Journal of Aerospace Operations - Volume 4, issue 1-2

Authors: Bil, Cees | Stjepandić, Josip

Article Type: Editorial

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-160056

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 1-4, 2016

Authors: Bil, Cees | Conroy, Timothy

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Airlines globally are affected as the combined impact of rising fuel prices and introduction of CO2 taxation schemes reduce profit. In the past decade alone, the price of jet-fuel has quadrupled and the fuel component of DOC has increased from 14% to a third of total operating expenditure in 2013. Currently, airlines attempt to improve their financial position by downsizing or reconstructing their operations. This strategy has only limited effectiveness and avoids addressing the central DOC problem. With an increasing demand for jet-fuel and a reduction in global supply, the price of fuel is projected to increase further. The …air transport sector faces a considerable challenge in reducing its cost base to keep air travel affordable and environmentally sustainable. Aviation is a significant contributor to the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), a gas that is attributed to global warming. To address this contribution, International Air Transport Association (IATA) has issued a global commercial aviation mandate to reduce net CO2 to 50% of 2005 levels by 2050 with carbon neutral growth from 2020. In 2012, IATA stated that air travel capacity increase (5.3% per annum) outpaced percentage efficiency improvements (2% per annum) resulting in 20 million tonne increase in net CO2 emissions. Show more

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-150055

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 5-29, 2016

Authors: Nicholds, Boyd A. | Mo, John P.T.

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: No decision maker willingly sets themselves up for failure. However, when introducing new operations or making changes to existing operations, there is little chance of success if targets are set too high without considering the company’s capability. An executable model using a capability score integrated with the performance and anticipated value has been proposed to assess the likelihood of success and failure of meeting performance gain targets from improvements for new aviation operations development. The method indicates to companies when and where their capability needs to be adjusted. This alleviates the problem aviation services providers have when they embark on …operations improvement initiatives with an organisational setup that limits their chance of success. By matching the performance targets for operations improvement projects to organisational capability score, a higher hit-rate of success to change can be achieved. Show more

Keywords: Process improvement, process improvement capability score, performance indicators, risk assessment

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-160057

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 31-48, 2016

Authors: Dineva, Evelina | Bachmann, Arne | Knodt, Uwe | Nagel, Björn

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Research into future air vehicles incorporating novel technologies is characterized by a high number of interacting disciplines which need to be considered. Despite advances in numeric interfacing techniques for participative Multidisciplinary Design and Optimisation (pMDO), it is not well understood how to build a team of specialists who jointly operate shared tools and gain system level insight. This contribution shifts focus to the human MDO participants and their working environment. Three aspects of collaboration are considered: (a) design of cognitive experiments to measure engineering performance in different settings; (b) integration of prior experience through a Lessons Learned process; and (c) …the application of the above into the enhancement of Integrated Design Laboratory (IDL). The pronunciation of competence and working environment, rather than software tools or data, opens opportunities for attractive use cases. Show more

Keywords: Collaborative performance, expert interview, performance measures, empirical research, aircraft design,multidisciplinary design and optimisation (MDO), participative MDO (pMDO)

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-150054

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 49-66, 2016

Authors: Xu, Dajun | Bil, Cees | Cai, Guobiao

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) is an effective IT environment to apply Concurrent Engineering principles. In aerospace engineering education, CDF can be invaluable by enabling student teams to gain cross-discipline skills and at the same time stay at the cutting edge of technology. This paper gives an overview of CDF configurations in use at different industries, research organisations and universities around the world and concludes with a proposal for a relatively a low cost CDF framework based on cloud computing which is particularly suitable for aerospace engineering education. An important aspect of CDF is collaboration between multidisciplinary specialists or virtual specialists …within one environment, which requires dedicated hardware or software to exchange file, manage knowledge, collaborative work on writing report, and even remote communicate with other work teams. Emergence and development of cloud computing has made these requirements relatively easy to be fulfilled. Some public cloud computing servers, such as Google Drive, SkyDrive, Dropbox, Mendeley, can be used in CDF to save cost on hardware and software related to data, file, and information exchange. Google Talk and Skype can be used for communication with remote work teams. This CDF framework has many potential benefits, such as reduced cost of hardware, software and support, reduced preparation time, and easy to deploy. Show more

Keywords: Concurrent engineering, concurrent design facility, aerospace engineering education, cloud computing

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-160059

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 67-84, 2016

Authors: Moser, Bryan R. | Wood, Ralph T. | Hiekata, Kazuo

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: This paper reviews risk management as commonly applied in engineering projects, addresses shortcomings, and introduces additional thinking on uncertainty in engineering projects. Despite practices in risk management, unexpected events leading to unacceptable outcomes continue to occur. As practiced, common methods rest upon input and judgement from experts, in particular to evaluate the exposure and systemic effects of risk. Limitations are well known, including errors, disparate use of qualitative measures, biases and overconfidence, prioritization and focus on local effect rather than systemic value, and meaningless combined exposure scores. By viewing the engineering project as a sociotechnical system, we place human expertise …not as constraint but as fundamental to the system. Rather than removal of human judgment, we seek to position people to leverage existing judgment within limits of relevance while stimulating attention and learning towards systemically relevant options. We propose the design of projects that incorporate human attention in identification and response to risks as learning and coordination within the project’s broader sociotechnical architecture. Show more

Keywords: Risk, uncertainty, plans, engineering project management, sociotechnical systems, systemic risk

DOI: 10.3233/AOP-150058

Citation: Journal of Aerospace Operations, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 85-99, 2016