RFW management in DAB

What process or business case can ECLIPSE be applied to? 

The ECLIPSE suite whilst designed specifically to meet ECSS standards can be used for any kind of business case or process. Within this influence article we will focus on Request for Waivers, which are common in space projects ands programs but do not have a dedicated ECSS process. 

What defines an RFW? 

The definition of RFW is the formal authorization to accept products which during production, or after having been submitted to inspection or tests, are found to depart from specified requirements.  

For example “Prime RFW for the of tightening torque reduction from 4.7Nm to 3.6Nm” where the contractor places request to depart from original requirement of 4.7 Nm 

How are RFW’s currently treated on space projects? 

To date many companies are treating RFW’s as Microsoft Word documents which run through a dedicated review/comment cycle tracked by email followed by a final approval from the customer. In many cases this leaves the project teams managing RFW as Microsoft Word documents in emails with a final signature and PDF as the final file. 

What issues are caused by this treatment process? 

The lack of a concrete process and functional workflow of treating RFW’s in word and email’s is in-efficient, lacks configuration control and can lead to security issues as many RFW’s are required to be treated with confidence. 

How can ECLIPSE support the RFW processing? 

Within the ECLIPSE suite is a module called DAB – Database Application Builder, this module allows for user to build their own applications/databases to treat records of any nature and assign users in a secure manner on a record by record basis. The key record metadata of an RFW can be created in a configured and consistent manner and allows for full integration to other processes managed within ECLIPSE of particular note would be linking RFW’s to the Non-Conformance processes 

DAB RFW features: 

• RFW standardized metadata 
• Comments tracking 
• Approval cycle 
• Action Management
• Dashboard; statistics and reporting
• Relationship creation with NCR’s, documents etc.
• E-mail notification integration 

This article was written by Andrew Coe.