Messier Dowty cuts project lead times from four months to one week

“As a direct result of implementing HMS-CAPP (computer aided process planning) we’ve managed to reduce the time we need to prepare for new projects from four or five months down to just one week for some of our more basic components. And this has allowed us to achieve the target payback period of 18 months,” says Mike Davis, CAPP system administrator at Messier Dowty. “Even for the more complex parts and assemblies, we’re still cutting lead times by at least 50% compared to five years ago.” And lead time is a crucial area of Messier’s business. Being one week faster than your competing suppliers can really make all the difference to the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) up the supply chain. Throughout last year for example, Messier had to gear up for four significant new projects: the A340-600 Airbus; the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter); Nimrod; and the EFA (European Fighter Aircraft, Typhoon). And Davis is clear about the difference HMS-CAPP has made to the business: “Without HMS-CAPP, it would have been impossible to plan for these four major projects.” Messier-Dowty is a £75 million annual turnover company that designs and manufactures landing gear systems for commercial and military aircraft. It has a manufacturing facility in Staverton, Gloucester, which has around 900 employees, but has eight other sites in France, Canada, the US and Asia. So why did the firm need process planning software? It started in 1995, when it decided to look for a software vendor that could help replace the existing paper-based process planning system. Davis: “The two main drivers for the CAPP project were reducing lead times for new aerospace projects, and reducing the huge amount of paperwork and cost associated with the manual system.” The original system and related procedures required input from several different engineering offices which led to a huge amount of circulated paper and documentation, all very costly and time-consuming. And for new projects, the ‘old’ manual system was too slow and full of inefficiencies. First, the company had to prepare a layout for the project. This basically contains all the necessary manufacturing process data and cross-references to quality standards and procedures. In addition, all the relevant CAD drawings had to be printed to go with this layout. After this lengthy process, the next department to see the project was the tooling section - it needed to plan and prepare all the required jigs and fixtures for the tasks in hand. Next, the process layout was passed to the work study office which estimated the time for each job, and finally on to manufacturing engineering, which planned how the actual manufacturing operations would be routed through the shop floor. “This whole process was taking us about four or five months,” adds Davis. “That’s without adding on the project lead time for design and development work.” So Messier’s management decided that a CAPP system was the answer to its lead time problem. Two engineers at Messier were tasked with recommending a suitable software vendor back in 1995. The first (and only) software vendor to emerge from this exercise was HMS Software, based in Shropshire. “There were some key reasons for going with HMS,” says Davis. “HMS was capable of integrating its CAPP software to other parts of our business, such as MRP [material requirements planning], the CAD system, and our in-house built tool management and quality software.” The company uses ExpertCAD for design and document management, MRP from Cincom, tool management software designed in-house, and another self-developed relational database (MS Access) for quality assurance. The key for Messier was that the chosen vendor could integrate with each of these. HMS did all this integration work over a five year period. First, the CAPP system was installed in ‘96. Then, the same year, this was interfaced to Messier’s tool management software and MRP system. Next, in ‘98, came the design, CAD/CAM and document management software integration work, followed by the quality assurance database (MS Access) last year. But the CAPP software itself has proved to be an invaluable tool for Messier. Three main areas within the production area now use it: manufacturing (machining and treating of components), assembly and fabrication. Davis: “It [HMS-CAPP] handles traceability very well. We need to give each component a unique serial number and the software also validates the data we are entering. This was important for us.” This validation also enables Messier to build in to the software a number of quality assurance checks to prevent errors being made during the manual data entry process. Considerable cost savings So how has the process planning operation changed since the new software? HMS-CAPP simply builds on the manual paper-based process it’s replaced. The same teams are involved in preparing the layout but it’s now circulated electronically. Users can view all related 2D and 3D drawings on-screen without having to leave the software, which saves considerable time. And even old, hand-drawn documents can be scanned into the system. “The only procedural change is there’s no longer a dedicated work study team. The manufacturing engineers now do all that side of things,” explains Davis. And there were six work study engineers back in 1995, so that’s a considerable cost saving. Integration with other software has brought other benefits to the business though. The MRP system is now updated twice each day with data direct from HMS-CAPP. And when new orders are received at 6am each morning, the process layout references the latest issues of drawings, procedures, standards and CNC machining programs. So now, any electronic documentation (drawings, procedures, standards, etc) associated with a works order, is automatically collated by HMS-CAPP. But that’s not all. This documentation is then bound to form a booklet with a barcode assigned to it, which then travels with the job through the factory. In fact, each manufacturing operation involved in the job has a barcode printed out next to it in the booklet. This means that shopfloor operators can swipe the job before they start it and when they finish it, providing the manufacturing engineers with a much more accurate time estimate for each operation. “The engineers now look at the last five batches of work, then calculate an average time taken for each job.” Another improvement has been in spare parts and rectification work. Messier has to be geared up to cope with AOG (aircraft on ground) situations, when the aircraft needs an urgent replacement component. So the company’s tightly-integrated software systems, coupled with its commitment to concurrent engineering practices, means it can now fulfil customers’ urgent spares orders much faster than before. Salvage and rectification work was also a very inefficient, costly process before HMS-CAPP was introduced. With the manual system, despite rigorous quality assurance procedures, errors often still occurred that required additional processes to salvage any incorrect parts. HMS-CAPP can now handle this ‘break’ in the planned process and allows the manufacturing engineers to introduce the necessary intermediate steps. What’s more, the software maintains full traceability of all design and manufacturing changes, a crucial issue for aerospace suppliers. And now, six years since selecting HMS Software, Messier now has a fully integrated manufacturing operation with 30 HMS-CAPP licenses. But the firm is still looking to improve its business. Davis expects to up the number of software licenses by the beginning of 2002. “We’re looking at replacing our existing tool management system with HMS’ ‘tooling’ module, and we’re considering the ‘estimating’ module which will free up some time for our manufacturing engineers. We’ll expand to include heat treatment, plating, finishing and we’ll replace the existing paper systems with electronic recording and maintenance of jobs.”