DESIGN FOR SUPPORTABILITY AS A MEANS OF REDUCING TECHNOLOGY TRANSITION RISK

In order to assess a design from a supportability perspective early in a technology’s prototyping phase, TARDEC’s Systems Engineering Directorate has established a Design for Supportability (DfS) competency. This competency, under the SE umbrella, encompasses the relationship between Design for Reliability (DfR), Design for Maintainability (DfM), and Design for Logistics (DfL). The combination of DfR, DfM and DfL form a trifecta of knowledge that determines whether a developing technology will: 1) perform its intended function for the complete duration of the mission it’s designed for; 2) be designed in a way to be fixable in a reasonable amount of time using standard tools; 3) be designed to have replaceable parts as accessible as possible; 4) not increase the logistics burden for our men and women in uniform.