The best of the best

Lean manufacturing has been welcomed and almost entirely adopted by the aerospace manufacturing fraternity over the years. And yet in some ways, it's simply a case of doing what we already do, but in a much more structured and coordinated way.

However, the Lean manufacturing road is long with many a winding turn, and it's one that safety system specialist, Aero Sekur has recently started out on. With over forty years' experience, the company designs and manufactures integrated safety solutions that combine lightweight materials, simplified maintenance and ease of integration. Its helicopter industry innovations include flotation systems, integrated life-raft solutions, valve/inflation systems and self-sealing, lightweight, crashworthy, flexible fuel tanks.

Comprising airborne, defence and space divisions, Aero Sekur's Aprilia, Italy facility has recently undergone a transformation through its management team's adoption of Lean manufacturing philosophies that concentrate on its airborne and defence divisions.

“In the past, our flotation and life-raft systems manufacture was very much engineering led, i.e. the customer had already built a helicopter and decided to fit a flotation or life-raft system, which as a consequence needed to be ‘back-engineered' onto the helicopter,” begins Aero Sekur's chairman and Group chief executive, Mark Butler (bottom right). “It was a reactive and sub-optimal design; the design and manufacturing process itself was almost entirely hand-built, so that when the designs were drawn up, they were being configured to an existing airframe but with very little consideration given to cost or manufacturability.

“Because the costs weren't being considered, it reflected on things like maintainability and the customer would end up with a number of different helicopter models – all of which had completely different spares and maintainability requirements. This wasn't a cost-effective solution to us as a manufacturer - or the end user.”

<The Lean dream>

Butler points to a sea change in the market where helicopters have now become more of a utility vehicle than a specialised military one.

“Suddenly, cost in its broadest sense - both as original purchase and as maintainability - has become a real issue for the end user and inevitably for us and our ability to lower the cost is now paramount. It soon became apparent that it was a question of both ‘designing in' cost-effectiveness in terms of the design itself and the manufacturability.

“Lean manufacturing this process must not become isolated, but instead work in tandem with a radical change in the design process too. It means the manufacturability, maintainability and cost are considered from the start. We've creating more part commonality so that when we are designing a system, we make it as easy as possible for everyone. Our customers not only demand lower cost, they want their products delivered quicker too. This was all driven by a change in the market's philosophy.”

In such a tightly-regulated industry where all components must be qualified regardless of the manufacturer's claim that it will be better and cheaper, Butler acknowledges that while it has historically always been very hard to make retrospective changes, Aero Sekur needed to put a stake in the ground and begin with its version of the a Lean manufacturing philosophy.

“We took the decision to change our design philosophy, implement more commonality and examine the manufacturability and maintainability of our products. Yes, there is an option to go back and retrospectively upgrade parts using a supplementary type certificate, whereby we perform the re-qualification in-house. We may well do more of this as we become more embedded in the ‘Lean' process and offer the customer the opportunity to change parts and processes the next time their helicopter is being serviced.”

Butler goes on to explain a common scenario where the customer has manufactured a helicopter and then contacts Aero Sekur to try and negotiate how it wants the company to fit and adapt its flotation system. As he says, in a lot of cases, the design is compromised right from the word go.

“Often, because of the way the customer has designed and built the helicopter there is nowhere to locate a flotation system, certainly not easily or elegantly. The earlier we're involved in the helicopter design process, the better we can provide a solution. Unless you know what you are looking for, you won't realise that there is a float system or life-raft system onboard the helicopter; it's so neatly integrated and it means the helicopter can be designed for optimal performance.

“However, if we're given an existing helicopter and told to fit a flotation system to it, there is a limit to where it can go because we then have to fit it in where we can. It may not be the perfect solution from a performance viewpoint. If we are involved in the design on a collaborative basis, right from the word go, we can actually incorporate it in the most optimised way. The change in our entire manufacturing process is vital in terms of obtaining an optimised design.”

