Specialty Engineering

Question 1

What is logistics engineering?

Answer 1

Logistics engineering (Blanchard and Fabrycky, 2011), which may also be referred to as product support engineering, is the engineering discipline concerned with the identification, acquisition, procurement, and provisioning of all support resources required to sustain operation and maintenance of a system.

Question 2

What is value engineering?

Answer 2

VE uses a systematic process (e.g., a formal job plan), VE-certified facilitators/ team leads, and a multidisciplinary team approach to identify and evaluate solutions to complex problems in the life cycle of a project, process, or system. The objective is to achieve the essential functions at the lowest LCC consistent with required performance, reliability, availability, quality, and safety. VE is not a cost reduction activity but a function-oriented method to improve the value of a product. There is no limit to the field in which VE may be applied.

Question 3

What is affordability?

Answer 3

Affordability is the balance of system performance, cost and schedule constraints over the system life while satisfying mission needs in concert with strategic investment and organizational needs.

Question 4

What is cost-effectiveness analysis?

Answer 4

–A form of business analysis that compares the relative costs and performance characteristics of two or more courses of action.
–Helps derive critical system performance and design requirements and supports data-based decision making

Question 5

How does CBA differ from CEA?

Answer 5

–Assigns a monetary value to the measure of effect
–Uses monetary measures of outcomes

Question 6

What is LCC analysis?

Answer 6

• Refers to the total cost incurred by a system, or product, throughout its life
• “Total” cost varies by circumstances, the stakeholders’ points of view, and the product
• Similar to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or Total Ownership Cost (TOC), but many times, these measures only include costs once the systems is purchased or acquired.
• Prepare as accurate cost estimates as possible and assign risk as required.
• LCC analysis can be used in affordability and system cost-effectiveness assessments.

Question 7

What is EMC?

Answer 7

The engineering discipline concerned with the behavior of a system in an electromagnetic (EM) environment.

Question 8

When is a system EMC?

Answer 8

–A system can operate without malfunction in an EM environment together with other systems or system elements
–When a system does not add to that environment as to cause malfunction to other systems or system elements.

Question 9

What are best practices in EMC SE?

Answer 9

• Get EMC into the requirements
• Test at lower level elements if possible
• Have a control plan
• Test the system against its EMC requirements

Question 10

What is a goal of AD re. Environmental Engineering/ Impact Analysis?

Answer 10

maximize the economic value of the residue system elements and minimize the generation of waste materials destined for disposal

Question 11

What is the biggest key to interoperability?

Answer 11

Standards compliance

Question 12

What is the scope of Logistics Engineering?

Answer 12

• To determine logistics support requirements,
• To design the system for supportability,
• To acquire or procure the support, and
• To provide cost-effective logistics support for a system during the utilization and support stages

Question 13

What are the support elements for a system?

Answer 13

• Product support integration and management
• Design interface
• Sustaining engineering
• Maintenance planning
• Operation and maintenance personnel
• Training and training support
• Supply support
• Computer resources (hardware and software)
• Technical data, reports, and documentation
• Facilities and infrastructure
• Packaging, Handling, Storage, and Transportation (PHS&T)
• Support equipment

Question 14

What may be part of supportability analysis?

Answer 14

–Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)
–Fault Tree Analysis (FTA),
–Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) Analysis,
–Maintenance Task Analysis (MTA),
–Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), and
–Level of Repair Analysis (LORA)

Question 15

What are the main activities of supportability analysis?

Answer 15

• The initial determination and establishment of supportability requirements as an input to design;
• The evaluation of various design options;
• The identification, acquisition, procurement, and provisioning of the various elements of maintenance and support; and
• The final assessment of the system support infrastructure throughout the utilization and support stages.

Question 16

What do teams in producibility analysis try to reduce?

Answer 16

• Risk
• Manufacturing cost
• Lead time
• Cycle time
• Strategic or critical materials use

Question 17

What are mass properties?

Answer 17

• Weight
• The location of center of gravity
• Inertia about center of gravity,
• Product of the inertia about an axis

Question 18

What is Reliability Engineering?

Answer 18

–The specialized engineering discipline that addresses the reliability of a system during its total life cycle.
–Used as collective term for the engineering discipline concerned with the RAM of a system

Question 19

What are the objectives of Reliability Engineering?

Answer 19

–To apply engineering knowledge and specialist techniques to prevent or to reduce the likelihood or frequency of failures
–To identify and correct the causes of failures that do occur, despite the efforts to prevent them
–To determine ways of coping with failures that do occur, if their causes have not been corrected
–To apply methods for estimating the likely reliability of new designs and for analyzing reliability data

Question 20

What does the Reliability Program Plan do?

Answer 20

Formally integrates Reliability Engineering with other SE technical processes

Question 21

What are the 2 types of reliability engineering tasks?

Answer 21

• Engineering Analyses and Tests
• Failure Analyses

Question 22

What is availability?

Answer 22

Defined as probability that a system, when used under stated conditions, will operate satisfactorily at any point in time as required

Question 23

What are the 3 types of availability?

Answer 23

• Inherent - considers system only
• Achieved - similar to inherent availability, except that preventive (i.e., scheduled) maintenance is included.
• Operational - assumes an actual operational environment and therefore includes logistics delay time and administrative delay time

Question 24

What is resilience?

