For its newest family of aircraft, the A350 Extra Wide Body (XWB), Airbus set out to improve the production process, for what the company calls a “streamlined” and “optimised workflow,” to achieve its cost and productivity goals; one of which is to produce ten A350 aircraft per month in 2018.
“This year, augmented reality is used on the shopfloor on a large-scale successfully in Hamburg,” Airbus explains, describing how it is improving its production process, which it says also involves, “flow simulation… to optimise and validate the [manufacturing] ramp-up”.
The first A350-900 was delivered to Airbus’ launch customer, Qatar Airways, on 22 December 2014 and that aircraft started commercial operations on 15 January 2015, flying daily from Doha to Frankfurt. With 107 A350 XWB delivered up to 31 August this year, according to Airbus’ own figures, the apparent average monthly production rate, 35 months after work began on the first production aircraft, has been about three per month.
The A350 XWB is Airbus’ mid-size long-range aircraft family and the newest member of the European firm’s widebody product range. The aircraft uses the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engine. The A350 XWB family competes with both the Boeing 787 and Boeing 777. The Airbus website states that the XWB family consists of the A350-800, A350-900 and A350-1000.
Airbus has stated in its background information that: “The A350 XWB final assembly process has been thought out with efficiency in mind, in order to reduce the assembly time compared to current programmes.” It also explained that unlike its other aircraft, the A350 XWB cabin installation starts at the same time as the assembly of the fuselage, wings and tail plane.
Let’s get digital
While the digital tool of flow simulation has enabled Airbus to analyse the workflow in readiness for A350 production rate increases, shopfloor staff can also now interact with 3D virtual XWB models. Called, Realistic Human Ergonomic Analysis (RHEA), staff wear goggles, like a helmet-mounted display, that provide the 3D models within their field-of-view. “More than 400 users are trained and the system has enabled faster treatment of non-conformities,” says Airbus. Tablet computers are also being used by testing and inspection staff, which, “reduces the overall quality effort.”
The RHEA technology has been used at Hamburg for A350 production preparation. The aft and forward fuselages are made at Hamburg along with the vertical tail plane (VTP). The German site is one of two facilities that have changed the way they work to aid the streamlining of the manufacture for the XWB. “The introduction of a crown module, fully equipped with electrical harnesses, equipment and ducts, enables lead-time savings,” according to the European aerospace giant. “All these modules are setting a new standard for Airbus and enabling a much more efficient assembly line allowing more parallel work.”
Doing more, earlier
Another site that has seen changes for the A350 optimised production system is in France at Saint Nazaire. In this western France, coastal location, the A350 front and centre fuselages are built. For the A350, the cockpit installation is carried out at Saint Nazaire. While, the Airbus A330’s cockpit installation, for example, occurs in Toulouse.
“On A350 it has been decided to move these activities to Saint Nazaire,” Airbus says. “Also, we have introduced modular installation, such as a main instrument panel and pre-equipped floor grid, in this congested section.” The change has helped to reduce installation lead-time as it opts for more of what Airbus calls “parallelize” work.
The aircraft maker also sees improvements in the production worker’s environment, as, “overall, we have much better ergonomics for workers,” for example, with the new approach to cockpit installation. At Saint Nazaire, RHEA was deployed to train production workers building major components.
Other Airbus sites with major A350 structural sub-assemblies are, Broughton in the UK where the wing is built; Bremen where the wing is equipped; Getafe and Illescas in Spain which produce the horizontal tail plane (HTP), and Toulouse itself where the engine pylons and nacelles are made. These different parts of the aircraft arrive in Toulouse already tested, which further reduces the amount of work required at the latter stages of the aircraft’s build.
The A350s are assembled in Toulouse at a factory that is called the Roger Béteille A350 XWB final assembly line (FAL). It consists of two buildings that cover 11 hectares of land in total. It has been set up in close proximity to the Airbus A330 assembly line, “to optimise the industrial processes associated with an entirely new FAL dedicated to widebody twin-engine aircraft.” The aerospace OEM also explained that, “we recently opened a new logistics centre in Toulouse which helps optimise the supply chain.”
