Aerospace and defense

How do you keep a program on cost and prove full traceability at once?

Defense programs answer to earned-value reporting and to part-level traceability. When those come from different systems, both get harder.

June 20264 min read

Two demands, one baseline

A major program is run to a work breakdown structure with a performance-measurement baseline, and the customer mandates earned-value reporting. Separately, every part must be traceable to source with full certification. When program data and quality data live apart, reconciling them is the job.

The earned-value triad

Performance comes from three numbers: planned value, earned value, and actual cost, rolled up at the control-account level into a cost and a schedule index. The standard behind them, EIA-748, was modernised in 2026 into a tighter set of guidelines.

The same baseline should carry the quality record, so program status and part genealogy are not two versions of the truth.

Where the ERP closes the loop

On Hudace, the cost ledger, the work breakdown structure, the quality record, and the supply chain share one source, so the cost and schedule indices and the traceability evidence come from the same data. Xenon AI flags a control account drifting toward a breach and a part missing its first-article evidence before an audit finds it.

Program analysts and quality engineers review the flags. The estimate at completion and the corrective plan stay human-owned.

The numbers to watch

Report program performance and traceability from one set of numbers.

CPI

Cost performance index = earned value / actual cost. The customer-facing cost-health number.

SPI

Schedule performance index = earned value / planned value. Program schedule health at a glance.

Estimate at completion

Forecast final cost. The figure customer reviews turn on.

Traceability completeness

Share of parts with full genealogy and certification. Gaps are audit findings waiting to happen.

See program control on Hudace

Talk to our team about uniting EVM and traceability on one platform.

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