It’s about Time: Toward Realistic Acquisition Schedule Estimates

Abstract

This paper is part of a research agenda outlined in Franck, Hildebrandt and Udis (2016) – directed toward improving the realism of defense acquisition schedules. Defense acquisition schedules have long been a difficult problem. In this particular effort, we consider primarily the case of the 737MAX – which has been a fortuitous example of the risks of scheduling-by-fiat. We analyze the 737MAX misadventure using Systems Dynamics and Root Cause Analysis methods.