"Supportability Engineering is essential to system design and system life cycle and not a consequence of it"
Supportability Engineering
In the discipline of systems engineering, the operational effectiveness of a system is measured not only by its immediate functional performance but also by its operational sustainability over its life cycle.
The statement, "supportability engineering is essential to system design and system life cycle, and not a consequence of it" underscores the critical imperative of integrating reliability, maintainability, availability and logistics parameters into the concept/design phase of system development.
Historically, front-end design choices dictate up to eighty percent of a system's eventual life cycle costs. When supportability engineering is treated as a mere consequence of system design, organisations are forced into a reactive stance, adopting systemic flaws, resulting in design for cost overspend and inflated system life cycle costs.
Conversely, by proactively embedding supportability engineering to underpin system design, organisations effectively mitigate operational risks, optimise supply chain pipelines, and transition into predictive, cost-effective, and resilient life cycle management.
To put it plainly, it is cost-effective to change a system design on paper than in its physical form.
The key impacts and benefits of supportability engineering and a design for maintenance approach at the system concept/design phase are given below.
Key Impacts and Benefits
Life Cycle Costs
System Operational Effectiveness
System Operational Effectiveness
A significant portion of a system's total cost is spent during its operations and support phase. By designing for maintenance at the system concept/design phase, the system life cycle cost associated with maintenance, spare parts, and labour, are optimised.
System Operational Effectiveness
System Operational Effectiveness
System Operational Effectiveness
Incorporating the disciplines of supportability engineering into system design makes sure that the system is optimised for reliability, maintainability and logistics. This approach minimises system downtime and the outcome of system availability.
System Life Cycle:
System Operational Effectiveness
Optimised Logistics
Systems developed with a design for maintenance approach are easier to upgrade, modify, and adapt to changing technologies. This flexibility prevents premature obsolescence and maximises the return on the initial investment.
Optimised Logistics
Enhanced Safety and Risk Mitigation
Optimised Logistics
Supportability engineering plans for the future of a system's life cycle, forecasting what parts, tools, and personnel will be needed, to prevent inventory shortages, reduces waste, and streamlines the logistics pipeline.
Enhanced Safety and Risk Mitigation
Enhanced Safety and Risk Mitigation
Enhanced Safety and Risk Mitigation
Prioritising design for maintenance and supportability analysis helps anticipate system failures. It allows for the identification and removal of system design maintenance errors and the creation of intuitive procedures to reduce operational risks. This promotes a safer system environment for both operators and maintainers.
Ultimately, embedding supportability engineering at the system concept/design phase transforms a system from a short-term success into a sustainable, highly efficient, and cost-effective asset throughout its entire life cycle.
Analytical Tools and Methodologies
Reliability Availability Maintainability
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Reliability Availability Maintainability
Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) is a foundational supportability engineering discipline.
Reliability measures the probability that a system will perform without failure over a specific duration.
Availability calculates the percentage of time the system is operationally ready for use. Maintainability assesses the ease and speed with which a system can be retained in or restored to safe operating condition.
Level Of Repair Analysis
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Reliability Availability Maintainability
Level of Repair Analysis(LORA) is an analytical methodology to determine the most cost-effective maintenance strategy. LORA determines where a component should be repaired (on-site at the organisation, at an intermediate facility, or at the manufacturer's depot). It also determines whether it is more economical to repair the item or discard it entirely.
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMEA/FMECA) is a bottom-up risk assessment tool. It is used it to systematically identify every potential failure mode within a system design, analyse the operational effects of those failure modes, and rank them by severity and probability. A FMEA/FMECA can be performed at any phase of a system life cycle to improve operational effectiveness and efficiency.
Reliability Centred Maintenance
Reliability Centred Maintenance
Failure Modes Effects and Critical Analysis
Reliability-Centred Maintenance (RCM) is a structured process for developing an optimal maintenance schedule. It moves away from arbitrary calendar-based maintenance, prioritising resources to prevent the specific failure modes most impacting safety and operational capability.
Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Reliability Centred Maintenance
Life Cycle Cost Analysis
Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is a modelling tool used to estimate the total cost of ownership. It calculates everything from initial research and development to manufacturing, long-term operations, support, and final disposal, allowing stakeholders to choose designs based on long-term value rather than just the lowest upfront price.
Conclusion
Ultimately, supportability engineering serves as the foundational bridge connecting initial system design with system operational effectiveness.
Treating system sustainment as a consequence of system design inevitably leads to inflated life cycle costs, premature obsolescence, and increased system downtime.
As systems grow increasingly complex, supportability engineering is essential to system design and system life cycle and not a consequence of it.
Embedding supportability engineering and implementing a design for maintenance approach to system design, makes sure that a system will be operationally effective, cost optimised and sustainable from manufacturing/production through to eventual system disposal.