Product Supportability Through Lifecycle Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

Current changes in Department of Defense (DoD) budgeting processes and in the constraints on available funding have resulted in inadequate support for the warfighter’s needs. The decision environment evolves into a key question impacting warfighter capabilities: How should the funding be distributed to achieve the optimal balance between readiness, performance, and cost? This paper outlines the fundamentals of successful Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), a method to monitor systems towards fulfilling the operational needs at the lowest possible total ownership cost (TOC). The paper discusses critical decision points in different phases of the system’s lifecycle and suggests an approach to use modeling and simulation tools to answer key questions and provide the required decision support.