Design for Repairability and Maintainability is a methodology which must be used as an essential element of modern aircraft design. Unlike the nonconformance prevention, the repair and maintenance philosophy is established during the product development design process and it influences the choice of design materials, composite lay-up patterns, design stress and strain levels, and repair concepts. Airlines and militaries are very concerned about damage and time to repair.
Repairability evaluation is integral to the engineering development process to ensure a high-quality, cost-effective design is produced that minimizes the cost of repair and production/in-service schedule disruptions. But the situation is there are no definitive requirements and detailed repairability and maintainability reviews used in new product design. Traditional optimization for cost and weight does not always result in robust and repairable structure.
What's needed is to establish Repairability and maintainability reviews by production engineering and customer support during Nonrecurring Product Development (NRPD) as an essential step in the release process for new designs.
