A Socratic Approach to Optimizing Aerospace Manufacturing Costs

In aerospace development and manufacturing environments, the cost of tests contributes a significant portion to the overall program costs. An extensive test program results in increased costs and unforeseen delays in fielding needed products and technologies. On average test represents approximately 30% of overall costs. The lack of a well thought out test strategy developed early and maintained through the entire program lifecycle results in high operational field failures, increased test equipment and unit production costs, delays in unit integration, redundant manufacturing tests, and poor transition into production as well as an increase in program risks. This paper describes the concept of an evolving program test strategy and the role of a Test Architect to achieve the goal of reducing test costs across the entire program lifecycle. Defining a test strategy results in clearly structured test plan and architecture, optimized test event planning and comprehensive test artifacts early in the program lifecycle. As a Subject Matter Expert, the Test Architect sets and drives the test strategy ensuring an overall test program is optimized and aligned across three phases of development: User Operations, Development and Production. To achieve a robust test strategy, the Test Architect uses a Socratic approach to question why a test needs to be performed, increasing the likelihood of executing a successful development test program, facilitating a seamless transition into production and optimizing the support of the deployed product.