Title: A stochastic approach towards cycle time reduction for aircraft manufacturing assembly

Authors: C. Vasantharaju; B. Ashok; C.D. Naiju

Addresses: Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), LCA-Tejas Division, Bangalore, 560037, India ' Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bangalore, 560017, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, 632104, India

Abstract: To enhance performance effectiveness, the design of aircraft system and components must incorporate the radical technologies in all specialisations. As the technology advances, the corresponding complexity also advances. Hence, there is a need to design the aircraft systems and subsystems with components in such a manner to accommodate futuristic technologies and compress the design cycle times. In the present scenario, the aircraft parts are complex and have high interdependencies which make it difficult to identify and incorporate the technological advances in scheduled time line. Different management and model-based techniques such as PERT, CPM, multi-disciplinary optimisation (MDO), FEM, etc., were used for cycle time reduction. Markov process is a stochastic approach which is explored for the objectives of knowing the strength and weakness of the organisation and to reach the futuristic goals with available resources, thereby anticipating the futuristic technological changes and trying to fulfil mission requirements at design stage itself. In this paper, Markov chain approach is illustrated for cycle time reduction with a typical case study for military aircraft sub assembly.

Keywords: military aircraft; Markov chain; time line; stochastic approach; cycle time reduction; aircraft manufacturing; aircraft assembly; probability; armament carrier; technological change; aircraft design; design process.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2015.070564

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2015 Vol.8 No.2, pp.99 - 110

Received: 27 May 2014
Accepted: 31 Dec 2014
Published online: 10 Jul 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article