Optimizing Test and Inspection Operations in Complex Engineering Products

Delivery speed and product cost are critical to both our customers and our shareholders. Test cost has historically represented a third or more of overall product cost. Testing requires considerable time investments as well, especially given the nature of products in the aerospace domain, and their safety demands. In this paper we describe work in use today at a large aerospace manufacturer to optimize test and inspection operations in complex engineering products. We extend Deming’s work from the theoretical to application by applying a decision tree and data analytics to test information, resulting in significant savings in dollars and time for test and inspection operations. A bill-of-materials plus operations visualization is employed to initially identify test and inspection operation candidates for removal, and then Deming’s work is extended in this paper to determine the business case for removal, resulting in a final approval by experts driven by the underlying data. The decision tree is described, as well as algorithms to estimate failure rate and rework costs that are integral to applying Deming’s analysis. A small set of business case results for removing an inspection and a test operation using the applied analysis are shared.