Page 23 - trends in automation

M

odern passenger jets have to

withstand a lot of stress.

Extreme winds, huge tempe

rature differences and hard

touchdowns when landing all make heavy

demands on the aircraft’s materials. The

so-called ‘C check’ takes place every 15

to 20 months. This involves a detailed

inspection of the entire aircraft structure

and thorough testing of all systems, for

which the aircraft is partially dismantled.

The interior is also completely overhauled.

This process can take up to two weeks

and 2,500 working hours to complete.

Lufthansa CityLine, which maintains air-

craft from other airlines in addition to its

own fleet, put its technology to the test in

order to try and identify waste. The entire

project was supported by Festo Training

and Consulting.

Objective

At Lufthansa CityLine around 120 tech

nicians work at the overhaul centre in

Cologne, Germany, where they ensure

passenger jets are ready to take to the

sky again after the C check. To keep

ahead of the competition, the company

set itself the objective in early 2011 of

identifying the sources of hidden costs

and developing an optimised structure.

Although customers have always been

impressed with the quality of service,

Lufthansa CityLine must also be able to

compete financially in the international

market. Ultimately, the throughput time

for aircraft maintenance was to be reduced

from an average of 18 to just 12 days.

Separation of activities

It was important that a dedicated project

team be assembled at the very outset.

The Lufthansa subsidiary made two

employees available full time and several

others for one day a week for this task.

They worked together on the introduction

of shop floor management and lean logis-

tics as well as the optimisation of produc-

tion control. Employees across all levels

were also trained in lean methods and

process optimisation using a specially

developed business game. One of the key

focal points of the project was separating

logistics tasks from technical functions

and assigning them to two employees.

The majority of employees could therefore

concentrate on their own value-adding

activities, while the other two employees

could look after logistics. This effectively

reduced the total time spent on logistics.

The advantages of standardisation

An important resource was the master

flow chart, which allows all employees to

see at a glance which work steps have

already been completed and which still

have to be performed. Until now, know

ledge about the supposedly best proce-

dure was split between the various func-

tions of individual employees. Now, the

entire wealth of knowledge and experi-

ence of the technical operations depart-

ment is used to define the best procedure

as a standard for everyone to follow.

With the new master flow chart, every

employee can quickly find out about the

status of maintenance work and can see

which steps are to be carried out next.

Shorter throughput times

Shop floor management has so far proven

to be effective. The throughput time has

been reduced from an average of 18 days

to just 11 days. Risks associated with idle

periods can now be responded to much

faster. Employees have been trained in

the area of lean logistics and are now bet-

ter able to make their own decisions using

the standardised procedures. A standard-

ised work plan and shift change as well

as a clear understanding of roles, with

defined responsibilities and levels of

escalation, ensure greater transparency

and commitment in the overall process.

www.festo-tac.com

Decisions at the site of value creation

Shop floor management sees production as the only site of value creation.

Management is therefore focused on the very heart of the company, the

shop floor. Active shop floor management is about lean production and lean

management. It therefore focuses on ensuring that employees carry out

production, maintenance, logistics and development tasks as efficiently and

error-free as possible. Employees should be encouraged to make more

decisions themselves directly at the site of value creation.

2.2013

trends in automation

Impulse

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