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PHASE I: CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

In Phase I, high risk areas are identified and system operation needs are translated into
a set of operational requirements. The primary maintainability concern during this
phase is the determination of system effectiveness needs and criteria, in addition to
establishment of the maintenance and logistic support policies and boundaries required
to satisfy mission objectives by using operational and mission profiles.
Items such as the following must be accomplished prior to developing system
maintainability requirements:

• Details of mission, system operating modes, and so on

• Evaluation of system utilization rates and mission time factors
• Details of the global logistic support objectives and concepts
• Evaluation of the system life cycle duration

PHASE II: VALIDATION

During Phase II, operational requirements developed and formulated in the previous
phase are refined further with respect to system design requirements. The prime
objective of validation is to ensure that full-scale development does not begin until
factors such as costs, performance and support objectives, and schedules have been
effectively prepared and evaluated.
In this phase, maintainability management specifically deals with tasks such as
those listed below:

• Preparing maintainability program and demonstration plans as per con-

tractual requirements
• Determining reliability, maintainability, and system effectiveness-related
requirements
• Preparing maintainability policies and procedures for validation and follow-
on full-scale engineering effort
• Coordinating and monitoring the entire organization’s maintainability effort
• Performing maintainability predictions and allocations
• Participating in trade-off analyses
• Providing assistance to maintenance engineering in the performance of
maintenance-related analyses
• Preparing plans for data collection and analysis
• Establishing maintainability incentives and penalties
• Participating in design reviews with respect to maintainability
• Developing maintainability design-related guidelines for use by design
engineers with the aid of maintenance engineering analyses

PHASE III: PRODUCTION

In Phase III, the system is manufactured, tested, and delivered, and, in some cases,
installed per the technical data package resulting from Phases I and II. Although the
maintainability engineering design efforts will largely be completed by this time,

©2002 CRC Press LLC

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the maintainability-related tasks such as those listed below are performed during
this phase.

• Monitoring the entire production process

• Examining production test trends with respect to adverse effects on items
such as maintainability, maintenance concepts, and provisioning plans
• Examining change proposals with respect to their impact on maintainability
• Assuring the proper correction of discrepancies that can adversely impact
maintainability
• Taking part in establishment of controls for process variations, errors, etc.,
that can undermine system maintainability

PHASE IV: OPERATION

In Phase IV, the system is used, logistically supported, and modified as appropriate.
During the operation phase maintenance, overhaul, training, supply, and material
readiness requirements and characteristics of the system become clear. Although there
are no particular maintainability requirements at this time, the phase is probably the
most crucial because the actual cost-effectiveness and logistic support of the system
are demonstrated. In addition, maintainability-related data can be obtained from the
real life experience for future use.

MAINTAINABILITY DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS

AND SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS
There are many maintainability-related system/item characteristics that must be empha-
sized during design. Some of these are: modular design, interchangeability, displays,
human factors, safety, test points, standardization, controls, illumination, weight, lubri-
cation, accessibility, installation, training needs, adjustments and calibration, tools, label-
ing and coding, test equipment, manuals, work environment, covers and doors, size
and shape, failure indication (location), connectors, and test hookups and adapters.
The most commonly cited/mentioned maintainability-related characteristics by pro-
fessionals involved with maintainability include: displays, controls, doors, covers,
labeling and coding, accessibility, test points, checklists, mounting and fasteners,
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handles, connectors, test equipment, charts, aids, and manuals. Some of these factors
are discussed below.

ACCESSIBILITY
This may be described as the relative ease with which an item can be reached for
replacement, service, or repair. Inaccessibility is a frequent cause of ineffective main-
tenance, thus an important maintainability problem. Many factors can affect acces-
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sibility. Some of them are as follows:

• Location of item and its associated environment

• Frequency of entering access opening

©2002 CRC Press LLC