3809. Practical Limits of Precision when Tracking Weight Changes in Series Production

Paper

Abstract

Calculating and tracking the weight impact of design changes during aircraft product development and series production is an important part of ensuring a program’s success. Computer model-based design tools and databases allow miniscule impacts to be calculated, documented, and tracked – each at a cost to the program in non-recurring hours. There exists a practical lower limit for weight impacts, below which the impact can be considered negligible. The cost of tracking impacts below this limit is wasteful and should be avoided. This paper will describe a method for determining this lower limit, along with the associated benefits and risks.