For the FALs production of the A350-900 and A350-1000, the two aircraft share 95% of the same common systems and parts numbers. According to Airbus figures, as of 31 August 2017, eight A350-800 have been ordered by Asiana Airlines. Airbus has said that, “the commonality of manufacturing processes and industrial system enable smoother workflow. The unprecedented high level of commonality has allowed a seamless introduction in all our subassembly and assembly lines. E.g. the same jigs for wings, and procedures for mechanics etc.”
Airbus has also provided detail about how the XWB FAL differs to its other aircraft assembly lines. One basic similarity is that with the stops along the production route, the stations, are numbered in descending order. For the XWB it is from 59 to 20, but there are not 39 stations. The stations are 59, 50, 40, 30, 20 and 18. Once assembly is complete, the versions of the A350 will go to one of the four paint halls in Toulouse dedicated to the A330, A350 XWB and Airbus A380 families.
Station stops
One of the first elements of parallel work used for the XWB had already been adopted on the Airbus A330 and Airbus A340 models. That change was for the cabin monument installations to be moved to the FAL’s first station, station 59. The cabin monuments are the galleys, toilets and crew rest compartments. Like other pre-assembled parts, they are all tested prior to their FAL arrival, and at station 59 they are installed inside the fore, aft and central fuselages before these huge pieces of aircraft are joined.
At station 50, those fuselages are joined, and the cigar shape of the wingless, tailless unfinished aircraft is formed. The nose landing gear, crew rest area and rear galley are also all finalised at this stop. The wing, tail assembly, including the cone and stabilisers, and then the main landing gear (MLG) are not installed until the next station, station 40. Station 40 also sees cabin furnishing begin with the floor, sidewalls, overhead bins and ceiling panels put in place.
Airbus told Aerospace Manufacturing that the wing, tail assembly and MLG are installed at 40 for productivity gains because, “the duration of the fuselage join-up was not at the same pace as the VTP. So, they were separated for production flexibility. Compared with A380, with A350 we have simplified the production steps with one jig for fuselage assembly, and one other jig for the wings, MLG, HTP, VTP and pylon together.”
The first fuselage electrical “power-on” test is done in parallel with these installations. Previously the power-on occurred later. “The advantage is a gain of time for aircraft testing and wiring checks,” Airbus explains.
The A350’s station 30 has further cabin installation work including seats and “main pieces of equipment”, along with exterior parts, the belly fairing and landing gear doors. The full aircraft electrical power-on test and aircraft mechanical, electrical and avionics system ground testing also occur at station 30, but this testing does not include cabin pressurisation, communications and fuel supply.
Station 20, which is shared with the A330, has cabin equipment, such as the in-flight entertainment system, curtains and safety equipment, fitted along with cockpit furnishings. The Rolls-Royce engines and the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit are also installed here. Station 20 also goes outdoors for the fuel system, cabin pressurisation and radio communications testing. Cargo and passenger doors are also adjusted where necessary at this stage. Airbus said of its in-production testing regime, “we are leaving the classical equipping and testing process [and moving] towards more digital tools and modular approaches.”
Airbus predicts that when the A350 production reaches full production rate, 10 per month in 2018, the employees working on the site will number about 1,800. Each aircraft will take two and a half months from the start of final assembly to finally being delivered to the customer.
By July this year, 98 A350-900s were flying with 14 operators including, Qatar Airways, LATAM, Finnair and Delta Air Lines. At the end of the same month, Airbus had received 212 A350-1000 orders from 12 customers and by August this year, in total, the A350 had received 848 orders from 45 customers.
However digitally-enhanced or parallelized their work is, even at an output rate of 10 aircraft per month, the Hamburg, St Nazaire and FAL workers have more than seven years of production ahead of them, with yet more orders likely.
