The Role of Product Development Metrics for Making Design Decisions in the Defense Aerospace Industry

Product Development in the Defense Aerospace Industry:
As a response to the shrinking defense budgets resulting from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, defense contractors are facing budgetary and competitive pressures that were uncommon during the cold war. These pressures have resulted in rapid changes throughout the industry. Already, numerous corporate mergers, consolidations, and buy-outs have had a profound effect on the make-up of the industry. The remaining defense companies must be increasingly concerned with efficiency and competitiveness to survive in the new harsher environment. In this new climate, it is no longer enough to simply have the most technically capable weapons system available; now such systems must be delivered faster and at a lower cost than ever before. Cost pressures have forced many companies into downsizing which, while providing a short term boost in worker productivity, could have potentially disastrous effects on the long-term
health of the industrial base.