Economics Modelling for Systems Engineering in Aircraft

The paper is primarily concerned with the modeling of aircraft manufacturing cost. The aim is to establish an integrated life cycle balanced design process through a Systems Engineering approach to interdisciplinary analysis and control. The cost modeling is achieved using the Genetic Causal approach that enforces product family categorization and the subsequent generation of causal relationships between deterministic cost components and their design source. This utilizes causal parametric cost drivers and the definition of the physical architecture from the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to identify product families. The higher level application to aircraft requirements and functional analysis is investigated and verified relative to life cycle design issues for the relationship between acquisition cost and Direct Operational Cost (DOC), for a range of both metal and composite nacelles. The lower level application to aircraft physical architecture is investigated and verified for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of an engine nacelle, including a sequential build stage investigation of the materials, fabrication and assembly costs. That is extended to consider acquisition cost, including the recurring unit cost and the non-recurring design cost of larger airframe assemblies. The systems costing methodology is greatly facilitated by the Genetic Causal cost modeling technique as the latter is highly generic, interdisciplinary, flexible, multilevel and recursive in nature, and can be applied at the various analysis levels required of Systems Engineering. Therefore, the main contribution of paper is the application of the Genetic Causal cost model within the Systems Engineering context, whether at a requirements, functional or physical level.status: publishe