MRL and SBIR Success

1. MRL and SBIR Success!

2. TRL = Technology Readiness Level MRL = Manufacturing Readiness Level BR = Business Readiness CR = Customer Readiness Definitions Transition Readiness Level Manufacturing Readiness Level Business Readiness Customer Readiness These are all critical for the successful transition of technology into operational use. A low readiness in any one of the components, may keep a technology from being used.Transition Readiness Level Manufacturing Readiness Level Business Readiness Customer Readiness These are all critical for the successful transition of technology into operational use. A low readiness in any one of the components, may keep a technology from being used.

3. Just because you have developed an SBIR technology through a phase II contract and there is a �customer� with a �need� doesn�t necessarily mean you can sell that technology as a part of system, sub-system, or sub-assembly and that the customer will readily insert your product into their operational use. There are many variables that must be addressed before you can succeed � you need to assure all your �ducks are in a row�. Success?

4. The ultimate �success� in the SBIR program is for the small business to be �commercializing� their SBIR technology by producing a product that is being used in either the military and/or civilian marketplaces. SUCCESS!

5. The ultimate �success� in the SBIR program is for the small business to be �commercializing� their SBIR technology by producing a product that is being used in either the military or civilian marketplaces. Basic SBIR Philosophy

6. Introduction to Manufacturing Readiness and Its Role in Successful SBIR Commercialization

7. The Problem: Risk A General Accounting Office (GAO) assessment of 54 major weapon programs found that the majority of programs were costing more and taking longer to develop than planned. Why did this happen? The programs were going ahead with less knowledge at critical junctures than suggested by best practices. These critical junctures known as �Knowledge Points� include: Technology maturity Design maturity Production maturity Lets look at these knowledge points. For more information see the GAO Report: GAO-05-301 at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06391.pdf

8. What are Knowledge Points? Knowledge Points and associated indicators are defined as follows and all basically look at the maturity levels at a critical juncture: Technology is mature. This means that technologies need to meet essential product requirements and have been demonstrated to work in their intended environment. This requires a close matching of customer requirements and resources. A gap between industry best practices and actual technology maturity indicates risk. Product design is stable. This means that the design is stable at the system-level critical design review (midway through development). Best practices should have 90 percent of the drawings at the system-level completed. A gap between industry best practices and actual design stability indicates risk. Production processes are mature. This means that all key manufacturing processes are in statistical control (repeatable, sustainable and capable) at the start of production. A gap between industry best practices and actual production maturity indicates risk. What were the specific problems the GAO found with the Knowledge Points on the 54 programs they reviewed?

9. The GAO study found - Immature Technologies: Eighty-five percent of the programs began development not having demonstrated all of their technologies as mature. There was a major gap between what they should have known at that point and what they knew. Going forward required a �leap of faith� that somehow a miracle would occur to solve these gaps. More often than not, programs sought to mature technologies well into system development when they should have been focusing on maturing the system design and preparing for production. These programs moved forward before the technologies were mature, but the miracle failed to appear and it caused problems. Program acquisition cost: Rose an average of 21 percent for those programs that preceded with immature technologies. Rose an average of only one percent for programs with mature technologies!

10. The GAO study found - Design Instability: Only 42 percent of programs held design reviews after achieving design stability. The majority moved forward with unstable designs. There was a major gap between what they should have known at that point and what they knew. Going forward required a �leap of faith� that somehow a miracle will occur to solve these gaps. These programs moved forward before the design was mature, the miracle did not occur and it caused problems. The mature programs experienced: A 6 percent increase in development costs and a schedule increase of 11 months Immature programs, those that did not achieve design stability by CDR experienced: A 46 percent increase in cost and a schedule slip of 29 months It should be noted that design stability cannot be attained if key technologies are not mature.

11. The GAO study found - Production Immaturity: Successful programs use statistical process control (SPC) as a best practice to bring manufacturing processes under control. Therefore, these processes are stable, capable and repeatable. Of the 54 programs reviewed, only 19 programs were in production or approaching a production decision within the next year. Of the 19, only two programs collected or even planned to collect statistical process control data. There was a major gap between what they should have known at that point and what they knew. Going forward required a �leap of faith� that somehow a miracle will occur to solve these gaps. These programs moved forward to production before the manufacturing processes were mature, the miracle failed to appear and it caused problems. Unfortunately the GAO only looked at this one manufacturing element (SPC) to judge maturity. The development of Manufacturing Readiness Levels includes the definition of nine different threads or maturity areas for evaluation.

