Bar coding takes flight at Reynard Aviation

Reynard Aviation reckons it’s slashed its stock holding, reduced admin headcount and improved the efficiency and visibility of its manufacturing operations, while also enhancing its service to customers and its products’ traceability record. And if that’s not enough, it’s also cut the time to close off works orders from 150 hours to just 10. And it’s all been done through bar coding and bespoke code integrated with the company’s enterprise systems. Reynard’s chief claim to fame is its award-winning ‘Dreamster’ lie-flat aircraft seat, which it manufactures for Virgin Atlantic’s long haul fleet, for business and first class customers. Formed by Richard Branson and Adrian Reynard – founder of production race car firm Reynard Motorsport – it’s based in Brackley, Northants, employs around 40 and turns over about £60 million. The Dreamster itself is based on Virgin Atlantic’s own specification, although Reynard also works with other airlines and OEMs. From the outset, Reynard set up a manual materials management system for CAA and FAA traceability compliance, but as volumes increased the company soon found it too labour intensive, cumbersome and slow. Finding appropriate materials tracking technology was not going to be a problem: Psion hand-held scanners and bar coding equipment were clearly the way forward. But the company’s Pegasus Operations manufacturing system (bought when Reynard was essentially a Virgin seats R&D house) and integrated Pegasus Opera financials weren’t going to be able to handle the complexity of materials movements required. Internal automation Further, any additional system would have to interface with the existing systems not only to ensure continuing compliance with ATA2000 traceability, but also to maintain the integrated operational data environment. Beyond this, Reynard also wanted to automate some of the administrative processes and documentation generation – both regulatory and that associated with materials movements and manufacturing management – to gain greater flexibility and efficiency. There you have it: although traceability isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the rest is familiar enough territory. And when you learn that not only did Reynard’s solution not cost a fortune, nor massive timescales in implementation, and that it provides real time extended factory floor visibility and the potential to move up to digitally-linked supply chain interaction, there’s some compelling messages here. In fact, Reynard turned to PCS (Professional Computer Solutions), the Pegasus VAR that already maintained and supported its ERP systems, for initial consultancy and, following a review of the manual system, contracted the company to write modules of bespoke code to meet its functional and systems management requirements. Pseudo stock locations Reynard systems engineer John Watts takes up the story. “On arrival at our factory all goods inwards are already identified in accordance with the industry’s ATA2000 requirements. With the new system, using the hand held terminals we record their receipt and then they go through our inspection procedures and are either passed into stock or rejected.” Material receipts aren’t immediately flagged to Pegasus Operations since it couldn’t easily handle booking in, followed by rejection. “So PCS created a ‘pseudo stock’ sitting in front of Operations from a system point of view.” Not only does this deliver aviation industry traceability right from the start, but materials are thus immediately visible to all on the system screens, with status flagged. Watts continues: “If parts are rejected, all the paperwork for return to the supplier is generated by the system at the point of despatch. If they’re OK and passed into stock, then a unique bar code is allocated.” At which point it’s back to the Pegasus system. “The bar coding remains with the components throughout the production cycle [so that] as they pass through the factory they’re always traceable,” he says. And ultimately, at the end of production Reynard has a complete history of each individual manufactured seat with total traceability of the materials used. In a little detail, it’s cell-based manufacturing, with two production lines, each comprising a sequence of eight cells building different subassemblies for the aircraft seats, followed by a final seat assembly, inspection and test bay. Parts are scanned and allocated to jobs and locations according to individual cell works orders, so the system knows precisely where they are at all times and the audit trail behind that. “You scan the works order, go around the warehouse scanning the parts you need to do the assembly work – and the server does the rest,” says Watts. But the automation doesn’t stop there. Watts explains: “The system provides a trace on the issue of individual piece parts either to our own works or to subcontractors. As we place purchase orders on our suppliers for specialist operations, or rework, the system automatically caters for the fact that although what went out was part A, as it’s built into a subassembly, what comes back is part B. That’s one of the most frequently used parts of the system – and we can reject parts there too.” Then there’s the speed of works order closure. Beyond some subassembly build-to-stock, each of the cells and the final assembly stage gets its own unique works orders – which means nine works orders per seat, each involving between 50 and 100 items. With say 20 seats for an aircraft order that’s 180 reasonably complex works orders, all of which have to be closed off for a shipment. With the old system that meant substantial batch and part number data entry and checking into Pegasus Operations, involving two people all day. Further, since the system wouldn’t let them do it as work went through the production cycle it was easy to get behind. Closure on the fly With PCS’ bespoke code, these shortcomings have all been resolved. During the build sequence the system is constantly being updated, and at the end Pegasus Operations is notified for full closure and reconciliation, etc. Says Watts: “It’s automated all the processes, and that alone is a massive money saver. And it’s improved accuracy, so there’s no need to go back and do any double checking. We have now reduced the total time in which to close off works orders from 150 hours to 10, without any negative impact on our ability to meet traceability requirements.” Watts insists that while most manufacturers wouldn’t need Reynard’s levels of traceability, the visibility and process automation his relatively low cost system conveys would be useful in just about any manufacturing site with some production complexity. “If you were in say automotive or medical instruments, for example, where you’ve got a lot of operations and a lot of parts and complex assemblies it’s got to be a benefit,” he says. “Just picking items after swiping them saves so much time.” And there’s more. With the system, Reynard also knows what’s in the factory as soon as it’s swiped in – before it’s even been inspected. So, for example, critical materials could be fast-tracked to the line side if necessary, with exception reports, workflow and so forth. Further, he says traceability is core so that if there are issues during the product lifecycle, appropriate action can be taken across batches, suppliers, whatever – without tying up an army of people.