TEC guides Universal to SC21 Bronze award
Universal’s SC21 business group comprised AgustaWestland, GKN, Raytheon and strategic partners TEC Concepts Ltd.The main barriers Universal faced were a lack of a clear vision and strategy, being reactive to customer needs and an apparent low level of support from Universal corporate.
The operational benefits for Universal in taking part in SC21 include:
• All leaders are involved in generating and communicating the strategy
• One project (CI) reduced aircraft set loom manufacture from 6500 hours to 4800 hours
• The MD sets objectives for each team, then each department/team set their own
TEC is the market leader in SC21deployment (training, diagnostics and support) and has successfully completed over 100 SC21 engagements,with almost a quarter resulting in an award.
Since Universal Engineering appointed their new MD and changed the management structure, TEC Concepts have assisted the management team in kick starting the SC21 process by coaching and mentoring the SC21 lean improvement teams.
This has had a significant impact on operations. For example, overall build times for an Agusta Westland Merlin aircraft set was reduced by introducing lean practices and lean philosophies to the shop floor. The loom kits were re-engineeredto improve the flow of kits to the build area on the shop floor removing any non-value added activities such as sorting or check the kits prior to build.
The manufacture of the main route fuselage looms was divided into manageable sections making it easier to isolate and remove any non-value added activities. The action of dividing the loom into manageable sections allowed the team leader to set milestone targets throughout the build and closely monitor progress against target.
This process saw a 25% reduction in manufacturing hours for some of our largest looms. The customer saw sustained delivery performance without compromising the quality of the product.The trends are positive for performance - 90%+ for delivery and 98%+ for quality.
Andy Huntley, AgustaWestland Operations, said: “Personally it has been rewarding to be part of Universal Engineering’s transition to a full capability loom manufacturer. The improvements achieved have mutual benefits for both companies.”
TEC has supported 24 companies to bronze award, over one third of the total (68). To this can be added over fifty client certifications to “Rev C” of AS/EN9100.
Dave Bull, Director of TEC, said: “SC21 is making a difference to Universal and it is to their credit that they made the manufacturing process more efficient. I am pleased they have achieved the bronze award. It is thoroughly well deserved.”
Andy Routledge, operations manager at Universal said: “At Universal Engineering we are good at what we do – providing expert engineering services – and have been for some time. However there is always room for improvement, and that’s where SC21 comes in. It has made us more customer-focused and enabled the company to improve our processes, from boardroom to shop-floor.
“TEC has been the catalyst to move our production capabilities into the premiership. They were there when we needed them, and translated complex topics into easily digestible projects.”
