Ariane 5 Production and Integration Operations: Ten Years of Continuous Efficiency and Quality Improvement

Abstract

For the past ten years Ariane 5 has proved to be the world’s most reliable commercial launcher for the benefit of the European Space Agency (ESA) and European national agencies and governments, launching their institutional and scientific missions as well as for commercial operators. With 59 consecutive successful launches for all Ariane 5 versions between 2003 and 2014, quality and efficiency have been demonstrated, meeting the expectations of ESA governments who financed its development. Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS) is the prime contractor for the manufacturing and assembly of the launcher, delivering to Arianespace a fully tested and integrated launcher in the Launcher Integration Building in Kourou, French Guiana. Throughout its production and integration sites in Europe and in Kourou, Airbus DS is managing a large industrial network, bringing together the most successful launcher on the market today. The success of the launcher has been built on the quality and the reliability of the operations performed for the manufacturing and the integration of the stages and the launcher. These operations are performed and managed by a lean and efficient team of engineers and technicians. Launcher integration and checkout operations duration in Kourou has been reduced by 20% in the past 7 years, down to a standard duration of 20 working days, and a further 10% decrease is foreseen in the near future. This reduction has been achieved thanks to: a rigorous supply chain management which has allowed improving the quality of the delivered elements and limiting the number of non conformances to be treated during stage and launcher integration; a solid definition of quality standards and procedures that are applied throughout the industrial process, from the suppliers up to launcher integration (where needed, these quality procedures have been reinforced, based on lessons learned from production and operations activities); an adaptation of the checkout tests performed to optimize the overall industrial process between Europe and Kourou in order to perform the most relevant technical verifications at the right moment; a thorough preparation of the operations in Kourou, aiming at minimizing launcher-specific operations, and systematically integrating lessons learned from previous integration campaigns. The previous points have automatically led to a reduction in the number of non-conformance reports during launcher integration operations, decreasing by a factor of 2 from 2003 to 2013. The remaining technical events are analyzed and treated in a fast and efficient manner in coordination between the operational team in Kourou and the support team in Europe. The role of the engineering teams is fundamental in supporting the production activities and operations, to guarantee the flightworthiness of the real hardware with respect to the qualified launcher definition. And of course, this increased quality in launcher integration has been shared with our customer, Arianespace, who has launched with success a large number of very calm flights. After each flight, telemetry is analyzed to confirm the perfect behavior of the launcher and identify and correct any potential non-nominal event. In this sense, ESA’s Launcher Exploitation and Accompaniment Program (LEAP) contributes to maintaining the launcher in its qualified status. Airbus DS’s experience and lessons learnt in stage and launcher integration operations on the Ariane 5 launcher are being implemented in the development for ESA of the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution and Ariane 6 launchers.