition Research Journal: A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University, 2017, Vol 24, Issue 4, p733
- ISSN
2156-8391
- Publication type
Article