BENJAMIN S. BLANCHARD is Professor of Engineering and Assistant Dean, College of Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is Chairman of the Systems Engineering Graduate Program, responsible for the College's off-campus graduate engineering programs throughout Virginia, and coordinates the College's continuing education program activity. He teaches courses in systems engineering, reliability and maintainability, logistic support, maintenance management, and life-cycle costing. Professor Blanchard has worked in industry as a design engineer, field service engineer, staff engineer, and engineering manager. He is author and coauthor of numerous textbooks and journal… articles, and is a frequent lecturer throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. DINESH VERMA is Senior Research Associate, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He manages the Systems Design Laboratory and is pursuing research activities in systems engineering, maintainability and maintenance management, logistics, and fuzzy logic. His sponsored research activities have included the development of design evaluation software tools, and he has published a monograph and numerous technical papers in this and related areas. ELMER L. PETERSON is an officer and private consultant with Intec Associates, Inc. He has taught many courses in systems engineering, maintainability, and logistics throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia for various universities and professional societies. Mr. Peterson has many years of industrial experience as a project manager for aircraft and space systems. His areas of expertise include: logistics, interim contractor support, systems engineering, and maintainability. Before joining industry, he spent twenty-one years in the U.S. Air Force as a maintenance and training specialist.