Takt Flow Assembly Work Cell for Boeing Business Class Seati

Zodiac Seating won the contract to deliver the Aura Lite shipsets to Turkish Airlines Boeing fleet of B777 aircraft. The stringest of aero quality requirements and shipset delivery plans set by Boeing had to be met unless penalties ensued, and future work prospects seriously compromised.  

Zodiac contracted the manufacturing engineer as project lead to design and implement the manufacturing processes to deliver the shipsets. The manufacturing engineer understood the best and most consistent way to deliver to plan in consideration of Zodiacs other requirements was to adopt the lean methodology of Takt Flow Assembly using a predetermined Takt Time and pulling material single piece.

• Previously single cell builds, start to finish, 1 man per cell, no sequencing or inter cell coordination
• High component part variety previously delivered by MRP style call-in and presented as bulk 'sweet shop', no reconciliation, high loss and damage
• Wasted time as operator movements around the work cell finding parts and tools and disposing of part protection packaging
• Contracted high skilled labour, able to do all jobs, inflating the cost of labour
• Lack of visibility of the status of the jobs in WIP
• Lack of visibility of material shortages and its effect on progress

The manufacturing engineer engaged all stakeholders to design the Takt Flow work cell to meet the customer expectations and utilise as much of existing resources as able.

• Establish and setup sub-assembly line to feed main Takt Flow, introducing a self governing Kanban card replenishment system
• Introduce single point resourcing centres to carry all tools on shadow boards, bulk-issue stock, work station specific instructions and set focus on bite-size work station delivery
• Proof tested and implemented material handling solutions using Creform, and introduced dedicated handling apparatus to improve workflow and present parts ready to use
• Calculated Takt Time and balanced line to meet customer demand
• Introduced Kanban Kit Cages to pull material from stores, 2 cage sets supported the 6 station work cell. 

Zodiac Seating delivered the Aura Lite shipsets for Turkish Boeing B777 fleet using the Takt Flow  single piece assembly method. The organisation and coordination of man, machine, material and new methods greatly improved visibility of progress to plans, management of WIP, coordination with stores, reduction in waste, greater inter personnel accountability to deliver as a team to the Takt beat.

All shipsets were delivered to plan.

If you have an operation with similar demand and need expert guidance though a similar project activity, contact the manufacturing engineer to arrange an intial conversation and start the ball rolling.