Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:51:03.624Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Hidden Feat Behind Development Cost Escalation - How Engineering Design Enables Functional Expansion in the Aerospace Industry

Part of: Product Architecture and Modularization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Agathe Gilain ,
Pascal Le Masson  and
Benoît Weil

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The aerospace industry experiences a considerable growth in product development costs. Many research works aim at identifying evolution laws characterizing this large-scale phenomenon and at developing design strategies which could help mitigate it. This paper aims to clarify the evolution dynamics governing this phenomenon by studying how the products delivered by these costly projects evolve with time. Increasing complexity is often held responsible for surging costs. If complexity is generally defined as the price to be paid for improving product functionalities, it is rarely specified whether the improvement affects existing functionalities or involves new ones. We aim to identify the patterns of cost growth which can be associated with phenomena of existing functionalities upgrade and new functionalities introduction, and to identify the associated design capabilities that designers need to deploy in order to keep product change and cost growth under control. To that end, we introduce a model which generates curves, each of which featuring a trend of cost growth, specific to a scenario of product evolution and being interpretable as a signature of a strategy used by designers.

Keywords

Design costingFunctional modellingProduct architectureInnovationFunctional expansion
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 3011 - 3020
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

References

Alderson, D.L. and Doyle, J. (2010), “Contrasting Views of Complexity and Their Implications For Network-Centric Infrastructures”, IEEE Transactions on system man and cybernetics —Part A: systems and humans, Vol. 40 No. 4, July 2010.Google Scholar
Arena, M., Younossi, O., Brancato, K., Blickstein, I. and Grammich, C.A. (2008), “Why Has the Cost of Fixed-Wing Aircraft Risen”, A Microscopic Examination of the Trends in U.S. Military Aircraft Costs over the Past Several Decades. RAND (National Defense Research Institute and Project Air Force)Google Scholar
Augustine, N. R. (1983), “Augustine's Laws and major system development programs”, Revised and enlarged. 2nd ed. American Institute of Aeronautics / Astronautics, New York. ISBN: 0-915928-81-7.Google Scholar
Carlson, J.M. and Doyle, J.C. (1999), “Highly optimized tolerance: A mechanism for power laws in designed systems”, Phys. Rev. E, Vol. 60 No. 1412.Google Scholar
Carlson, J.M., Doyle, J.C. (2002), “Complexity and robustness,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., Vol. 99, pp. 2538–2545, Feb. 2002.Google Scholar
Dabkowski, M. and Valerdi, R. (2016), “Blockmodeling and the Estimation of Evolutionary Architectural Growth in Major Defense Acquisition Programs”, Thirteenth Annual Acquisition Symposium.Google Scholar
de Weck, O.L. (2012), “Feasibility of a 5x speedup in system development due to META design”, ASME/DETC2012-70791, 2012Google Scholar
El Qaoumi, K. (2015), “Mesurer l'innovation: modèles et études empiriques des changements d'identité des objets,” (thèse), Mines ParisTech - PSL Research University, Sciences de Gestion, Paris.Google Scholar
Le Masson, P., El Qaoumi, K., Hatchuel, A. and Weil, B. (2018), “Functional expansion - eliciting the dynamics of consumer goods innovation with design theory”. ICED.Google Scholar
Hove, K. and Lillekvelland, T. (2015), “Investment cost escalation – an overview of the literature and revised estimates”.Google Scholar
Marshall, A.W and William, M. (1959), “Predictability of the Costs, Time, and Success of Development”. Paper 1821. R and Corporation.Google Scholar
Sinha, K. (2014), “Structural complexity and its implications for design of cyber-physical systems”, PhD Th, MIT.Google Scholar
Suh, E.S., Kim, I.Y. and de Weck, O. (2004), “Design for Flexibility: Performance and EconomicOptimization of Product Platform Components”, 10th AIAA/ISSMO Multidisciplinary Analysis and Optimization Conference 30 August - 1 September 2004, Albany, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Suh, N.P. (2005), “Complexity: Theory and Applications”, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Winter, C. (2015), “A new approach to avoiding cost overruns and implementation delays in future large projects in aerospace business”. Management Sciences Vol. 4 No. 25.Google Scholar