Original Date: 04/20/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

In the past, system and design engineers tried to control all specification parameters of a product with equal effort and priority. Since this strategy lacked performance tracking tools, engineers struggled to identify cardinal items that controlled performance, and typically lost sight of the system’s overall balance. ITT Aerospace/ Communications Division developed Technical Performance Measures (TPMs) as a rational way to assure ultimate system performance, quality, and customer satisfaction. TPMs are the key technical requirements of a system, subsystem, or component that are critical to meeting the customer’s objectives of a product.

TPMs consist of metrics (e.g., expected value, allowed margins, parameter variations over time) which are developed from requirement prioritization; program experience; and quality function deployment, a method of helping Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) focus on critical customer wants and needs. TPMs are generated by identifying these critical parameters. In addition, modeling, analysis, estimation, and/or measurement are used to determine each critical parameter’s performance value. Since data trends are an important aspect, TPMs are tracked as a function of time (e.g., monthly) throughout a product’s development cycle which allows the engineer to analyze trends and take appropriate actions.

ITT Aerospace/Communications Division (A/CD) uses TPMs on all its programs which has resulted in joint customer, management, and project visibility regarding the technical performance of a product’s development activity, both current and historical. TPMs allow early detection and prediction of problems; represent an important part of the margin management process; and are used to monitor key technical assumptions and directions.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.