Technical And Industrial Benefits Of Reconfigurable Fixtures

• A situation where a reduction in production will result in less overhead allocated to the respective product

Andrews Corporation’s production department coordinates and facilitates the assembly lines for the products. There are two crucial factors that the production department focuses on: automation and production capacity.

Optimization of machinery so that production setups are not required for small customizations which can be managed manually.

Aircraft Solutions (AS) is a recognized leader in the design and fabrication of component products and services for companies in the electronics, commercial, defense, and aerospace industry. Located in Southern California, AS has a dedicated, trained workforce and maintains a large capacity plant and extensive equipment to meet customer requirements. Much of the equipment is automated to increase production while reducing costs. The company's workforce has a large skill base: design engineers, programmers, machinists, and assembly personnel to work its highly-automated production systems.

One of the biggest needs for improvement was the assembly process. Although several changes were made throughout the years, quality and efficiency still fell below expectations. Hinrichs implemented the newly developed assembly which consists of two separate work stations that allowed operators in the adjacent stations to share the expensive balancer machine. These assembly cells were much more efficient as workers were no longer forced to wait for another person or machine in the process. Each cell was built like the other with quick turn set-up which created flexibility in the process while also reducing tooling inventory by almost a half. Now cells

For entry level and multi featured assembly we always matched assembly to orders because we did not want to assembly more unless demand is high in a specific year.

Fraser Company has been the supplier of metal and plastic fabricated parts for Boeing Aircraft and has recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. In the 1960s, in order

The third core competency is Boeing’s dynamic assembly line. This was a valuable change to Boeing because it reduced assembly time by 50%, or from 22 days down to 11 days. The planes move 80 feet every shift and lights determine the status of the assembly line. Dynamic assembly lines are costly to imitate and rare due to the size of the plant and the components used in order to pull such a large craft throughout the building. The only substitute of a dynamic assembly line is a static assembly line, and the dynamic one performs much more efficiently.

While mass customization is a viable option in manufacturing with digital factories and employing lean manufacturing designs, service firms have to employ a more productive environment to make mass customization profitable. Mass customization refers to using mass production technologies to quickly and cost-effectively assemble goods that are uniquely designed to fit the demands of individual customers (Daft, 2016, p. 271). The key challenge for service mass customization is to translate information about consumer preferences gained through market research into a format that can be easily used for service modularization decisions and customer-contact personnel training (Haas & Kunz, n.d., p. 603). In the service arena, mass customization becomes an ongoing configuration process with direct involvement of the customer coupled with professional advice by service personnel who understand the configuration rules and know them by heart. A clear understanding of the customer’s needs is required, as well as a requirement by service personnel to provide the customer clear and concise configuration options that strike the perfect balance between flexibility and complexity. Also, a continuous interaction between frontline contact personnel and the customer is a consequence that must be

The manufacturing cost can be lower as the rearrangement of the production line to meet urgent order can be minimize or even eliminated.

Due to customers’ needs and requests, Boeing has expanded its product line and services. The long tradition of aerospace leadership and innovation has given the company the advantages. Its broad range of capabilities includes creating new and more efficient commercial airplane, integrating military platforms and defense systems through

Overview of the Wings and Legs supply chain. Using techniques such as the decoupling point can

The assembly line allowed for the specialization of product production, whereas before the assembly line there would be a slower process of producing products, for example, each piece would have

In most cases, computer controlled machinery affixes components onto the casing using advanced adhesives. However, because of incompatibility issues between materials, the batteries and electric motors have to be bolted on to the casing by hand, using power tools. Operatives work on the line, each making an average of 12 bolts onto the casing, ie, 1 person bolts the battery and then someone further down the line bolts the electric motor. The inspection section for the back casing of the body is the most active, the rejection rate for loose components at this point is approximately 1.2 %. A further 0.5% are rejected at final inspection, causing expensive rework situations. There is a staff turnover of 25% per annum amongst such operatives in the back casing sub assembly section.

I am in pursuit of a life where the education I choose lets me explore the wealth of knowledge and wisdom. I strongly recognize that manufacturing engineering is the domain where my purpose and passion mingle. It is my earnest belief that the education in manufacturing engineering that I have received until now has helped me to grasp the fundamental principles of the subject. This knowledge, when coupled with dedicated master’s study would be the ideal preparation for a career in applied research or academics in the manufacturing industry, a vast field of science from developing new materials to manufacture an aircraft. After giving a visit to an Aero India Show last year in Bangalore has, developed a curiosity in me to know the manufacturing world of an aerospace industry. It is for this reason that I wish to pursue a Masters course in Aerospace Engineering in the “Aerospace Structures and Materials track” from Delft University of Technology.