School of Public Policy Research Professor William Lucyshyn teamed with Professor Peter Sandborn, A. James Clark School of Engineering, to write a new textbook entitled “Sustainment Science”.
As defined by both industry and government, sustainment is the maintenance, support and upgrade practices that sustain or improve the performance of a system and maximize the availability of goods and services, while minimizing their cost and footprint. Simply put, it is the capacity of a system to endure. Sustainment is a multi-trillion-dollar enterprise for critical systems in both government (infrastructure and defense) and industry (transportation, industrial controls, data centers and energy generation).
“Sustainment Science” is a mix of engineering, operations research and policy sciences intended to provide students with a thorough understanding of the concept of sustainability and sustainable product life-cycles, as well as an appreciation of the importance of sustaining critical systems. The book starts with the key attributes for system sustainment that includes data analytics, engineering analysis and the public policy needed to support the development of technologies, processes, and frameworks required for the management of sustainable processes and practices. More specific topics include: acquisition of critical systems, reliability, maintenance, availability, readiness, inventory management, supply-chain management and risks, contracting for sustainment and various analysis methodologies such as discounted cash flow analysis, discrete-event simulation and Monte Carlo methods.