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To: GOP Jedi

Just so you all know, when it comes to these aggressive weight reduction campaigns, the proof is "in the pudding" as the saying goes. When faced with a bloated design, program managers scramble to pull the weight back into design margins. Typically, they stand up and ask all the engineers to "sharpen their pencils" and put together a list of potential solutions to hit their new target.

Many of these changes are already known about and require some form of concession or trade-off with the customer. Others are suddenly viable because cost targets are seemingly lowered to absorb impacts. Finally, many of the proposed changes are just SWAGs that many fine design engineers are challenged by and jump through hoops to try and achieve.

The bottom line is the old saying "you can't put 4 pound
of sh*t into a 3 pound bag" still applies. Trade-offs from the specification (as the design matures) proving what was possible over what was fiction is the name of the game.


20 posted on 09/20/2004 1:46:13 PM PDT by jettester (I got paid to break 'em - not fly 'em)
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To: jettester
Typically, they stand up and ask all the engineers to "sharpen their pencils" and put together a list of potential solutions to hit their new target.

Oh yeah. The Comanche EOSS guys had a giant weight poster, and they'd move the arrows closer to the target weight every time somebody found a new workable composite for a part, or shaved off three screws. Poor guys were the only Comanche subcontractor to hit their milestones on schedule, but to no avail.

49 posted on 09/20/2004 4:50:34 PM PDT by GOP Jedi
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