Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Swart, William W..
This paper presents a decision flow diagram developed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the selection of the appropriate work measurement methodologies for Space Shuttle processing.
Successful ground processing at KSC requires that flight hardware and ground support equipment conform to specifications at tens of thousands of checkpoints. Knowledge of conformance is an essential requirement for launch. That knowledge of conformance at every requisite point does not, however, enable identification of past problems with equipment, or potential problem areas. This paper describes how the introduction of Statistical Process Control and Process Capability Analysis identification procedures into existing shuttle processing procedures can enable identification of potential problem areas and candidates for improvements to increase processing performance measures. Results of a case study describing application of the analysis procedures to Thermal Protection System processing are used to illustrate the benefits of the approaches described in the paper.
A pilot experiment was done to determine what factors influence potential performance errors related to vigilance in Orbiter processing activities. The selected activities include post flight inspection for burned gap filler material and pre-rollout inspection for tile processing shim material. It was determined that the primary factors related to performance decrement were the color of the target and the difficulty of the target presentation.