REGISTER FOR YOUR FREE COPY OF AEROSPACE MANUFACTURING BY VISITING: WWW.AERO-MAG.COM 26 AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING | SEPTEMBER 2010


AIRCRAFT PROGRAMMES I AIRBUS A350 XWB


A350 there has been a standardisation in the use of software tools across company disciplines, from engineering, production, program management and finance to customer communications. For structural packages – including aspects of composites design – this has involved Catia V5 and other Dassault Systèmes products. Even when the plateau is phased out,


some of the features will remain. For instance, Airbus will maintain a single DMU to ensure all partners are working to the same baseline. The extent to which risk sharing


The MTorres automated fibre placement machine: The process uses carbon fibre tapes up to 25mm wide


of functions with global performance requirements, means that the suppliers can achieve more optimised trade-offs. Concurrent engineering across multiple


players has been developed through the VIVACE project and other collaborative efforts. EADS now has its PHENIX project addressing PLM capability within the extended business. The company acknowledges that PLM has become a core part and a strategic enabler of its industrial system. A key feature of this new world order


has been what Airbus has coined the plateau development process, with embedded teams from the extended enterprise partners working together to mature the aircraft design and manufacturing capability. A master Digital Mock Up (DMU) was updated nightly to ensure effective configuration control. There have been virtual and physical aspects to this plateau, with teams co-located in Toulouse and also the newly developed dispersed engineering IT capability.


The glue that binds It’s clear that many people have put considerable effort into creating this environment within which engineering happens across organisations in a seamless manner and to produce an optimised solution. Airbus subsidiary CIMPA, having evolved from being an internal Airbus department, is now offering its products and services in product lifecycle management to a wider customer base. It describes the interfaces between supply chain players as the glue that holds the supply chain together, and places special emphasis on the change management process which has been so important a part of the A350 design plateau. The joint development phase has already involved risk-sharing structural partners in the plateau as part of the A350 programme. Previous programme experience with A380 used a number of DMUs and design tools, which caused configuration control problems that significantly delayed assembly. With the


partners have had to buy into the programme is evident in the investment GKN Aerospace has made in technology, facilities and in raising launch aid from the UK Government. This is the first time that such investment assistance has been granted to any organisation other than a prime. GKN’s technical director, Rich Oldfield points to a genuine partnership in the non-recurring engineering element of this: “GKN has used Airbus methods and tools to achieve their parts of the A350, but it was definitely GKN engineering effort which brought this about. The manufacturing processes are quite different from the company’s previous experience with A400M wing spars, which used automated tape laying and hot forming.” The make versus buy decision for


structural technology has swung towards ‘buy’. GKN makes no secret of the fact that it has purposefully built up a portfolio of design and manufacturing engineering capabilities from which primes are now replacing what used to be in-house effort. GKN makes the fixed trailing edge


structure for the A350 wings in a number of similar work packages to the A380 workshare it bought as part of it’s acquisition of production facilities at Filton. There are two components to this: the manufacture of the composite rear spar and the assembly and integration of the FTE.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52