Part Buyers Authority Issue #3

Forecasts are predicting strong growth in the commercial and defense aerospace industries during the coming year, driven by increased demand for passenger travel and increased defense spending globally. In the commercial sector, there was a record high backlog of aircraft unit production at the end of 2017. However, the aerospace industry demands extremely stringent quality measures regardless of growth rate. There are many suppliers capable of meeting these quality level demands, so how can one producer stand out? A successful supplier of aerospace parts must look for every opportunity to increase value and reduce lead time while maintaining the required high level of quality. Value Analysis/Value Engineering (VA/VE) is one of the most important tools for hitting those seemingly contradictory goals of high quality, but also high value and low lead times. VA/VE is the process of conducting a systematic analysis to identify the best value possibilities for design, materials, and processes. VA/VE attempts to substitute materials and methods with less expensive alternatives, without sacrificing quality or functionality. VA/VE focuses entirely on the functional aspects of components and materials, and not their physical characteristics. Let’s consider a case where VA/VE was employed successfully to overhaul the production process of an aerospace part: CASE STUDY Application: Aerospace Part Description: Rotor Clip for Carbon Brake, Airbus - A320 BRONSON JONES President & CEO BANNER METALS GROUP 6 VALUE ANALYSIS LEADS TO COST SAVINGS FOR AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES The original manufacturing process involved many incremental steps and processes. Some of these steps were relatively minor operations that nonetheless added significant amounts of time, while some processes were necessary to correct distortions or imperfections introduced by previous steps. ORIGINAL Process 1 Stamp Flat Blank 2 Form 3 Form Radius 4 Machine 6 holes 5 Machine ends of part 6 Remove burrs inside form 7 Re-Size inside form 8 Apply surface coating After a rigorous VA/VE process, several manufacturing steps were combined, and others eliminated. The initial stamping process was modified to account for the geometric distortions that are introduced in later steps. Additionally, the stamping process was done at a higher quality standard in order to reduce the finishing work required for the part. BANNER METALS GROUP PART BUYERS A U T H R I T Y