This is a research to investigate the FAA maintainability requirements for aviation systems. Begin by considering the following statement from the United States General Accounting Office Testimony, Air Traffic Control Evolution and Status of FAA's Automatic Program (PDF).

"When restructuring the program in 1994, FAA relaxed or eliminated six AAS requirements that were, in the agency's view, unnecessarily contributing to the project's cost growth. The first major AAS requirement FAA relaxed was the stipulation that the system could not malfunction more than 3 seconds per year." (US GAO, 1998, p.2). 

Develop feasible reliability/maintainability TPMs (Technical Performance Measures) for the AAS system according to the following reliability requirements:

• System Health and Status: The Air Route Traffic Center (ARTCC) subsystem shall transmit equipment health and status to the Advanced Automation System (AAS) every 30 seconds. 
• System Health and Status Failure: The Air Route Traffic Control Center (AAS) subsystem shall transmit detection of health and status failure to the Advanced Automation System (AAS) within 5 seconds.

 

This should be the system maintenance time (including the corrective and preventive) in the below format (sample format included).  

 

TPM 1

• Name: xx Preventative / Corrective Maintenance Time
• Purpose: Self explanatory
• Source reliability requirement: # and Title "Requirement in quotes"
• Risk level: Low/Medium/High
• What should be measured: Time, measured in hours, minutes, and seconds
• How should it be measured: Test / Model / Simulation etc.
• How often should it be measured: An interval of time
• During which project phases should it be measured: Self explanatory
• Threshold above or below which action is necessary: Self explanatory
• What action should be performed: Discuss both above and below actions
• Who should perform this action: Self explanatory

TPM 2

• Name: xx Preventative / Corrective Maintenance Time
• Purpose: Self explanatory
• Source reliability requirement: # and Title "Requirement in quotes"
• Risk level: Low/Medium/High
• What should be measured: Time, measured in hours, minutes, and seconds
• How should it be measured: Test / Model / Simulation etc.
• How often should it be measured: An interval of time
• During which project phases should it be measured: Self explanatory
• Threshold above or below which action is necessary: Self explanatory
• What action should be performed: Discuss both above and below actions
• Who should perform this action: Self explanatory

 

TPM Sample 

• Name: Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) Preventative Maintenance Time
• Justification: Ensure that the UPS is capable of sustaining communication equipment energization for 12 hours in the event of prime power failure by conducting weekly scheduled preventative maintenance and tests for 2 hours
• Source reliability requirement: 5.3 Uninterruptible Power Supply: "The Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) subsystem's uninterruptible power supply shall sustain communication equipment continuous operation for no less than 12 hours"
• Risk level: High
• What should be measured: Time, measured in hours, minutes, and seconds
• How should it be measured: Test
• How often should it be measured: Weekly
• During which project phases should it be measured: All
• Threshold above or below which action is necessary: 1 hour above (3 hours total maintenance required) and 1 hour below (1 hour total maintenance required)
• What action should be performed: 1 hour above triggers UPS equipment status analysis to determine the root cause behind increased necessary maintenance time. 1 hour below triggers external audit of maintenance procedures to ensure maintenance standards and procedures are being adhered to.
• Who should perform this action: 1 hour above analysis performed by electrical engineers. 1 hour below audit performed by third party.