A stochastic approach towards cycle time reduction for aircraft manufacturing assembly

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.