Finite scheduling tool helps Airbus operation
Finite scheduling tool helps Airbus operation
KeywordsScheduling, Software
We are informed that Preactor, a PC-based finite scheduling tool, is helping ease the complex manufacturing operation in British Aerospace's largest factory. Preactor is reported to have enabled a database of outstanding work to be created, with a clear visibility of priorities. It is also said to have contributed towards optimum capacity utilisation, the setting of realistic performance targets and made possible various other efficiency savings.
British Aerospace AirBus Limited is an independent company under the British Aerospace PLC umbrella. Its diverse interests range from defence products (aircraft, missiles, etc.) through commercial aircraft, to non-core activities such as Orange Communications. Its site in Broughton, near Chester, is BAe's largest factory. There the company's products include wing box assemblies for all variants of Airbus, and wings and fuselages for the Hawker 800 executive jet. There are around 2,000 staff producing 180 sets of Airbus wings and 40 sets of Hawker 800 fuselages and wings per year.
A Preactor 300 has now been installed in the tool room, to help the Aerotooling management monitor and control the extremely complex estimation and tooling operations which are involved in the manufacturing process.The problem that the computerised finite scheduling tool has now successfully addressed was, in the words of Howard Connah, the support team leader in the aerotooling department, as follows:
"Before finite scheduling we had no clear view of the total tooling work outstanding. Our customers did not have any visibility on work priorities and planning/scheduling relied on the skills and experience of the shop loader. There were no measures of operator performance staff were simply picking and choosing jobs without reference to what was really required. And work was generally off-loaded to sub-contract on the basis of capacity, but without really clarifying and analysing the nature of the capacity problem. As a result of all this, jobs loaded tended to have a long lead time, which inevitably led to late deliveries and high volumes of work-in-progress."
The implementation of the Preactor 300 finite scheduling tool has reportedly gone a long way towards solving all these problems. The way it works is that, after estimating, the tasks are allocated either to individual machinists or to a core/rectification team which is set up in Preactor as a primary resource, with the individuals within the team as secondary resources.
"Although each tool/requirement is totally different in its work content", Howard Connah adds,"we've found Preactor highly configurable and the database easy to customise to our particular business needs."
It is believed that the introduction of Preactor has enabled a database of outstanding work to be created, with priorities clearly identifiable and with capacity being used to the full. The engineered/estimated work packages now give clear internal and external performance targets, allowing make or buy decisions to be made on the basis of capacity, capability and cost.
Resources are now said to be focused more effectively upon the job in hand - enhancing efficiencies whilst still giving value for money.
The next step is to introduce a clocking system to record start and finish times for operations. This is to be linked to the central database for updating Preactor and for reporting purposes for example, total hours spent against specific allocation codes.
"The Preactor system has simplified and improved process control and has more than met its original purpose of providing a tool to balance capacity with the demand placed upon it by our customers," Howard Connah concludes. "In addition, it has introduced new levels of discipline to the operation in the form of work-to-lists for each member of staff."
Further details from The Cimulation Centre, Tel: +44 (0) 1249 650316.