Answer 24

• Resilience pertains to the anticipation, survival, and recovery from a variety of disruptions caused by:
  
  • External human-originated threats include terrorist attacks.
  • Internal human-originated threats include operator and design error
  • Natural threats include extreme weather, geological events, wildfires, and so forth
• Threats may be single or multiple.

Question 25

What are the main activities of system Safety Engineering?

Answer 25

* Identify and Integrate System Safety Requirements * Identify, Analyze, and Categorize Hazards * Verify and Validate System Safety Requirements * Assess Safety Risk

Question 26

What are some common analysis techniques used in Identify, Analyze, and Categorize Hazards?

Answer 26

Preliminary Hazard Analysis (PHA), Functional Hazard Analysis (FHA), System Element Hazard Analysis (SEHA), System Hazard Analysis (SHA), Operations and Support Hazard Analysis (O&SHA), Health Hazard Analysis (HHA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), Event Tree Analysis (ETA)

Question 27

What is the system safety order of precedence is used to define the order followed for implementing system safety requirements to reduce the mishap risk.

Answer 27

1. Eliminate hazards through design selection. 2. Reduce risk through design alteration. 3. Incorporate safety devices. 4. Provide warning devices. 5. Develop procedures and training.

Question 28

How are system safety requirements V&V'd?

Answer 28

–Provide input to all tests, demonstrations, models, and inspections to verify compliance of the system with the identified system safety requirements –Witness verification/validation activities for those hazards that were categorized as catastrophic and critical –Review results from all test activities performed to validate/verify system safety requirements –Capture test results and the test and evaluation reports in the Hazard Tracking System (HTS).

Question 29

What is done in assessing system safety risk?

Answer 29

–Identifies all safety features of the hardware, software, and system design. –Identifies procedural, hardware, and software related hazards that may be present in the system at each milestone, test, or operation activity –Identifies specific procedural controls and precautions for those hazards still present in the system. –Identifies and documents hazardous materials used in the design, operation, or maintenance of the system as well as those that will be generated by the system –Develop and document assessment as to why non- or less - hazardous materials could not be used

Question 30

What's diff. between resilience engineering and system security engineering?

Answer 30

Just my opinion, but system security engineering seems more about preventing the threat from happening, whilst resilience engineering is assuming the threat has happened and limiting the damage thence.

Question 31

What is relationship between system engineer and system security engineer?

Answer 31

System security engineer is specialized in stuff like hardware assurance, anti-tamper, info assurance, supply chain risk management, etc. The systems engineer leverages these skills to obtain security recommendations, and jointly works with the SSE to develop a number of security plans (standard plans you'd expect but also deployment plan and disaster recovery/continuity plan).

Question 32

What are system security considerations for ACQ and SUP?

Answer 32

* Enabling systems, supply chain, and all aspects of assembling a solution must be protected * Request for Proposal: include System Security analysis, evaluation, protection implementation, and updates * Vulnerability assessments must be made and updated throughout the life cycle. * COTS products * May have limited assurance that malicious insertion has not occurred * Used outside the SOI, may allow vulnerability discovery that could be exploited * Select only system elements that have secure supply chains

Question 33

What does training needs analysis address?

Answer 33

–Initial and follow-on training necessary to execute required tasks associated with system use and maintenance –Understand the concept documents and the requirements for the SOI –Identify specific list of functions or tasks from these sources and represent them as learning objectives for operators, maintainers, administrators, and other system users. –Learning objectives then determine the design and development of the training modules and their means of delivery.

Question 34

What is the classroom environment being replaced with?

Answer 34

–Simulators, –Computer-based training, –Internet-based distance delivery, –In-systems electronic support

Question 35

What is the primary objective of HSI?

Answer 35

Ensure that human capabilities and limitations are treated as critical system elements

Question 36

What are 2 key methods of HSI?

Answer 36

* Analyses (especially requirements analysis) * Trade studies (include human related issues)

Question 37

What is the essential HSI truth?

Answer 37

There are NO unpopulated sytems

Question 38

What are the HSI domains?

Answer 38

Manpower, Personnel, Training, Human factors engineering (HFE), Environment, Safety, Occupational health, Habitability, Survivability,

Question 39

What are the key HSI activities and tenets?

Answer 39

* Initiate HSI early and effectively * Identify issues and plan analysis * Document HSI requirements * Make HSI a factor in source selection for contracted development efforts * Execute integrated technical processes * Conduct proactive trade-offs * Conduct HSI assessments

Question 40

What is value in Value Engineering?

Answer 40

•Fair return or the equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged •Based on “what you get” relative to “what it cost.” •Represented by the relationship: Value = function/cost

Question 41

What are the phases of the VE Job Plan?

Answer 41

* Phase 0: Preparation/Planning * Phase 1: Information Gathering * Phase 2: Function Analysis * Phase 3: Creativity * Phase 4: Evaluation * Phase 5: Development * Phase 6: Presentation/ Implementation

Question 42

What are 2 types of function in VE FAST diagram?

Answer 42

* The Basic Function is typically the deliverable or end state of the effort. * The Higher Order Function is the ultimate goal and is “why” the Basic Function is performed.

Question 43

What is the critical path in a VE FAST diagram?

Answer 43

made up of the main functions within the scope of the activity or project.

Question 44

What are 3 things VE depends on to get its job done?

Answer 44

* systematic process (i.e., formal job plan), * VE‐certified facilitators/team leads, * a multidisciplinary team approach