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The maintainability engineering effort in the
conception and design phase is critical to ensure
that high system availability is obtained at
optimum Life Cycle Support Cost. Key in the
availability calculation of a system is its down
time, the time required to bring a failed system
back to its operational state or capability. This
down time is normally attributed to maintenance
activities. An effective way to increase a system's
availability is to minimize the downtime. This
minimized downtime does not happen at random, it is
made to happen by actively ensuring that full
consideration is given during the conceptual and
design phase. Therefore the inherent
maintainability characteristics of a system must be
assured. This can be achieved by the implementation
of specific design practices and validated through
a maintainability assessment process, utilizing
both analyses and testing. The following subtopics
cover some of these assurance activities.
- Maintainability Programs
- Maintainability Assessment
- Maintainability Modeling
- Maintainability Demonstration
- Design for Maintainability
- Defect Reporting and Corrective Action
System (DRACAS)
The maintainability program would normally be
effectively implemented by a well defined program
strategy and captured in a
maintainability program plan. The
responsibilities differ significantly from those of
a system integrator to those of a sub component/
assembly supplier. The responsibilities of the
system integrator would include the assessment of
potential supplier products and eventually the
allocation and flow down of the maintainability
product design requirements and maintainability
validation documentation. This is further detailed
in the subsection Maintainability Programs.
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