Reliability and Maintainability
Reliability & Maintainability (R&M) are inherent properties which must be designed and built into a system during Development and Manufacture, as high levels of availability are to be achieved In-service.
The requirement to use Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) to define the maintenance regime must be established in the Assessment phase. During Development, RCM must be included in the Invitation To Tender (ITT) and procurement contracts.
Subsequently, RCM shall be used to revise maintenance programmes, in the light of experience and developments during the In-service phase.
ITS Reliability Engineers can be provided to as the Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) focal point, including assisting with the verification and validation data, post any Operational Needs Analysis activities.
Interactive Technical Solutions Ltd (ITS) personnel are fully conversant with the development and validation of Integrated Test, Evaluation and Acceptance Plans (ITEAP) in particular with systems in the military environment. As the R&M focal point for the program, the main emphasis for this phase shall be consideration of additional total life cycle factors including Human Factors Integration, Safety, Security, Supportability and Sustainability.
ITS engineers realise that upgrades to systems (driven by evolution) may be undertaken to improve reliability and maintainability as well as reduce cost. Spiral development compatibility shall be analysed in terms of overall concept and functional architecture, to highlight the extent that they perform their functions satisfactorily and are not rendered obsolete by recent technology advances; large cost savings may be achieved using existing infrastructure/ data with minimum change.