Maintainability: A Key to Effective Serviceability and Maintenance Management

Gets professionals quickly on-line with all the crucial designconcepts and skills they need to dramatically improve themaintainability of their products or systems

Maintainability is a practical, step-by-step guide to implementinga comprehensive maintainability program within your organization'sdesign and development function. From program scheduling, organizational interfacing, cost estimating, and supplieractivities, to maintainability prediction, task analysis, formaldesign review, and maintainability tests and demonstrations, itdescribes all the planning and organizational aspects ofmaintainability for projects under development and
* Schools readers in state-of-the-art maintainability designtechniques
* Demonstrates methods for quantitatively measuring maintainabilityat every stage of the development process
* Shows how to increase effectiveness while reducing life-cyclecosts of already existing systems or products
* Features numerous case studies, sample applications, and practiceexercises
* Functions equally well as a professional reference and aclassroom text

Independent cost analysis studies indicate that an inordinatelylarge percentage of the overall life-cycle cost of mostsystems/products is currently taken up by maintenance and support.In fact, for many large-scale systems, maintenance and support havebeen shown to account for as much as 60% to 75% of overalllife-cycle costs. At a time of fierce global competition, long-termcost effectiveness is a major competitive advantage thatmanufacturers simply cannot afford to underestimate. Clearly then, to remain competitive in today's international marketplace, companies must institute programs for reducing system maintenanceand support costs-- comprehensive programs that are an integralpart of the design and development process from its earliestconceptual stages.

This book shows you how to implement such a program within yourorganization's design and development function. From programscheduling, organizational interfacing, cost estimating, andsupplier activities, to maintainability prediction, task analysis, formal design review, and maintainability tests and demonstrations, it describes all the planning and organizational aspects ofmaintainability for projects under development while schooling youin the use of the full range of proven design techniques--includingmethods for quantitatively measuring maintainability at every stageof the development process. The authors also clearly explain howthe principles and practices outlined in Maintainability can beapplied to the evaluation of systems/products now in use both toincrease their effectiveness and reduce long-term costs.

While theoretical aspects of maintainability are discussed, theauthors' main purpose in writing this book is to help getprofessionals quickly on-line with the essential maintainabilityconcepts and skills. Hence, in addition to clarity of presentationand a rational hierarchical format, Maintainability features manycase studies and sample applications that help to clarify thepoints covered, and numerous practice exercises that help engineersto test their mastery of the concepts and techniques covered.

Maintainability is an invaluable professional tool for engineersfrom all disciplines who are involved with the design, testing, prototyping, manufacturing, and maintenance of products andsystems. It also serves as a superior course book forgraduate-level programs in those disciplines.

BENJAMIN S. BLANCHARD is Professor of Engineering and AssistantDean, College of Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute andState University. He is Chairman of the Systems EngineeringGraduate Program, responsible for the College's off-campus graduateengineering programs throughout Virginia, and coordinates theCollege's continuing education program activity. He teaches coursesin systems engineering, reliability and maintainability, logisticsupport, maintenance management, and life-cycle costing. ProfessorBlanchard has worked in industry as a design engineer, fieldservice engineer, staff engineer, and engineering manager. He isauthor and coauthor of numerous textbooks and journal articles, andis a frequent lecturer throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and theUnited States.

DINESH VERMA is Senior Research Associate, Industrial and SystemsEngineering Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity. He manages the Systems Design Laboratory and ispursuing research activities in systems engineering, maintainability and maintenance management, logistics, and fuzzylogic. His sponsored research activities have included thedevelopment of design evaluation software tools, and he haspublished a monograph and numerous technical papers in this andrelated areas.

ELMER L. PETERSON is an officer and private consultant with IntecAssociates, Inc. He has taught many courses in systems engineering, maintainability, and logistics throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia for various universities and professionalsocieties. Mr. Peterson has many years of industrial experience asa project manager for aircraft and space systems. His areas ofexpertise include: logistics, interim contractor support, systemsengineering, and maintainability. Before joining industry, he spenttwenty-one years in the U.S. Air Force as a maintenance andtraining specialist.