Original Date: 09/14/1998
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Raytheon Missile Systems Company (RMSC) implemented the Key Characteristic Designation System (KCDS), which focuses on key product characteristics (KPCs) and attempts to control excessive variation in product features. KPCs are those characteristics for which reasonably anticipated variation can significantly affect a product’s safety or fit/function. Excessive variation in product characteristics can also affect a product’s compliance with government regulations, or the quality of subsequent manufacturing operations.

RMSC realized that equal attention to all product characteristics does not necessarily yield desired product quality. If strictly enforced controls are used across the board, they can also impact non-critical product characteristics and add to product costs without increasing value. Instead, the company focuses on the critical aspects of a product in an attempt to make larger improvements in product performance and customer satisfaction. By focusing on KPCs, any additional costs to reduce or control manufacturing variation will directly add to the value of the product. KPCs are identified through experience in manufacturing, lessons learned, and the formalized process contained in KCDS.

KCDS helps improve the quality of products during the product design phase, and during the ongoing manufacturing and assembly operations. Throughout these phases of a product’s life, this system facilitates improvements in customer satisfaction, communication, efficiency, product design, process design, manufacturing, assembly, and the end product. KCDS also utilizes teamwork, and promotes customer involvement to define and address critical items in a product’s design. When used early in the design process, KCDS assures robust designs and limits process variation.

The objective of KCDS is to provide a basis for production process control activities. This goal is accomplished by identifying KPCs; establishing a common language for communicating key characteristics; providing a formalized system for prioritizing product characteristics; and improving products driven by customer satisfaction. Once KPCs are identified, they must be translated into key control characteristics (KCCs). KCCs are the process characteristics which most significantly impact a product’s quality and performance. Through a combination of engineering experience and Monte Carlo analysis tools, RMSC determines the cause and effect of product variability, and identifies KCCs for KPCs.

RMSC recently implemented KCDS on the AIM-9X program. Currently, there are 300 unique drawings on the AIM-9X, of which 75% have been reviewed. Of these, less than half have existing KPCs, and those drawings that do, have one to four KPCs per drawing. Results of KCDS’s impact on the AIM-9X program are pending.

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