Lean transformation enables Flight Refuelling to meet rising demand through standardising procedures, increasing output by 17% & reducing lead-times by 78%

Flight Refuelling transform processes and prepare for growth   

Skilled workforce.. high value product.. full order book... Surely Flight Refuelling had it made?

A nice problem to have
A quarter of FRL's turnover comes from making Refuelling Pods for tanker aircraft.  Highly‑engineered, these air-to-air refuelling systems are utilised by Defence Forces around the world with each unit having a value of hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Already a world leader, in a rising market, with steep entry costs, the future looked good and the forecast for 2005 indicated a growth in demand 50% higher than in any previous year.

Cobham, FRL's parent, had brought in a new management team. They quickly focussed on the current situation - production was behind schedule to meet customer deliveries and nobody could reliably determine what stage a particular pod had reached, or when it would be completed. Customer demand for pods was increasing and FRL would struggle to meet this need.

Aware of WCI's long record of implementing sustainable change, FRL engaged WCI to review the current production methods and make recommendations as to how these business challenges could be satisfied.

The Challenge – A Five Day Pod
At the outset of the project the joint FRL and WCI project team needed to create the ‘burning platform’ that would galvanise the business into a step change improvement. Clearly the big driver for change in the business was the need to dramatically increase output to meet rising customer demand. The demand forecast called for one pod per week to be shipped; and from this simple focus on customer requirements the vision of the Five Day Pod was born.

Analysis of historic performance showed that production lead-times and lead-time variability were high. There was a similar high variability in the number of hours taken to produce each pod. In seeking the cause of this variability the project team quickly established that despite the job instructions, there was in fact no standard sequence of assembly that was followed for each pod. Digging deeper the project team found that common practice was to issue all of the parts required to assemble the whole pod at the point the pod was launched into production. This accumulated to many weeks worth of work issued to each assembly in work in progress. This practice was further complicated as pods were frequently launched with shortages. It was a matter of operator skill and judgement to decide his own sequence of assembly work and methods contingent to the available parts. Clearly this forced some unproductive methods to be employed and accounted for a major part of the variability in time taken to assemble each pod. With such a wide variety of assembly methods being employed, the current work instructions were little help to the operators. Instructions were in the form of a printed document that travelled the whole assembly journey with each pod. In total the instructions described over 1,000 hours of assembly tasks all issued to each stage of the process.

This necessary flexibility to adopt sub-optimum assembly methods had also forced the factory layout into becoming a general purpose fabrication and assembly facility. There was little clarity of where a particular process should be conducted and consequently poor organisation in locating tools, fixtures and work-in-progress.

With so much variability in the process it was nigh on impossible to plan and the business had become reliant on high levels of overtime working and contracted labour as a reaction to an apparent capacity overload.

In order to address all of the process issues and define the route forward to achieving the vision of the Five Day Pod, WCI consultants articulated the solution in a ‘model for success’. An implementation plan and supporting business case were developed in order to confirm the benefits of the transformation and manage the next phase of the project.

Solution - The Five Day Pod Model for Success
The principles behind the model for success were to break the work down into a number of work stations, whereby a new pod would be launched and each pod currently in progress would index to the next workstation every five days. Each workstation would be configured to perform only the tasks assigned at that stage of assembly. Within each work station work would be broken down into much smaller elements, each element of work carrying with it a standard kit of parts and a set of visual work instructions.

In order to design and drive the new production process to the required rate, namely a pod every five days, or indeed any other rate at which customer orders needed to be fulfilled, a capacity planning model was developed. The model was used to define the precise launch date for each pod and the index time that work transfers from one workstation to the next. This meant an accurate and shared demand (including provision of information to the supply base) would drive timely supply to meet customer orders. The index times are also used to monitor production progress against the plan throughout the entire process.

The Lean transformation encompassed a re‑design of the shop floor layout. Workstations were cleared, marked out, sequenced and numbered; defined drop areas were marked for the kits.  With a new floor of easy to clean, quality tiling the whole environment is conducive to effective, professional working.

The build and assembly process was divided into manageable, four-hour packages of ‘standardised’ work. Overall control is enabled through a shop index, or ‘takt’ time, calculated within the capacity model. Work‑stations are laid out and configured to run in work sequence along the shop; progress and delivery dates can be worked out at a glance.

Each workstation is designed for specific tasks as detailed in the work packages.  Everything is to hand, minimising movement.  Nothing is superfluous.  Absent tools from the boards in the area are evident. As each pod arrives, its 'kit' of parts is also delivered.  This provides everything required to perform the standard tasks, reducing sorting and picking. Working instructions have also been transformed, with visual instructions, issued and maintained only at the workstation where they are used.

The FRL team have a wealth of experience in the manufacturing process; involvement in developing the final solution would mean that they had a vested interest in the success of the transformation ensuring the project benefits would be sustained. Initially, operators were wary of providing input to configuring work‑stations, defining work packages, deciding what kit of parts would be needed at each stage; defining procedures and producing materials for instruction, training and diagnosis.  Standardisation and transparency felt threatening.  And if they did share ideas, tips, good practice, would anybody listen?

FRL committed to provide the required production tooling and other resources the new system demanded. In discussion about what worked best and why, a naturally defensive stance soon transformed into a positive statement of 'what we must do'.

In this new environment the production teams are far more engaged, no longer having to expend precious time on ingenious workarounds but they are able to report current production status or escalate issues where necessary. A board at each workstation, updated by the operators in the cell every few hours, displays progress.  A green, amber or red marker advertises consequent status, triggering action, if necessary, to maintain the flow.

Production operators were soon taking the initiative and maintaining the high level of workplace organisation without being asked. The system had become easier to maintain than it had been to workaround.

Benefits
Within nine months of launching the project and the vision of the Five Day Pod, substantial benefits were enabling FRL to meet its customers demands and achieve a record output.

 - Schedule adherence increased to 100%
 - Productivity improved by 17%• Lead-time reduced by 78%
 - Work in Progress was reduced by 65%
 - The floor space occupied by Pod assembly was reduced by 25%

In addition to a dramatic improvement in performance, the far greater control over the assembly process provides FRL’s management team with a number of additional benefits:

 - FRL can reliably inform customers exactly when their pods are due for completion
 - The standardised process can be reconfigured in response to changes in demand. Work elements can be re-assigned or work stations added or removed to meet a new level of customer demand
 - Manning requirements are planned and geared to meet production and business needs with a significant reduction in overtime requirement

Alan Ephgrave, FRL Operations Director comments: "A year ago predicting where we were in the manufacturing cycle for the product was hard work… now I know exactly which work station it’s on, I know exactly what’s happening and I know where the issues are...  WCI brought the drive, energy and persistence to see the job through to the end.”