Applying Design for Assembly Principles in Computer Aided Design to Make Small Changes that Improve the Efficiency of Manual Aircraft Systems Installations

Abstract

Aircraft system installation is still largely a manual process due and relatively low production volumes. However, as the aircraft market increases, the need to investigate ways to reduce the burden on installers becomes more pressing. Whilst the production volumes are increasing it is still not cost effective to automate these processes, and effort therefore needs to be made to minimize the burden on the operators during the manual installation of aircraft systems. This paper presents an investigation into how design for assembly and maintainability principles can be applied to ease systems installation in aircraft wings. Ergonomic issues associated with the current systems installation process were high value wing assembly facility. A range of installation issues and ergonomics evaluated using the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) analysis tool in CATIA. Design methods from design for assembly, maintainability and ergonomics were applied to investigate how the manual systems installation process could be improved for a simple design problem. The results are compared and discussed. LITERATURE REVIEWDesign for Assembly (DFA) has been widely studied and has been applied extensively in industry, particularly for mass production. Boothroyd, Dewhurst and Knight [1 "the design of the product for ease of assembly". DFA helps manufacturers to create "world class products with improved quality, lower cost, and with shorter design cycle" by helping them to "understand the costs of production from the earliest stages of the development while at the same time bringing a relentless focus to the part count" [2]. DFA provides a structured approach to assessing the ease of assembly for a product as a basis for redesign. Applying Design for Assembly Principles in Computer Aided Design Systems InstallationsHelen Lockett, Sarah Fletcher, and Nicolas Luquet ABSTRACTThe installation of essential systems into aircraft wings involves numerous labour-intensive processes. Many human operators are required to perform complex manual tasks over long periods of time in very challenging physical positions speed and quality of production but also, in the longer term, can cause costly human resource problems from operators' cumulative development of musculoskeletal injuries. These problems are exacerbated in areas of the wing which house multiple systems components because the volume of manual work and number of operators is higher but the available space is reduced. might redesign systems installations in the enclosed wing environment to better enable operator access and reduce production time.This paper describes a recent study that applied design for assembly and maintainability principles and CATIA v5 computer aided design software to identify small design changes for wing systems installation tasks. Results show positive impacts for ergonomics, production time and cost, and maintainability, whilst accounting for aircraft performance and machining capabilities.

Using requirement-functional-logical-physical models to support early assembly process planning for complex aircraft systems integration

“…In an assembly line, the relationship between physical and functional integration is far more complicated than a serial sequence of physical structure followed by functional systems. There are actually certain system pre-equipping works included in the structural assembly stage for technical and operational reasons [33,34]. The "first structure then system" image is mostly based on experience of certain previous aircraft (2019) 000-000 3 projects from a very high-level view, which only presents part of the assembly process.…”

CDFA method: a way to assess assembly and installation performance of aircraft system architectures at the conceptual design

“…In the aerospace field, few attempts in the development of DFMA methods have been done. Lockett et al ( 2014 ) applied DFA techniques with the help of CAD software to identify small changes to improve wiring system installation tasks. Barbosa and Carvalho ( 2014 ) collected a set of design guidelines applicable during the aircraft design to improve the assembly and manufacturing performance.…”

Digitalization Of Production At Aerospace Enterprises: What A University Graduate Should Know

“…Traditionally, this is due to the complexity of the design and manufacture of aircraft. In recent years, a new factor has emerged -digitalization of production (Baranov, 2017;Krivosheev, 2017;Lockett et al, 2014;Qianping et al, 2015;Tertyshnik, 2013;Zhou et al, 2011).…”