Perhaps the best aerospace example I know of using this approach was achieved by Ed Heineman with the exceptional Douglas A-4 Skyhawk.

It was a widely held axiom among engineers that adding one pound of structural weight to the design meant that the aircraft would need to gain an additional 10 pounds in fuel and engine weight to maintain the intended speed, range, and performance.

When the U.S. Navy requested an attack aircraft weighing less than 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms) that could be produced for less than $1 million, Heinemann set out to apply that growth factor in reverse. If he could save one pound in the design, he could reduce the final weight of the aircraft by 10 pounds. Heinemann realized this was an ambitious project, and at his initial meeting with his key people, including aviation artist R.G. Smith, then a configuration engineer at Douglas, he invited anybody who felt the job was impossible to leave. "For this task," he told the assembled group, "I only want believers." Nobody left.

When the designs were completed, they had created the A4D Skyhawk, a plane that bettered every Navy requirement. In fact, the weight of the aircraft as designed was about 15,000 pounds (6,800 kilograms).

The A-4 served with the US Navy for almost 50 years and was widely called "Heinemann's Hot Rod" for its exceptional performance. Heinemman went to great pains during the design process to eliminate every unnecessary pound of weight from the plane and succeeded almost too well. When the design was submitted to the Navy, they almost rejected it because the Navy didn't believe it was possible to build a plane to meet all of their requirements and weigh half the original estimate.

A similar approach applied to a manned spacecraft could likewise achieve great results. The article tends to hand-wave some things that are a bit harder and more expensive, such a radiation hardening for the electronics. Single event upsets (SEUs) from radiation can cause random bit-flips in unhardened electronics. These bit flips can corrupt memory, changing the value of data or corrupting programs. They can sometimes cause the computer to crash. Not cool when that computer is what's keeping you alive. Hardened avionics are readily available and could be reused on many flights to amortize the cost. Likewise, all solid state guidance systems are readily available that weigh a tiny fraction of mechanical gyros, take up less room, and use only a few watts of electricity. Every gram counts when you design to weight!