Reshaping F-16 production

Following its contract win for the Joint Strike Fighter program, Lockheed Martin is reconfiguring its F-16 assembly line in preparation for long-term JSF production starting later this year.

In Air Force Building No. 4 at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant, which has a rich and established history in aircraft manufacturing and has seen the production of many notable aircraft such as the Liberator, F-111, B-56, and F-16, change does not come easy. But change was necessary for the building to be capable of producing both the F-35, more commonly known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), and the F-16. To produce both aircraft out of the facility, Lockheed Martin engineers and mechanics had to free up 110,000 ft² of factory floor area that was currently being used by the F-16 production line-a complex task that required the use of lean manufacturing principles, Kaizen events, computer tools, and a willing and able workforce.

Prior to being awarded the JSF contract, Lockheed Martin manufacturing engineers recognized that existing space in its Fort Worth facility would not meet the needs of both a potential JSF production line and the F-16 production line. Therefore, the company created a team in April 2001 to begin developing a contingency plan to address these space requirements. The team, which was led by David Abbett, Senior Manager of F-16 Assembly Processes Group at Lockheed Martin, consisted of engineers and mechanics from both the F-16 and JSF groups as well as from manufacturing and industrial engineering, focused on rearranging the F-16 production line to get the space required for the JSF line.