Value Operations Methodology for Value Driven Design: Medium Range Passenger Airliner Validation

Abstract

Abstract:This paper gives insight in the development of a Value Operations Methodology (VOM) that can be used to support Value Driven Design (VDD). The VOM establishes expressions for operational value levers that are incorporated into a weighted value function. This value function is then used to optimize the design variables that are incorporated into it so that the design process is actively driven by value assessments that provide design decision metrics. However, the VOM is generic in nature and has a much wider range of influence to the design process for any engineering product.The methodology is verified by means of a case study, analyzing the value difference between the Boeing 737-200, Boeing 737-800, Embraer ERJ-145 and the Airbus 319 as part of a use-case study. In fact, the fundamental conclusion from the work presented is actually that VDD simply promotes the sustained application of the main utility values that were originally recognised but which, due to the complexity of the product and enterprise, tends to be disaggregated into isolated requirements. Ultimately, this leads to optimisation at a sub-system level and that is especially unacceptable for a complex system (with many sub-systems), whereas the re-focus of VOM helps to significantly shift the design effort back to creatively solving the main goal, rather than simply and somewhat robotically making sure the requirements are satisfied. The verification and validation work presented is recognised as indicative but the authors believe that it is extremely significant in pointing towards the potential gains from sustaining a more holistic appraisal and approach through-out the design process. Notwithstanding, the key message of the paper is the need for value modelling within engineering so that we are in control of the consequences of what we are actualising, where value is realised through operational delivery and excellence! This paper has presented a broad methodology in opening up a significantly different approach to aircraft design that may well still be economically driven but incorporating drivers of a much more holistic cause: proactively rather than reactively!

Introducing Sustainability in Value Models to Support Design Decision Making: A Systematic Review

“…The profitability idea is further cascaded down to the system components, and used to establish requirements at different levels of granularity in the system description. A major challenge in this cross-pollination today is that VDD research neither considers sustainability explicitly, apart from sporadic attempts [218], nor proposes how value "models" can be applied to understand seemingly inconsistent, ill-defined and immature design situations, which are typical of the earliest stages of the design process. These contributions also show how VDD tools may be used to decompose sustainability implications, clarifying how quantitative value assessments may be tighten up with qualitative sustainability analysis by relating them both to the overarching concept of 'value'.…”

Introducing Sustainability in Value Models to Support Design Decision Making: A Systematic Review

“…Cross-pollinating sustainability and VDD research remains a challenge today, for two main reasons. Firstly, VDD models do not consider sustainability explicitly, apart from sporadic attempts [221]. Secondly, VDD optimization functions struggle to fit with the earliest innovation process stages, which are characterized by seemingly inconsistent, ill-defined and immature knowledge [222][223].…”

Value Analysis of Engine Maintenance Scheduling Relative to Fuel Burn and Minimal Operating Costs

“…1 is given by Curran et al 7 in the establishment of their value function for the passenger aircraft, as shown in Eq. 2.…”

“…The Value Operations Methodology (VOM) as proposed by Curran et al 7 is aimed at promoting operational value and ultimate utility as the main criterion to be used in engineering design making. It establishes expressions for operational value levers that can be incorporated into a weighted value function that more accurately captures the true value criterion on which to base engineering and operational decisions.…”

“…It establishes expressions for operational value levers that can be incorporated into a weighted value function that more accurately captures the true value criterion on which to base engineering and operational decisions. Originally 7 , VOM was developed in the context of Value Driven Design (VDD) with a view to optimizing the design variables incorporated into the value function for a passenger aircraft, in order to ensure that the design process was actively driven by value assessments that relate most accurately to the true design decision metrics. However, the VOM approach is highly generic in nature, and even philosophical, and extends beyond design and VDD to operations research and life cycle analysis and optimization.…”