Date of Award

3-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Systems Engineering and Management

First Advisor

Michael E. Miller, PhD

Abstract

The Department of Defense has adopted management tools, such as Manufacturing Readiness Levels (MRLs), which seek to address issues that have delayed the transition to production and delivery of deployment-ready systems. The MRL scale and assessment process institutes periodic reviews of products during the acquisition process. Specifically, MRLs provide a scale to measure, and importantly communicate, progress by evaluating and summarizing multiple aspects of product maturity. Unfortunately, issues are often identified during the periodic assessments which, if addressed earlier, would have further streamlined product delivery. The current research applies Model Based System Engineering tools to analyze and refine organizational structures and the product development process in an attempt to streamline this process. The model includes roles and artifacts involved in transferring requirements and information from design to manufacturing and the process that is applied to convert the Technical Data Package into manufactured components and assemblies. A process for actively tracking information necessary during MRL assessments to provide insight to MRL attainment on a more continuous basis is suggested to improve communication and accelerate the transition to production where appropriate.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENV-MS-22-M-321

DTIC Accession Number

AD1173751

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