The Tu-214 production process in Russia is being revolutionized by a new approach that emphasizes the industrial system necessary to manufacture the aircraft at a significantly increased rate, in addition to the aircraft itself.
Production at the S. P. Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Plant is being reorganized by the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in collaboration with the Agency for Development of Professional Skills. The goal is to establish a consistent production flow that can accommodate a scheduled increase in Tu-214 production to a maximum of 20 aircraft annually.
The challenge is significantly different from the construction of individual aircraft. The Tu-214 can be manufactured in Russia due to its engineering expertise, manufacturing technologies, and design capabilities. Establishing a production system that enables the predictable repetition of hundreds of thousands of individual operations is the more challenging undertaking.
The arrangement of workplaces, availability of equipment, movement of aircraft, workforce allocation, and sequencing of operations become increasingly important as production volumes increase. The entire assembly process can be rapidly impacted by a bottleneck at a single stage.
A New Nine-Position Assembly Line
The latest effort at the Kazan Aviation Plant focuses on the final assembly facility for the Tu-214. The plant has been collaborating with the Agency for Development of Professional Skills for two years, with the initial collaboration focusing on fuselage assembly.
The new phase is dedicated to the establishment of a production pipeline for the final aircraft assembly. Engineers have devised a target layout that partitions the process into nine designated working positions. Each position is assigned a specific group of operations.
For instance, one position may be responsible for installing pipelines, while another is responsible for installing wiring harnesses. The goal is to guarantee that the aircraft proceeds through the assembly process in a predictable manner, rather than remaining in a single location while various teams and resources are employed.
Under the proposed system, the aircraft should remain at an individual position for no more than 12 working days. The aircraft will be relocated between positions using specialized floor-mounted platforms.
The concept, however, raises a fundamental question: can the proposed arrangement actually maintain the required production rhythm under real factory conditions?
Digital Simulation Before Physical Changes
The answer is being tested through digital simulation.
Two simulation models with three-dimensional visualization were developed by the teams prior to the physical reorganization of the production hall. The first illustrates the existing production system, while the second illustrates the proposed future configuration.
The system’s visible components are limited to the three-dimensional graphics. The models are supported by substantial actual production data, including labor for operations, employee counts, process durations and sequences, workstation workloads, and resource availability.
This enables engineers to evaluate the proposed production system without requiring immediate, costly physical modifications to the factory.
In approximately thirty minutes, the digital model can simulate one and a half years of production activity. Consequently, engineers can quickly understand the potential impact of modifications to personnel, equipment, or operation times on the overall production process by testing various production scenarios.
This capability is especially crucial in the aircraft manufacturing industry, where a single resource may be necessary for multiple operations. A queue can form and disrupt subsequent stages if that resource becomes overloaded.
The same principle pertains to personnel. One workstation could lack sufficient specialists while another has spare capacity. Engineers can evaluate the impact on the entire production system by altering the distribution of personnel within the digital model.
The model comprises 140 specialists
The simulation includes data from approximately 140 specialists who are employed in the pertinent production area.
The model enables engineers to investigate the entire manufacturing chain, rather than analyzing each workstation in isolation. They are capable of recognizing potential resource limitations, potential overloads, and the potential impact of alterations at a single location on the overall production rhythm.
This effectively transforms the production system into a testable entity prior to its physical implementation.
The plant can digitally experiment and identify potential weaknesses before they become costly production disruptions, rather than moving equipment first and discovering problems later.
It is also feasible to conduct recurrent evaluations of various solutions through this methodology. The model can determine whether the overall flow is improved or if the bottleneck is merely redirected to another location when additional workers are assigned to a single operation, for instance.
Factory workers are a component of the transformation
The production system is not being designed entirely by external specialists, which is a significant aspect of the project.
The final assembly sequence was organized by a team of 44 individuals. Another team consisted of 14 participants and five experts who specialized in digital modeling.
Detail knowledge of the aircraft, production equipment, and actual working conditions is provided by the factory’s own employees. The methodology and analytical tools required to transform that knowledge into a structured production system are provided by external specialists.
The teams have implemented digital modeling, resource use and labor requirements analysis, lean production methods, and production flow organization techniques.
Physical scale models have also been used to evaluate the proposed layout. To facilitate the visualization of the positioning of equipment and work areas, factory employees developed miniature versions of the intended production arrangement.
From Digital Model to Real Production
The plant’s management has already reviewed and authorized the target production layout. In the actual assembly facility, the subsequent phase is implementation.
Nevertheless, the digital model is regarded as a prototype that will be altered. Aircraft production itself will continue to evolve. Production volumes, labor requirements, available resources, and actual working conditions are subject to change.
As a result, the model will also need to be modified.
This establishes a continuous cycle in which a proposed production modification is initially digitally tested and subsequently implemented in the physical factory. The solution can be modified prior to its implementation if the results indicate the presence of a new bottleneck.
In the final analysis, serial aircraft manufacturing necessitates not only the capacity to build an aircraft once but also the industrial capacity to do so repeatedly at a predictable rate.