Creating a concurrent engineering environment to enhance supportability of the F/A-18E/F aircraft

McDonnell Aircraft Company has implemented improved procedures and developed new CAE tools to enhance the supportability of the new and modified equipment under development for the F/A-18E/F program. These procedures and tools were designed to reduce or eliminate support equipment requirements, ensure compatibility with automatic test equipment, and enhance equipment testability and thereby reduce life cycle cost associated with support and maintenance of the airborne equipment. This will be accomplished by emphasizing testability and other diagnostic elements through the implementation of an extended interorganizational concurrent engineering environment. The development and application of an automated testability analysis tool (AutoTEST) are discussed. AutoTEST can perform an analysis with varying levels of component and circuit detail. AutoTEST supports both a top-down and a bottom-up analysis approach. The tool will also be used to integrate the various functions and organizations involved in the product development process.<>