<Joined up thinking>

Aero Sekur's chief operating officer, Marco Borghesi (pictured middle right) says the company recognised a need to transform from a basic engineering company running three major shopfloors to what he calls a ‘real' industry.

“In three years, we've moved from generating €26 million in sales to €32m and we will reach €37m next year. We've moved from engineers producing and constructing their own ideas to a real industry, able to produce serious products. Our transformation is related to our financial operation figures and to the reaction of the market to our Lean manufacturing initiatives and proposals. We were successful in most of our proposals and now have to tackle how to maintain the products, the customer relationship and increase our capability in terms of responding to their requirements.

“This year we decided to become a Design of Authority. At present we have production authority so we can manufacture parts, but we are restricted by the customers' existing designs and design iterations. With design authority we can promote our own products. We reached our goal this year in terms of our capabilities in being recognised as a complete design company.”

Borghesi feels that Aero Sekur's Lean manufacturing journey starts with its customers, but while it faces big changes within its organisation, some of its major customers are undergoing the same big changes too.

“If you are unable to react to these changes in the market then you could be forced out. Recently, one of our customers wanted all of its major suppliers to become ‘homogeneous' in the way they tackle all the crucial issues of production, maintenance and design. They made strong suggestions we start creating a team that wants to adopt Lean manufacture principles in order to transform the way we work and replicate what they are doing inside their organisation.”

Butler agrees: “It is part of a general trend that's happening, in that the aerospace industry is taking the same route as the automotive industry by trying to reduce the levels of hand-built operations. OEMs now focus on their core strengths; specialist systems are given to specialist subcontractors who become a far more integrated part of the production process. We're doing the same to a certain extent, inasmuch as we use specialist subcontractors to manufacture our subsystems rather than do it ourselves in-house.”

To support its Lean philosophy, Aero Sekur has gradually reorganised its shopfloor manufacturing practices – with the key investment being in the culture of its people working on the shopfloor. To oversee Aero Sekur's Lean manufacturing initiatives, Alice Hromadkova (pictured standing right) is responsible for the company's programme management activities and involvement in all the company's R&D programmes.

“I'm responsible for the start of these activities and the management of the first stage of this transformation,” she explains. “The Lean manufacturing philosophy goes right through our workshop. We listen to our workers and any suggestions they might have to understand how to best arrange their working environment. The whole implementation of Lean manufacturing was collaborative and everyone was involved. It only really works when the people implementing it are the ones actually doing it. It's about winning the hearts and minds of our workers to make the improvements happen. We defined a team and went through the whole process, taking note of all the suggestions.”

<The big picture>

Valentina Bornisacci (pictured standing left) is Aero Sekur's deputy director of the company's Airborne Division - Product Support. As the internal customer for any kind of improvement of Aero Sekur's production, she is at the sharp end of the relationship with the customer.

“I'm able to measure any frustration or enthusiasm for our performance,” she states. “On-time delivery was our customers' main issue and one where we focused much of our Lean manufacturing focus. If we deliver late, the customer is unhappy, but now I can explain to them exactly what is happening on our production shopfloor. I'm satisfied that what I'm explaining to the customer is the real picture of the situation. The customer can then understand our situation and we can agree with them how to alleviate any delivery or production problems. The relationship with the customer is much better now that it has become more collaborative and less confrontational.”

Lean manufacturing is about becoming the best of the best. Clearly it works; Aero Sekur must keep on the right road, deliver on its promises and continue to drive its plan forward. By keeping everyone engaged, the company will soon reap the business benefits and rewards.

“The reorganisation of our shopfloor layout and production line process has resulted in tangible improvements,” Butler concludes. “Any kind of change in our production methodology requires a requalification of the product, which is the most expensive part of creating the same product, but produced in a different way. We now have to deal with the transformation of our production technology. We've made the investment in new machinery and tools and now we have to invest in our requalification activity.”

www.aerosekur.com