12. MRLs provide a Common language and standard for assessing the manufacturing maturity of a technology or product and plans for its future maturation Complements existing Technology Readiness Levels Used to assess maturity and risk of a technology�s underlying manufacturing processes Enable rapid, affordable transition to weapon system programs Designed to address manufacturing risk mitigation

13. MRL � Why is it Important? Manufacturing Readiness is addressed in law: Title 10, Subtitle A, Part IV, Chapter 148 � National Defense Technology and Industrial Base, Defense Reinvestment, and Defense Conversion. �The Secretary of Defense shall establish a Manufacturing Technology Program to further the national security objectives of section 2501(a) of this title through the development and application of advanced manufacturing technologies and processes that will reduce the acquisition and supportability costs of defense weapon systems and reduce manufacturing and repair cycle times across the life cycles of such systems. Manufacturing Readiness Levels are also addressed in the Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG): �Engineering and Manufacturing Readiness Levels are a means of communicating the degree to which a technology is producible, reliable, and affordable. Their use is consistent with efforts to include the consideration of engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment issues early in a program. More information can be found in the Manager's Guide to Technology Transition in an Evolutionary Acquisition Environment. Application of EMRLs should be tightly integrated with the technical reviews detailed in Section 4.3. You can access the DAG at http://akss.dau.mil/dag/DoD5000.asp?view=document

14. Why is manufacturing readiness really important? Because sometimes we go to war, and for that we need systems, equipment and supplies. The quality, availability and performance of those systems, equipment and supplies is directly tied to the manufacturing capability. What if we are asked to surge? Do we have the capability to ramp up in time to meet deployment requirements? What if we are asked to meet a new challenge with improved performance? Can we develop and deploy the solution in a timely and cost effective manner? And sometimes things just happen, for example, The canopies you have been manufacturing for the last 10-years suddenly show up with problems because somewhere you lost the expertise. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) just notified you that they were no longer going to produce a critical part and now you need alternative sources. The only factory in the world that produces your critical part just had a fire and there goes your supply chain.

15. Manufacturing Readiness is tied directly to producibility or to the design. Producibility can be defined as �the measure of the relative ease of manufacturing.� That is, �is it easy to make?� Producibility is a design accomplishment resulting from a coordinated effort by design engineering and all the functional engineering specialties to create a functional design that optimizes the ease and economy of fabrication, assembly, inspection, test, and acceptance without sacrificing function, performance or quality. One of the basic producibility principles is to focus on the simplicity of design. Simple designs are actually more elegant and take more effort to achieve than complex designs and include dictates such as: Use economical materials. Standardize materials and components. Minimize parts count. Eliminate or minimize special tooling and testing. Lets look at an example of complex design made into a simpler design.

16. The item on the right is a Bailout Bottle Holder used in the F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. The original design was more complex than it needed to be. This design was simplified using a technique called Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA). This technique asks three questions: During operation, does this part move relative to the part it is connected to ? Does this part need to be made from a different material than the pare it is connected to? Does this part need to be removed? If you can answer no to each of these three questions, then that part is a candidate for re-design. You start by comparing Part No.1 with Part No. 2, then do the same for 1 to 3, 1 to 4, etc., until all combinations have been assessed. What do you think the effect is of the simpler design on manufacturing and assembly of the design to the right?

17. Manufacturing Readiness Levels

18. Additional Definitions for MRLs Production relevant environment � An environment that contains key elements of production realism not normally found in the laboratory environment (e.g. uses production personnel, materials or equipment or tooling, or process steps, or work instructions, etc.). May occur in a laboratory or model shop if key elements of production realism are added. Production representative environment � An environment (probably on the shop floor) that contains most of the key elements (tooling, equipment, temperature, cleanliness, lighting, personnel skill levels, materials, work instructions, etc) that will be present in the shop floor production areas where low rate production will eventually take place. Pilot line environment � A shop floor production area that incorporates all of the key elements (equipment, personnel skill levels, materials, components, work instructions, tooling, etc.) required to produce production configuration items, subsystems or systems that meet design requirements in low rate production. To the maximum extent practical, the pilot line should be representative of processes to be used in rate production.

20. MRL 3

29. MRL/TRL Comparison TRLs should not be used interchangeably with MRLs. TRLs focus on a technologies maturity, while MRLs look at the maturity of the manufacturing system and processes that will deliver that design as a final product. A critical technology might have be very mature yet the manufacturing processes needed to produce it may be very immature. This will be especially true if manufacturing is not involved early in the design and development process. One of the classic roles of manufacturing is to take a look at the design and make it producible using tools like Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA). Some manufacturing considerations are:

30. Approach for Conducting MRAs

31. MRA Benefits to SBIRs Manufacturing risk/maturity is not the only cost/schedule/performance driver, but we need to manage manufacturing readiness integral to the acquisition process � increase successful technology transition The intent for SBIRs that address manufacturing is the same as for other programs � to make the product less risky for the customer Products made by mature manufacturing processes generally: Cost less Are less prone to quality problems Make the product / process perform the same, and perform better as a whole Are more reliable in service Have less difficult time delivering on schedule Likewise we want to address not just manufacturing technology readiness and the manufacturing capability, but also the business case for the SBIR Establish the Business Case Technology is ready for transition � and customers exist for product / process Long term agreements are potentially available for delivering product Capital investments--when does the company invest? Government?

32. Getting All the Ducks in a Row TRL - Technology mature and design stable TRL - Technology proven to work in the field MRL - Technology can be mass produced in an end product Enabling technology, sub-assembly, sub-system, etc BR - Company is in a position to sell & support product Not just an R&D firm CR - Product fills an AF need Improves performance, cost effective CR - The need lines up with the opportunity to insert the product Production block, lead times, at what chain of supplier tier CR - The product meets acquisition strategy Lowest cost, form fit function, production rates, etc.

33. It only takes one duck to be �out of line� to keep your SBIR company from successfully inserting your technology into operational use! Ultimate Success!