Measures for Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) in Early Life Cycle of Aerospace and Defense Systems - Review of Established System Measures

Abstract

In recent years many companies shift from product-based to service-based business models. This includes aerospace and defense industries. This new trend of servitization moves the risk of system downtime and higher servicing costs from customers to contractors and increases the need for more precise estimations on in-service support of systems. The fundamentals of in-service support (ISS) planning is not a new concept. Aerospace and defense has set foundations with the introduction of Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), a discipline within Systems Engineering, in the 1960s. Nowadays, ILS (also Supportability Engineering or Logistics Engineering) anticipates servitization and other trends by transforming into Integrated Product Support (IPS). Decisions for ISS in utilization are taken in the early system life cycle phases. Uncertainty in these phases has a negative effect and represents a threat to ILS and system performance in utilization. The use of reliable measures for ILS is needed in early life cycle. However, no ILS specific measures for early life cycle phases have been established. Instead, system measures for reliability, maintainability, availability, affordability (or life cycle costing), etc. are also used for measuring ILS performance. Unfortunately, it is not documented if established system measures work for ILS. This paper is addressing the issue. Established system measures were qualitatively reviewed for their applicability in ILS in early life cycle phases and utilization. Found weaknesses are described. As a result, the need for ILS specific measures is identified.