STANDARD DIGITAL DATA SYSTEMS

My colleague, Dave Serres, and I were selected from the test operations organization to conduct a technical study to determine what cost savings could be had by standardizing test instrumentation components and systems. Unit chief, Jerry Taylor, was convinced that the various structural and mechanical data and control systems did not have to customized for each component’s test and evaluation (e.g., landing gear tests, flap tests, engine tests, etc.). Basic instrumentation components could be purchased or built in-house and used to create a test system by using and reusing standard functional components. Here is a 1966 version of Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentation Dave and I used to present the conclusions and recommendations of the Standard Digital Data Study (SDDS).

DATA SYSTEM STANDARDIZATION STUDY

THE GORY DETAILS

It took Dave Seerres and me lots of presentations and convincing to get the SDDS project underway and funded. Here are a couple of detailed presentations we used to tell our story and convince our various engineering and management audiences. First is about 45 hand-written pages detailing the concepts and many details of the standards being proposed. The second set of hand prepared slides show a “summary” of our conclusions and recommendations. All this work took place prior to approval from Boeing management for us to go out for bids from the instrumentation systems marketplace.

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DATA SYSTEM STANDARDIZATION STUDY

CONCLUSIONS AND ECOMMENDATIONS

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We first sold the SDDS concept to our internal test design and management organizations. Our primary opposition came from Lou Mertz, a first line manager in charge of one group of test instrumentation systems and operation engineers. Lou thought waiting for SDDS to be implemented would hinder his group’s ability to support his customers. We won the battles to kill the project and continued toward data system standardization.

DATA SYTSEM STANDARDIZATION STUDY

THE REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) AND BIDDER’S CONFERENCE

Internal battles won, we prepared a Request for Proposals (RFP) and released it to industry for quotations. The slides below were printed from the 35 mm slides prepared by the Boeing Presentations and Proposals Unit for the bidder’s conference we held to present and discuss our data systems requirements with potential suppliers. Here are the slides we presented at the bidder’s conference.

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SDDS SPECIFICATIONS SUBMITTED TO POTENTIAL SUPPLIERS WITH RFQ

Here are the technical specifications we prepared for bidders to quote upon. They were sent with the Purchasing Department’s official Request to Quote to the list of prospective SDDS suppliers.

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SDDS RFQ

Here is the formal Request for Quotations issued to industry by the Boeing Purchasing Group:

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MAKE OR BUY DECISION – PLAN B: BUILD SDDS IN-HOUSE

We had received and evaluated quotes and were ready to announce the winning bidder when The Boeing Company top management decided to cut capital equipment spending throughout the Commercial Airplane Division. The SDDS project capital project came to a screeching halt.

Plan B, funding of a major part of the standardization project using existing engineering talent, was pulled off the shelf. An earlier decision had been agreed to by Jerry Taylor and upper management that we would go to outside companies for bids on the systems (i.e., spend capital money). The amount of work on 727 engineering testing was dropping and we were facing a reduction in work force in the ground test labs. Fortunately, all along, I had been a proponent of doing the job in-house and having The Boeing Company enter the digital data system business. I had developed an in-house proposal in response to the SDDS RFP. We pulled it off the shelf, dusted it off, updated it and I led the undertaking to implement SDDS internally. We were able to save jobs of our colleagues by diverting SDDS development costs to existing staff and to minimize capital expenditures. I consider keeping the SDDS project going and, at the same time, saving jobs for my friends, a major coup and a major career accomplishment.

My next major assignment (and my promotion to engineering management) was to lead the development of the 747 Major Fatigue Test System.