Challenge

BAE Systems asked the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) to help it explore a more agile, reconfigurable manufacturing process for combat aircraft manufacturing as part of the company’s wider manufacturing strategy to reduce the time and cost to make aircraft.

The AMRC designed an automated process for assembling and measuring tools for manufacturing aircraft parts, reducing waste and reinforcing a right-first-time approach.

Background

The BAE Systems Factory of the Future at Warton in Lancashire is a cutting-edge facility to develop and demonstrate the very latest techniques for the manufacture of combat aircraft. The company has a longstanding relationship of working closely with the AMRC, and asked researchers to develop an intelligent automation system for its factory.

Traditionally, assembling and setting cutting tools for manufacturing can be a time-consuming operation. The intent behind the project was to look at ways of reducing the duration of the task so that highly skilled operators can focus on more value-added activities. Automating this process could leave the machinists free to concentrate on the skilled work they do best.

Innovation

First, the engineers at the AMRC analysed how to automate the storage and transfer of the parts that make up a cutting tool so they can be handled by a robot. They paid several visits to the BAE Systems factory to analyse and understand the current process.

Alongside this, they wanted to create an intelligent automation system able to make its own decisions. The vision was that if you provide a list of the products you want to make, it will look at what raw parts are available and determine the best way to fulfil the list.

This led to some key challenges. The raw materials needed to be uniquely identified, so that every cutting tool could be tracked and accounted for. This meant that retooling could be automated — worn tools being replaced with new ones, then taken away and refurbished, allowing them to go back into the process and be used again.

By tracking each tool through its entire life, the system could make intelligent decisions. For example, if a particular machining job was going to take a large number of hours, it would only choose newer tools to ensure reliability in the process.

Result

By tracking each part involved in the process, the AMRC’s intelligent automation system concept has improved stock management in the factory.

The system used different sensors working together to identify components, then integrated that with intelligent decision-making to enable agile and reconfigurable manufacturing.

Impact

The automated system improves quality and reduces cost and waste through an optimised right-first-time approach.

It can be integrated with the automated logistics systems to allow for consistent production 24-hours-a-day, on cutting assemblies that have been set correctly every time.

And it helps ensure that BAE Systems’ highly skilled staff are freed up to work on other more highly-skilled areas of the job.

The system developed by the AMRC will be integrated into production at BAE Systems’ Factory of the Future by the end of 2025. It forms part of the company’s broader manufacturing strategy to look at ways to introduce low-cost technologies and automation to improve efficiency.

The project has sparked interesta from the AMRC’s other partners, including Rolls-Royce, so the true impact of this work could eventually be felt across the entire UK advanced manufacturing sector.