The Transition To Flexibility PDF Download

(Cont.) That which is not upgraded, and remains constant through all transitions of mission focus, is termed the platform. Increasing a system's flexibility can causes an associated detriment to the systems performance, acquisition cost, and other system evaluation metrics. Presented herein are tools to perform a cost-benefit analysis for increasing levels of flexibility. The flexibility of a system is evaluated by weighing a systems ability to fulfill different mission against the cost and time required to transition the system from one mission focus to another. The value of flexibility is seen as the performance it enables compared to the cost and time required to transition between mission focii. The developed methodology is then applied to design a mission flexible Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. Matrices to evaluate the costs and benefits of flexibility are further explained in the context of the case study. The results show that the degree of flexibility can be adjusted to trade between the point performance of each mission, and the cost and time required to transition between missions. The case study has been included to help clarify some of the trade offs inherent to increasing flexibility, and to further discuss the tools at hand to quantify the value of each option.