F-35 Quality Assurance Tool

For years, Product Inspectors (at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company) have used “Inspection Carts” to contain all their reference material for ensuring accurate and efficient installation of aircraft components. There were a total of twelve carts throughout the production floor - each consisting of sixteen thick binders. Maintaining consistency throughout the inspection carts was a huge burden, plus costing the company significant time and resources. My team was tasked with bringing a solution to the Quality Assurance team that met the Product Inspectors needs while on the floor, plus simplifying content updates made by the Engineering team responsible for maintaining inspection binder accuracy and consistency.

Discover - Several of us shadowed the Product Inspectors for several hours, observing how they interact with the binders and aircraft. We conducted interviews with both Product Inspectors and Engineers to better understand their pain-points, where inconsistencies were happening, and what kind of control they need over the information provided in the binders. Several inspectors expressed a desire for a "more visual reference guide."

Define – From our findings, we were able to create multiple diverse personas - ranging from younger tech-savvy Engineers to older Product Inspectors who opposed change (even for the better). Several pain-points emerged, for example: switching between the three different F-35 configurations was confusing; viewing and updating component photos took hours of time; switching between inspection often involved multiple binders. We proposed that they switch the entire “inspection carts” method to a web-based system that the Product Inspectors could access anywhere on the production floor via iPads.

Design – To encourage the Quality Assurance stakeholders to consider a web-based system, I created a high fidelity wireframes that quickly and visually stepped through the aircraft configurations, aircraft sections, all the way to specific tasks. The wireframes secured us buy-in from all stakeholders - everyone recognized how efficient a new system would be and the time and money it would save in the long run. I also created high fidelity mock-ups for the front-end system (for the Product Inspectors), and mock-ups for the back-end content management system which could be managed directly on an iPad, including photos.

Results – This project began in 2013, and I left the Lockheed Martin Company before the tool was launched in 2015, so I was not involved in the development stage or the final design review. Though, I've been told that this tool completely revolutionized the team's inspection process. Product Inspectors were overwhelmed with how easily they could move through their tasks, likewise - the Engineers were ecstatic over how easily content and photos could be added / edited. The tool has saved countless hours of time for the Quality Assurance team, along with significant content management cost savings. Most importantly, the twelve book carts were donated to local schools.