My first thought is
where are we in the project timeline? Are we close to the implementation phase
or are we still far enough away that significant changes can be made? Both
teams have made decisions that have resulted in their designs being overweight
but the delivery system is the option that has been over marketed to the
customer. As someone who is not a systems engineer my first thought would be to
seek a solution in the area of guidance, navigation, and control. The team on
the project responsible for guidance, navigation, and control has opted to use
sub systems from existing “off-the-shelf” products. I would assume that they
had compared and contrasted existing products to find the best solution
possible while taking into account weight restrictions but was their decision
on a solution based more on what the items could deliver than on overall weight
of the products. Also what is the break-even point on custom design versus
utilizing off-the-shelf items that are already on the market? Perhaps this is
an area where more research and development on behalf of the UAS designers
would be more beneficial and advantageous to the organization in the long run
than using off-the-shelf solutions (Cohn, 2014) .
A question to ask the delivery design team is whether or
not utilizing off-the-shelf components for the delivery system will hamper the
system in the end due to lack of the ability for customization (Cohn, 2014) . There is a whole
lot to be said about choosing an off-the-shelf solution that makes sense in the
here and now and custom making a solution that is able to be customized in the
future depending on the needs of the customer and developments of new products
to be delivered by the system. There may be a product that comes along that is
cheaper, more efficient, or safer than existing products. How are we as an
organization going to develop a delivery system that looks to the future via
customization? As I begin to think about it more it may be more beneficial to
change the way we deliver the payload and customize in that area than using off-the-shelf
solutions (Cohn, 2014) .
I believe there is wiggle room in both areas for innovation because both teams
ability to be innovative will ensure the overall agility of the company in the
future.
References
Cohn, C. (2014, Sep 15). Forbes. Retrieved
from Forbes.com:
http://www.forbes.com/sites#/sites/chuckcohn/2014/09/15/build-vs-buy-how-to-know-when-you-should-build-custom-software-over-canned-solutions/
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