Globalisation has increased the rewards for
manufacturers who innovate and get to market first. As a result,
more manufacturers are turning to the computer to design, test and
refine products and processes "in silicon" before they commit big
money to the project.
A case in point is
Bombardier, the
Belfast-based aerospace manufacturer of Learjets and other
commercial aircraft. The company has recently completed a pilot
computer simulation project,
the CRJ1000 flights project, to model the design and
manufacturing of components for Bombardier aircraft.
The key, says Bombardier, was to combine computer aided design,
engineering and manufacturing tools in a way that let the firm's
designers, engineers and shop-floor staff work in parallel to
create and build production lines to make the items.
The result has been a quicker start-up, fewer test runs to reach
acceptable quality standards, and less money tied up for less time,
said Brian Welch, Bombardier's manufacturing engineering manager,
and one of the four-man team responsible for the project. "We now
have a proven tool that we will use on all future projects," Welch
told Computer Weekly.
Bombardier is part of a
British government project to design and build next generation
wings made from carbon fibre-reinforced plastics known as
composites.
The £103m, 17-member project announced in May is run by Airbus
UK, which has been making composite wings for the Airbus A400M
military transport at its 8,000 square metre
Broughton factory since 2006.
Instead of cutting and bending aluminium sheets, wing components
are baked whole in curing ovens to exacting tolerances.
Airbus will design, test and build the wings in the computer
before it does it for real. It will build on its experience gained
from automating virtually its entire wing-building line.
Will Searle,research leader for virtual manufacturing at Airbus
UK, says,"We have proved that we can go from designing the wing to
packaging it [for assembly elsewhere], digitally and
physically."
Everything to do with the line is modelled in three dimensions
from the start. "The aim is to knock costs out and make conditions
on the assembly line more comfortable for the workers," Searle
says.
One challenge is that building wings requires a lot of manual
labour that is hard to digitise, and is therefore hard to model
accurately, says Searle. "If a rivet is slightly too large for the
hole, the fitter will get a hammer and make it fit. But you cannot
do that with a composite wing because you might compromise its
integrity."
By tying the manufacturing system to its enterprise management
system Airbus is able to identify and control costs better, and to
see the impact of a design or engineering change on costs. This
provides a better platform for decision making as managers can test
more options on computer before committing themselves.
"Rate of production is crucial for us," Searle says. "We are
aiming at a system where we can go from making 10 to 40 wings a day
over a weekend, without compromising quality or scrap. The capital
expenditure involved is so great that we have to be right first
time. That is why we are digitising to optimise."
The government wants the UK to lead the world in composite wing
technology, and to become the world's mass manufacturer of aircraft
wings. Companies like Airbus and Bombardier believe that digital
simulation will put them at the forefront of aircraft
manufacturing.
Bombardier's computer aided design
Bombardier is using Dassault Systemes' Catia v5 computer aided
design and Optegra plant design management software to design
aircraft components.
The Delmia system combines 3D design and product structure data
with that of other components to create an electronic bill of
materials that together make up the product. This allows production
engineers to model the assembly processes and to suggest changes to
the product's design that improve its manufacturability.
The system links to the company's enterprise resourcemanagement
system for costing and other data. This allows engineers to monitor
the effects of changes on cost and profitability, as well as
produce assembly documentation for shop-floor workers.
Airbus
Airbus usesDassault Systemes' Catia computer aided design
software as well as its Delmia product lifecycle management
software. It chose Delmia to help manage final assembly of theA380,
and is using both product sets in the £103m Next
GenerationComposite Wing project it manages for the British
government.
Each A380 requires an assembly space 80mby 80mand at least
25mhigh. The Delmia tools were used to simulate and visualise
critical manufacturing processesto unify and integrate components
from four different European sites for assembly inHamburg.
What do you need to simulate a factory?
A
study
at the University of Sutherland's Institute for Automotive and
advanced manufacturing practice found that businesses need to model
long list of processes to create an accuratemanufacturing
simulation.
• Product design and testing
• Engineering analysis,
• Process planning
• Cost estimation
• Factory layout
• Ergonomics
• Robotics
• Machining
• Inspection
• Factory simulation
• Engineering and manufacturing data and process management
• Supply chain collaboration
Bombardier and Airbus spoke to Computer Weekly at
Dassault Systemes' Delmia's
customer conference in Stuttgart in October.