Assembly, integration, and verification (AIV) in ALMA: series processing of array elements

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is a joint project between astronomical organizations in Europe, North America, and East Asia, in collaboration with the Republic of Chile. ALMA will consist of at least 54 twelve-meter antennas and 12 seven-meter antennas operating as an aperture synthesis array in the (sub)millimeter wavelength range. It is the responsibility of ALMA AIV to deliver the fully assembled, integrated, and verified antennas (array elements) to the telescope array. After an initial phase of infrastructure setup AIV activities began when the first ALMA antenna and subsystems became available in mid 2008. During the second semester of 2009 a project-wide effort was made to put in operation a first 3- antenna interferometer at the Array Operations Site (AOS). In 2010 the AIV focus was the transition from event-driven activities towards routine series production. Also, due to the ramp-up of operations activities, AIV underwent an organizational change from an autonomous department into a project within a strong matrix management structure. When the subsystem deliveries stabilized in early 2011, steady-state series processing could be achieved in an efficient and reliable manner. The challenge today is to maintain this production pace until completion towards the end of 2013. This paper describes the way ALMA AIV evolved successfully from the initial phase to the present steady-state of array element series processing. It elaborates on the different project phases and their relationships, presents processing statistics, illustrates the lessons learned and relevant best practices, and concludes with an outlook of the path towards completion.