SFA-based evaluation model of materiel support plan in product development phase

In order to solve the problem that there exist many drawbacks in support plan evaluation in terms of approaches and methods in previous studies, this article presents an evaluation model based on stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). First, support system characteristics are abstracted, based on which the evaluation parameters of support system characteristics are established. Second, a model based on SFA is established to calculate support efficiency indexes for assessing the support plan, and the ranking of alternative support plans is realized. In addition, the sensitivity analysis of evaluation indexes is made. Finally, evaluating a certain type of aircraft support plan is performed as an example. The two evaluation results of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and the SFA model demonstrate high consistency according to a comparative analysis of evaluation results. Thus, the feasibility and validity of the evaluation model based on SFA are established. This model can provide excellent decision support for evaluating and improving support plans in the product development phase.