SCIENCE

On September 28, 2010, Michigan-based Munro & Associates, Inc. was awarded a contract with the Defense-wide Manufacturing Science and Technology Program (Office of the Secretary of Defense) and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Manufacturing Technology Division, to explore and apply "Producibility Modeling during the Acquisition Process for Cost and Complexity Reduction." 

"This project will leverage over 22 years that we have worked in this field to benefit the taxpayers," said Joe Feord, VP Business Development at Munro. "Producibility modeling to reduce cost and complexity has been a niche field that is finally getting mainstream attention. The trick is to start thinking about production first and foremost as the prime driver early and throughout development. This is contrary to how engineers typically think since we are taught 'Form, Fit, and Function.' In order to get different results we have to make some changes. So this project is important to apply and demonstrate tools and methods to enable significant change in how to approach development." 

The project will research the DoD acquisition phases and determine how producibility modeling can be deployed throughout the various phases. It will leverage Munro's experience and existing modeling tools, Design Profit (DP), to demonstrate that producibility modeling does reduce complexity and cost. Munro will create an "Affordability and Producibility (AP) Roadmap" that will guide programs on the use and application for affordability and producibility modeling, and tailor the DP tools with a "Producibility Confidence Index" that will be a standardized metric to compare design alternatives based on design elegance, complexity, manufacturing readiness, cost, value, suppliers, and other relevant metrics. 

"This is a really interesting topic because it's cutting-edge scientific thinking that changes the dynamics around defense programs," says David Foreman, Vice President in charge of the Design Profit tools. "It's difficult because there are so many variables involved in defense programs. But since we already have metrics and experience that predict and track complexity, cost, manufacturing readiness levels, quality and other factors, we can create a mathematical formula that will provide an overall comparable index. Putting it all together into an AP Roadmap and a Producibility Confidence Index will be huge for DoD programs. It's exciting!" 

Munro & Associates, Inc. has been their customers' voice for Value, Quality and Profit. Their experience spans thousands of examples and accounts for billions of dollars saved through more efficient product designs, higher quality and smoother production. Munro has expanded and refined their methods to offer predictive tools, metrics and methods to expose drivers of potential downstream problems, provide direction for designing out high-cost drivers, generate standardized metrics for early trade-off analyses, and manage the details of producibility through the development lifecycle. By refining and repackaging how Munro works with their customers, these tools, metrics and methods are deployable more effectively than ever before. 

For more information, visit http://www.leandesign.com