The Design Process at STS Defence

At STS Defence, as part of our Design, Development & Qualification (DDQ) market offering, we offer a dedicated solution-focused design and manufacture capability, developing concepts into mature designs, and delivering components and assemblies that meet the most stringent quality standards.

We undertake a wide range of projects in order to deliver capability in the form of systems used within the Defence environment. Managed and controlled design is required to produce manufacturable and maintainable products that meet the specifications and pass qualification criteria in accordance with the MoD acquisition lifecycle for capability, i.e. CADMID (Concept, Assessment, Demonstration, Manufacture, In-Service, Disposal).

Starting from an initial concept or a detailed specification, we provide a comprehensive design service that incorporates electronic, electro-mechanical, systems and software engineering. Whether it is designing a crucial component or the overall product itself, the process is the backbone of turning our ideas into something tangible and impactful. As such, it is heavily orientated towards prototyping using our in-house manufacturing facility, which bridges the gap into delivery of production systems, typically for naval platforms.

At its core, our design process is about understanding the customers’ needs, and developing solutions that address them. Beginning with Solution Definition, our designers assess the problem space, studying previous Learning from Experience (LfE) trends, gathering insights, and liaising with users to ensure the final design will address all stakeholder needs. This stage is crucial because it forms the foundation for everything that follows, ensuring the design outcomes are relevant to the needs of users in the Defence environment.

The next phase involves Functional Development, where we leverage our deep knowledge of platform/equivalent systems. Our Design team map out and draft preliminary designs for each sub-system/component, allowing for demonstration of the key functionality. During this stage, all ideas are explored, as the goal is to leverage prior LfE while being sufficiently flexible to think outside the box. It is a process of iterative development that encourages collaboration with key stakeholders, and leverages the diverse experience amongst team members, including those with time served on military platforms

Once ideas are narrowed down, detailed Product Prototyping takes place. Our designers work closely with the target production teams, taking earlier mock-ups/3D models into detailed prototypes representative of the target design. Prototyping in this way allows for tangible feedback and quick iterations, including from a manufacturability perspective. This hands-on approach brings clarity to abstract ideas, enabling designers to refine and enhance their vision, and for key project stakeholders to gain confidence in the candidate design

Product Test & Qualification is the following phase, where engineers push the design through real-world/bounding case conditions, typically following well-trodden Defence Standards (DEF STANs). Feedback becomes invaluable in pinpointing potential flaws, refining elements of the detailed design, and improving the overall performance against key requirements. This iterative loop of testing, evaluating, and refining ensures the design that is presented to the stakeholder community for design freeze, has minimal risks to implementation in the target environment.

Finally, the Product Design Completion phase is undertaken, whereby the design is introduced to the wider stakeholder community via a pre-production prototype demonstration during a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT). However, the design process doesn’t end there. Our engineers often engage in post-design evaluation of in-service systems, to understand how the design is performing in real-world scenarios. Continuous feedback via our long-term Sustainment processes, under the wider remit of our Integrated Logistic Support offering, ensures a proactive approach to obsolescence/emerging requirements, allowing for rapid interventions for follow-on designs and innovations, driven from the user perspective.

Overall, our deep systems expertise combined with practical experience of delivering DDQs, to both legacy and new build platforms, provides a design capability ordinarily found only within large Prime contractor organisations. This, combined with the speed and agility of an SME, ensures that this is sharply focused on the end-user perspective, delivering solutions that make a difference.