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11.  Management recognizes the flight rate influence on workload and strives to project and plan for distribution of that workload.

6.  Conclusions

1.  Early in the Space Shuttle Program, when launches were scheduled several months apart, delays in milestone start times had little or no impact on future program schedules.  Rigid manifesting criteria do not currently exist.  Optimization and facilitating payloads appears to be the plan.  However, in a medium to high flight rate operational program, the major critical milestones of CIR, FOR, start of crew training, start or integrated training, and Flight Readiness Review (FRR) must be met to accommodate the flight rate.  Since hardware and other unforeseen problems will occur and cause delays to the schedule, an adequate flight preparation criterion must be established that forces the slip of launch when major milestones cannot be met.  Consequently, manifest opportunities should be added to the schedule to serve as a schedule catchup point for all manifesting problems.

2.  Unworkable flights (flights having negative ascent performance margins, over-limits landing weights, incompatible launch windows, etc.), once identified, should not be carried in the manifest.

3.  The production process should continue to be developed and methods of continually monitoring the production process should be devised.  To support a flexible manifesting program, an integrated production process tool to forecast schedules, manpower, and budget requirements needs to be implemented.  Additionally, the Operations Organization should develop methods to handle reasonable changes in a simple manner.

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