The exact amount of a product’s cost that is committed during the design phase is commonly debated, however based on the literature it is generally agreed that 70-85% of the costs are committed during the design phase. This information combined with the Department of Defense (DoD) focus on engineered resilient systems (ERS) has led to the research and development of a Manufacturability Assessment Knowledge based Evaluation (MAKE) methodology. This research is focused on the development of a manufacturability methodology to evaluate and assess alternative product designs in the early life cycle stages. McCall et al outlines the research efforts focused on the creation of the methodology and development and testing of a corresponding software tool. The research has continued forward with enhancements to the MAKE methodology and tool based on case study findings, which is the basis for this paper.

The case study provided valuable insight into the research and development activities needed to improve the methodology to better fit with an early lifecycle development phase. Subsequently, a software tool redesign effort took place to improve the outputs available to the user and to streamline the methodology process. This paper will discuss the improvements for the design of the updated version of the MAKE tool and how it can be used for future assessments of DoD products for benefit to the warfighter.