Managing Automation - September 2008 - (Page 28)

SPECIAL REPORT PROGRESSIVE MANUFACTURER OF THE YEAR GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP . A long-term, incremental approach helps the aerospace giant automate a wide range of quality and shop floor processes, reducing cycle times and eliminating unwanted surprises. BY JEFF MOAD t’s estimated that it costs $100,000 per day just to pay for the standing army needed to launch a military satellite into space. And you thought gasoline was expensive. With those kinds of dollars at stake, the last thing any aerospace contractor wants is a costly launch delay caused by a last-minute scramble to locate assembly, quality, or testing documentation. Until fairly recently, however, the Advanced Information Systems (AIS) unit of $27.2 billion aerospace giant General Dynamics Corp. and its customers were all too exposed to just such delays. That’s because, as at many aerospace manufacturers, documentation of critical quality, testing, non-conformance disposition, and other production-related processes was largely paper-based at the unit, whose Scottsdale, AZ, plant makes, integrates, and tests printed circuit boards and other electronics for military satellites. Even an electronic component the size of a cigarette pack could generate five or six boxes of paper documentation. On the plant floor, where work instructions also were paper-based, documentation occupied 77 four-drawer file cabinets. In some cases, when documentation could not be found, a completed subsystem would have to be torn down, reassembled, and retested, at an average cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars in rework and delays. “We were always taking time to locate the right paper document, running around to get changes documented, then getting nine people to sign off on it, in paper. Meanwhile, you’d have to stop what was going on on the shop floor,” says Mike Floyd, director of mis- I sion assurance at the company. “It was nasty business.” Eight years ago, Floyd and other AIS leaders set out to replace all of the paper that was clogging up the plant floor with an automated system that would provide a repository of production-related data that could be easily accessed by General Dynamics and its customers. Dubbed Orion, the paperless shop floor system that the company deployed eventually incorporated control and documentation of quality, part traceability, electronic assembly instructions, electronic rework, change authorization, and reporting. The project has slashed shop floor paper work by 90%, shortened turnaround times, reduced launch delays and teardowns, improved quality, and provided baseline metrics supporting lean and Six Sigma initiatives. The General Dynamics Orion project represents a model for manufacturers in aerospace and other highly complex, regulated production environments where ingrained, paper-based processes have, for years, undermined productivity. It also represents a record of persistence by project leaders Floyd, Production Operations Manager Markus Yatskievych, and Director of Production Operations Eric Stiller who pursued the paperless shop floor vision for several years. As much as anything, it was that persistence that convinced Progressive General Dynamics Corp., Advanced Information Systems Employees: 700 Location: Scottsdale, AZ Industry: The Scottsdale facility makes microelectronics, printed circuit boards, and assemblies used in satellites. Project name: Orion Project leaders: Eric Stiller, director, production operations; Mike Floyd, director, mission assurance; Markus Yatskievych, manager, production operations Core technologies: iBASEt’s Solumina quality, MES system ROI/Business benefit: 90% reduction in shop floor paperwork; provides quick, top-down visibility into quality and other issues affecting equipment costing tens of millions of dollars per unit; helps avoid costly teardowns and launch delays ma September 28 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - September 2008

Managing Automation - September 2008 Contents Take 1 Letters Tech Vendors Defy Economic Slump by Plugging into Developing World Growth New E2open Chief Outlines Plan to Accelerate Growth Is This Marketing as It Used to Be or Something New? The OMAC Group Attempts to Widen Its Influence Automation Federation Names Chief, Plots Growth Notes Cover story: The Innovation Gap Special Report: Meet the Progressive Manufacturing High Achievers Progressive Manufacturer of the Year Business Model Mastery Innovation Mastery Customer Mastery Supply Network Mastery Data & Integration Mastery Education & Training Mastery Leadership Mastery Operational Excellence Mastery Special Report: Catching the Wireless Wave Part 1: No Clear Infrastructure Winner Part 2: Wireless Apps Take Wing Part 3: The Human Side of Wireless Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.