Designing Engineering Systems for Sustainability

Sustainability means keeping an existing system operational and maintaining the ability to manufacture and field versions of the system that satisfy the original requirements. Sustainability also includes manufacturing and fielding revised versions of the system that satisfy evolving requirements, which often requires the replacement of technologies used in the original system with newer technologies. Technology sustainment analysis encompasses the ramifications of reliability on system management and costs via sparing, availability and warranty. Sustainability also requires the management of technology obsolescence (forecasting, mitigation and strategic planning) and addresses roadmapping, surveillance, and value metrics associated with technology insertion planning.