Original Date: 05/08/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA)-St. Louis developed the Advanced Design for Quality Avionics Systems (ADQAS) and Design for Quality Aerospace Systems (DQAS) processes to provide discipline and repeatability to the product development process from the development/acquisition phases through operations and support. These processes emphasize use of Integrated Product Development and Concurrent Engineering to produce a supportable product that meets performance expectations and cost.

ADQAS/DQAS processes emphasize disciplined, repeatable design processes for a balanced product. These processes integrate System Engineering, Tolerances and Margins, Key Characteristics, Variability Reduction, Simulation Tools, Design for Producibility, Integrity Concepts, and Test Verticality. As a part of the Integrated Development Process, the ADQAS and DQAS guide the Integrated Program Plan, Design Engineering, Manufacturing, Test Equipment, Quality, Reliability and Maintainability, and Supportability of a product until all exit criteria have been met. For example, on one radar program, the project team has been able to develop a new design that decreased the number of processes for fabrication from 35 to five, and the number of drawings from 52 to three. Cycle time was reduced from 24 weeks to seven weeks, and the cost was 33% of what it was to produce the old design. During integration testing, the program experienced one failure in 600 hours, ten times better than in the past.

With the introduction of ADQAS/DQAS processes, MDA-St. Louis has added discipline and repeatability to new designs. These new processes have provided cost, schedule, and quality savings on programs where they have been utilized.

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