Getting better all the time

Mike Richardson hears about the latest developments emanating from BAE Systems' Samlesbury Lockheed Martin F-35 manufacturing facility, and whether it is still on course to reach its customer's full rate production target by 2017. It's been three years since I last caught up with the facility's F-35 project team, but as its head of operations for F-35, Jon Evans reveals, it's clear that in terms of matching its customer's production rate demands, things are getting better all the time.

BAE Systems is responsible for the design and delivery of the aft fuselage and empennage for each of the three F-35 variants, and over the last fifteen years has made significant investment in the programme, including a titanium machining facility which opened in 2010, a new office building and a growing manufacturing facility.

Back in March 2012, F-35 production had reached a critical milestone. Part of a £150 million investment, the facility when fully-operational will produce one F-35 aft fuselage set every day, compared to the current rate of one set per week. The extension is the second part of a three-phase expansion plan to the facility as the programme gears up for full rate production.

BAE's F-35 programme is divided into three distinct phases: system development and demonstration (SDD), low rate initial production (LRIP), and full rate production (FRP). BAE Systems are currently transitioning from final SDD activities to LRIP. To satisfy its production requirements, Lockheed Martin awards BAE Samlesbury aircraft orders lot by lot. BAE is currently working through its lot 8 work package and will soon enter lot 9.

“Last year we built 44 aircraft aft sections, whereas this year it will increase to 48,” states Evans. “Next year we'll increase to 64 and by the end of 2017 we'll be at 100. When we reach full rate production, Lockheed Martin will negotiate with us longer contracts, which will enable us to leverage better prices across our supply chain. Contracts are awarded on an annual basis and the lot sizes tend to vary. We continually negotiate on price and we're on a learning curve to support an end target of $65,000m per aircraft. However, as we get further along the programme, Lockheed Martin expects our production costs to decrease. It's just a fact of life on this programme - to meet our contribution to the $65,000m per aircraft target, we need to reduce cost.”

A four letter world

Evans moves onto what BAE Samlesbury terms ‘the four Ps': people, product, plant and process, but it's a fifth ‘P' i.e. ‘progress' that I'm interested to hear more about.

“The biggest development here concerns our overhead monorail ‘moving line' system and using automotive industry-type technology that moves on a regular basis. The monorail moves products down the line at a ‘drum beat' currently specified at one aft section every week. This will eventually increase to one aft unit every day as we get to full rate production. This line is our jewel in the crown and a first for UK manufacturing.”

From its origins as a green field site, BAE Samlesbury has incorporated many Lean principles relating to materials and production flow in order to obtain optimum machine tool production efficiencies. Evans reckons ‘Lean manufacturing' is very easy term to bandy around and probably much misquoted and thrown in as a ‘me too' statement, rather than anything else.

“Most of the obvious engineering and mechanical aspects have already been changed, so we are now scrutinising the smaller, detailed things that engineers may not always see when parts are being designing on a CATIA workstation, for example. This site has trained 950 people in Lean techniques and about a third of these people are already on the F-35 programme. Many of our high-level management people are at the very least basically skilled in Lean techniques and understanding. We've taken this a step further and trained our shopfloor team in the basic techniques for identifying waste and removing it. We've also sent 57 people through a Lean thinking NVQ programme. On completion they are then set tasks in their area to identify any waste and remove it. One area was costing around 370 man hours per week to build assemblies - an ex-apprentice of ours has already identified 140 man hours' worth of improvements!”

Yet aren't you surprised that with the many pairs of eyes that have already poured over this area to remove costs, you are still finding more opportunities for improvements?

“Yes, but our philosophy is: the best person to tell you what's wrong with the job is the person doing the job. Rather than paying an engineer to time-study them, we train each individual to identify these opportunities and flag it up. ‘Variation' management is massively important in manufacturing. We use a Lean initiative called suppliers input, process output, customer (SIPOC), where we examine the process and all its inputs and try and minimise variation. An employee performing the same task repeatedly becomes an expert at it and in doing so, refines and improves the task as part of their role in controlling any variability.”

Evans feels that when he looks at the work done on the F-35, it's probably the first time in his career he recognises that an aircraft build is becoming more of an assembly task rather than a fitting task.

“There is a high degree of accuracy and technology involved in these detailed components, so that it now almost fits together like Lego. However, when we do experience any problems, we still need some great engineering skill to work around it, understand the problem and find a way of removing it. We are certainly moving more towards an assembly based task rather than a fitting one.”

The clock is ticking

Lockheed Martin's delivery clock is ticking and now looms large at the back of BAE Systems' mind. As a consequence, BAE has undergone a major cultural and behavioural change in order to achieve the customer's build rate. Is it ‘squeaky bum' time, or is everything under control in terms of meeting the delivery schedule?

“We still have the odd small skirmish that we would expect in a manufacturing environment. We may receive a nonconforming component, which could cause some problems, but they represent the kind of minor issues we expect and we plan for. We are planning the transition to full rate production and we have a dedicated team wrapped around meeting this target. Their job is to map out this rise to one aft unit per day manufacture and put any required investment in, i.e. going back to the four ‘P's to understand what they can do to make our production processes cycle faster. We are also introducing new workstations onto the moving line, so breaking our work content down to smaller packages and bringing in new people.

“We have quarterly reviews with Lockheed Martin so it can understand where we are on our production rate transition journey. As of today, it looks as though we have everything nailed down, but the challenge will always be in managing our 500 suppliers, as well as ourselves along this same production rate increase journey, because they will need to jump onto this journey six months in advance of when we do. We are only as strong as the weakest link in the supply chain.

“To use the Wallace & Gromit analogy, the track is being put down in front of the train! Our entire production line moves in one go; almost like a train moving down a track. If our bought-in parts do not arrive on time, the line doesn't move and it will cost BAE a lot of money if it grinds to a halt for any length of time. Our rate team is looking at how it can buffer in front and during the process to make allowances for late deliveries, and still be able to make a full recovery. Idle inventory cost money, so implementing intelligent buffers throughout our supply chain will be a key activity over the next 18 months.”

The shape of things to come

Evans says there is still as much as £50m worth of investment to be made in the Samlesbury facility. The building itself will be extended by 30m, the monorail system will undergo an extension to take it up to the full rate and a fifth ICY (interchangeability) machine will be installed on the shopfloor. Elsewhere, BAE's carbon fibre manufacturing facility will be extended to include a new autoclave and a KUKA robot, whilst its 610 machine shop will also expand – depending on customer funding.

“We're constantly looking to invest in line with our imperative growth to full production rate,” he concludes. “This includes investment in our people, Lean thinking, Lean NVQ training and Six Sigma-related approaches to problem-solving. We are also bringing through more apprentices. We had five apprentices start last November and we've planned for another five to come into the business this year too.”

You could say that things have never been better for BAE Samlesbury - and for UK manufacturing PLC as a whole too. The company has achieved all its performance deliverables - and it's getting better all the time.

www.baesystems.com