AC-130U Gunship Warranty Analysis: Lessons Learned.
Abstract
Recent legislation requiring the procurement of cost-effective warranties on most major weapon systems established the requirement for warranty cost-benefit analysis during source 'off-the-shelf' warranty evaluation tool, the AC-130U Gunship Program Office, in what turned out to be a pioneering effort, developed its own warranty cost-benefit analysis methodology. The strengths of this in-house effort include the analysis' grounding in life cycle cost theory, involvement of functional area experts in its development and validation, and the foresight with which it was crafted. Its shortcomings include its failure to capture many of the relevant costs associated with the weapon system warranty, artificially-constraining assumptions, and a reliance on ultimately unobtainable data. The AC-130U Gunship warranty analysis effort highlights many of the shortcomings that characterize the few existing tools: a requirement for non-existent data, the inherent difficulty in forecasting future costs, the difficulty of translating physical performance measures into terms of dollars and cents, and the specialized nature of available tools.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA192535
Entities
People
- Peter A. Blatchley
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College