ABSTRACT
The typical life-cycle of a commercial aircraĞ programme consists of individual phases, from Research, Development, Production and Operation until Retirement and Disposal, see Figure 3.1. Each of these phases features its individual activities, challenges and objectives. For example, during the Production phase the major challenges centre on ensuring the guaranteed high quality of the product, on-time delivery as well as continuous cost reduction. For the Operations phase, during which the aircraĞ will be operated by the customer, the major challenges lie in ensuring lowest possible operations costs and highest possible dispatch reliability as well as maintaining a high asset value.
