Assessing the impact of health management approaches on system total cost of ownership

The integrated diagnostics and integrated vehicle health management (IVHM) processes provide frameworks that seek to maximize product availability and simultaneously reduce total system ownership costs. A system engineering approach is required to balance system requirements and design goals with effective implementation methodologies throughout the system acquisition life cycle. Prediction of failures (or prognostics) is just part of an effective, integrated health management solution. Implementation of an efficient methodology will achieve a balance of health management technologies - the right mix of diagnostic, prognostic, and scheduled maintenance approaches based on available resources and life cycle cost considerations. This paper focuses on means for assessing the impact of potential health management approaches on life cycle cost (LCC) as implemented within a system engineering framework. A disciplined approach to selecting appropriate health management solutions to satisfy design and operational requirements will be presented, and a software tool for performing trade studies of alternate approaches' impact on life cycle cost will be discussed. A primary goal was to allow domain experts and health management specialists to perform thorough life cycle cost analyses without requiring the services of specialized cost analysts. OCCAM has been successful in this respect, with initial applications providing immediate payback. A patent application was filed in 2004