Practical solutions to enterprise reliability CAE problems

Today's enterprise environment is becoming more problematic from a reliability analysis perspective. The 21(st) century reliability engineer faces many challenges that are driven by a changing paradigm of how we do business. New enterprise teaming relationships present challenges on how to distribute work, share analysis results, and collaborate. New materials, part technologies, and manufacturing processes drive a need for different reliability assessment techniques. Companies are taking a closer look at the life cycle cost of their Engineering Automation (EA) investment. Tool choices must be cost effective to lease or purchase, deploy, and support. A successful Reliability Computer Aided Engineering (RCAE) environment will be a key enabler to help the reliability engineer adapt to a changing enterprise. A successful RCAE environment is much more than just tools. RCAE requirements are influenced by many factors. This paper addresses how Raytheon Corporation used a recent restructuring activity to integrate new processes, intranet upgrades, Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) tools, and GroupWare support solutions to solve many of the problems encountered while building our new enterprise environment.