In traditional manufacturing when a product (such as a wing panel or wing spar) was designed the manufacturing process to build the product was of little consideration. The design of the product was manually created on a 2 dimensional drawing without investigation of what data could be included to achieve a more productive automated assembly (fastening) system. Even less development was expended on integration of part design and manufacturing to improve downstream processes and product quality.
Today, every avenue of optimization and continuous quality improvement must be explored to create a lean manufacturing environment that produces low costs with high productivity at all levels.
This paper will describe design and manufacturing engineering processes used to streamline creation of machine control data for automated fastening systems. Applying design for manufacturing concepts and automation of upstream processes to provide significant benefits in the production environment.
In the design of parts, assemblies, and manufacturing processes what must be considered is how parts and assemblies are produced to develop most efficient manufacturing systems. Automation applied to processes that create digital data required by automated fastening systems simplifies these processes. These techniques have resulted in enhanced data integrity, accuracy, and reduced cycle time on the Next Generation 737-wing spar process.