Achieving quality through supportability ‐ part I: concepts and principles

Abstract

Attempts to improve the quality of the products or systems which customers purchase have focused traditionally on improving the availability of the product through its reliability or maintainability characteristics. However, a growing awareness of the importance of integrating reliability and maintainability considerations into the design phase of a product has led to customers being unable to affect these characteristics to any great extent. As a result, supportability has emerged as a crucial concept to be considered if customers wish to enhance the quality of the products they purchase. Reviews some of the previous work on supportability, particularly in the areas where it is generally recognized that product owners can be most influential, namely spares estimation and shared capital investment equipment provision, and reflects on the associated impact on product quality.