Logistics Programs
R&M Programs
Safety Programs

This section introduces high level considerations associated with the implementation of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety (RAMS) and Logistics engineering programs. In particular the interaction between various engineering disciplines, to which the more prominent engineering disciplines are:

1. Program Management and Engineering
2. System Engineering
3. Reliability and Maintainability Engineering
4. Logistics Support Engineering
5. Safety Engineering
6. Testability Engineering
7. Configuration Management
8. Quality Assurance

The majority of programs can follow the guidelines as detailed in established program standards, such as Defense Standards, Military Standards, NASA, Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) Standards and European Standards.

.Relationship with Engineering

It is important for the RAMS and Logistics Engineering groups to operate and function closely with other engineering groups such as Design Engineering, System Engineering, Configuration Management, and Quality Engineering.

For example design engineering may select a product which could have a profound negative impact on the Life Cycle Cost (LCC)  of Ownership, or the design may or may not facilitate maintainability characteristics of an end item product or system. To have an effective positive impact, in terms of reliability and LCC,  RAMS and Logistics Engineering must be included in the design and development loop and need to be active members in an integrated design engineering team. This relationship should commence from the onset of the pre-conceptual phase and be maintained through the following life cycle phase of design, development, production and deployment.

Interrelationship with other "Ability Engineering" and Logistics Groups

The interaction between the Reliability, Maintainability Safety and Logistics Engineering groups should be implemented and coordinated as a single group effort, due in part to their interdependencies and mutual vested interests. It can be best imagined like a mobile hanging from a ceiling, each of the "Abilities" and Logistics engineering groups, occupying a branch. If more emphasis were placed in one area than another, then the whole mobile would become unbalanced, impacting all the other elements. For example should the reliability engineering decide to achieve a system reliability by the use of redundant elements then this would have an impact upon logistics engineering. As more elements are used in a system configuration the more support resources will be required, hence increasing the Life Cycle Cost of Ownership. In another example, should a redundant architecture fail to take into consideration the need to partition the redundant elements for maintainability purposes, then the removal and replacement of a failed unit may require powering down the complete equipment. This could have a severe impact on a system that is required to provide a continuous service, such as an air traffic control centre.

The approach that would be taken for a given program will be dependent upon several factors including, the size of the program and the technologies used. A large program, such as the development of a complete airplane, ship or train, would require more planning and implementation, than a much smaller program or project, such as the development of a medical apparatus or a VHF radio set. Other issues that would need to be considered maybe which additional RAMS tasks are necessary to ensure that the program objectives and requirements are achieved.

The technologies used may include whether the program is fully developmental or Commercial/ Military Off-The-Shelf (COTS/ MOTS), or uses a combination of both.

Developmental Program: This type of program would benefit from an effective implementation of a RAMS and Logistics Engineering Program. The developmental program consists of all engineering phases, including conceptual, design, prototyping, production and deployment. In-addition careful planning and implementation would be a strategy, which details the reliability and maintainability characteristics and requirements.

Non-Developmental Program: This type of program may consist of using items that do not require development (and design), thus utilizing Off-The-Shelf (OTS) components, either military or commercial. Generally if a procuring agency is making an acquisition for a complete OTS system, then their real focus maybe geared towards the system's Reliability and Maintainability performance characteristics as well as the cost of ownership at a higher system level. It would therefore be prudent to ensure that an acceptable Availability with an Optimum Life Cycle Cost is achieved. That is why various tradeoff studies are made between competing systems' component alternatives during the acquisition phase.

Hybrid Programs: These types of programs utilise a combination of developmental and non-developmental programs. Generally this type of program is found during medium to large scale projects, such as the complete development and acquisition of weapons system(s) and the supporting platform, such as a warship. The actual system platform may be designed to fulfill specific operational criteria, including reliability and maintainability parameters. However, the individual subsystems may be OTS and integrated into the overall system architecture.

Alternative Support Directives Program: This type of program could be seen during the mid-life update of an existing system or when a system is retired by one end user and is acquired by another. When a system was first developed and deployed, particular reliability, maintainability and logistics attributes were developed based upon a specific operational and maintenance profile. Various aspects to this profile may have changed since the initial deployment and other issues may have arisen also, such as the support capabilities from third and forth line maintenance. This could be due to the Original Equipment Manufacture, or OEM may no longer be in business or is unable to continue to support the new user. As a result the new user (or owner) needs to know where and how this system will and can be supported. This may include the assessment of complete logistics packages and assets, and the system's reliability field performance.

RAMS and Logistics engineering activities have been captured in Military Standards and Handbooks. Supplementing these documents are other technical publication, textbooks, technical papers and information available on the Web. There is an unbounded amount of information available to the user.

Throughout this Web site, numerous references to various military standards and handbooks have been made. Even though the Military Specification system has undergone a dramatic overhaul resulting in many of these standards been canceled, does not detract from their usefulness, as many of these documents contain sound theory and practices, which are still called upon in various program requirements.

Certain individuals may say that a military standard or handbook has been canceled and is no longer applicable. However, if a standard is called out in a requirement document, such as a Statement of Work, it is still required.

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