Using rma monte carlo analysis as part of the systems engineering design process

Too often, the reliability engineering effort is an after-the-fact activity on a program. The support engineering disciplines, such as reliability and supportability engineering, are often found added-on to the tail-end of the design effort. In order to maximize operational effectiveness within today´s cost and schedule constraints, reliability engineering needs to be a part of the up-front systems engineering effort on a program. Once in systems engineering, the role of reliability engineering needs to address the programs key TPMs (Technical Performance Metrics) within real-life operational scenarios. For example, a ship at sea changes its equipment configurations depending upon what mission it is performing at the time. At various points in time, the ship could be in-port, steaming to a new location, operating a specific mission, and then steaming to another location while picking-up supplies at mid-ocean before proceeding to another mission. In order to have the RMA (Reliability Maintainability Availability) engineering effort affect the ship´s system design, RMA Monte Carlo modeling was used in the early system design stages to optimize Ao (operational Availability) with respect to system configuration, on-board spares and corrective maintenance hour allocations. The value of this paper to the RMA community is to show a case history where there were very positive results by having RMA engineering in a systems engineering design role on a program