Statistical Engineering Case Studies in Aerospace Research and Development

• Activity Number: 376
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Quality and Productivity Section
• Author(s): Peter Parker*+
• Companies: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Keywords: Statistical Engineering ; Response Surface Methodology ; Design of Experiments

Abstract

Borrowing from the phraseology of Box (1999), aerospace research is an iterative process of discovery as we move from inductive to deductive reasoning to understand the physics of fundamental flow phenomena, aspects of aerodynamic vehicle performance, or planetary exploration systems. In these applications, employing a statistical engineering approach can maximize the amount and rate of knowledge gained within the available resources. In this presentation, case studies in planetary exploration and manned space flight systems are used to illustrate statistical engineering in practice. As defined by Hoerl and Snee (2010), it is an approach that engineers statistical sciences to generate better solution approaches. Drawing from practical experience, strategies that can overcome cultural barriers to its application and lessons learned are discussed.

Box, G.E.P. (1999) "Statistics as a Catalyst to Learning by Scientific Method Part II - A Discussion," Journal of Quality Technology, 31 (1), pp. 16-29.

Hoerl and Snee (2010) "Closing the Gap," Quality Progress, May, pp. 52-53.