Reliability in the Realm of Cost Effectiveness

This paper discusses the application of system and cost effectiveness analysis techniques to the procurement of military operational systems that involve contractor performance of "Concept Formulation" and "Contract Definition". The author quotes recent statements made by Secretary of Defense McNamara and former Assistant Secretary Hitch which point to the widening use of these techniques in military contracts to improve the decisionmaking processes. The author deals, princiaplly, with the need to establish new standards for the development of reliability input data that will result in more meaningful predictions of system and cost effectiveness. He predicts that the growing involvement of industry will raise the state of the art and bring about the desired improvements. The paper defines the ten characteristics that techniques must have to meet future requirements; it reviews some of the shortcomings connected with the present input data collection methods and suggests the needed approach.