This presentation discusses the change in role of the weights engineer in cost estimating from an estimator's perspective. Trends are developing in the cost estimating field which are going to impact the tasks and requirements of the weights engineer. In this paper we are going to talk mainly about activities at General Dynamics' Fort Worth Division. I believe, however, that what is occurring at Fort Worth is representative of the rest of the industry.
Before we get into the specifics, a few words about the Fort Worth Division. There are 16,000 employees at Fort Worth developing and building military aircraft and ground electronics. The F-16 fighter is the main product of the division. We use weight based estimating techniques in firm pricing F-16 change proposals and in independent assessments of development and production estimates for F-16 derivatives and F-111 aircraft modification programs. Weight based estimating relationships also are used to check proposals on ground electronic programs such as air defense systems which are usually fixed price proposals.