Lean Manufacturing used to Improve Aircraft Manufacture’s Performance

Abstract

The objective of this study is to ensure future rate of ten airplanes a month capability of the fuselage fabrication area by decreasing the takt time by 23%. Achieving this objective required an assessment of the current state fuselage fabrication installation process and the feeder-line cutting and kitting process was performed. This study used the define-measure-analyze- improve-control (DMAIC) methodology to perform the evaluation. The conclusion of this study demonstrated the benefits of receiving sorted material and detail kits from the feeder-line area allowed the fuselage fabrication area to achieve a 23% takt time reduction.