Management of Lean Manufacturing Practices in Aviation Production an Empirical Study on Different Aero Engine Assembly Lines

Abstract

Indian civil and military aviation is rich in inventory in order to cater to the various needs and that inventory is filled with varieties. Besides very small indigenized production, civil and military aviation are procuring aircraft and allied equipment from different companies globally. Due to different operational strategy, standardization may not be possible in this area until we self-sustain with indigenous production. Every after certain hours of operations or after a certain period of life, whichever is earlier, aircraft and its equipment should go for Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO). The life of the types of equipment is not the same as the equipment manufacturers are different from the aircraft manufacturer. Because of this newlinepeculiarity downtimes may happen frequently for cannibalization. This warrants having plants newlineof MROs in India itself. Presently these plants are with GOI or governmental companies. newlinePrivate sector companies are yet to explore in this area due to large investment. Such a large newlineinvestment can be brought down by practicing lean principles in aviation production. newlineLean is the management tool in production operations management brought as a concept and newlineimplemented in all major manufacturing and production organisations. This tool helped to newlineidentify various types of waste and eliminate the same. It changed the concept of the high newlinelevel of inventories in the production unit and brought collaborative planning with supply newlinechain providers and distribution providers. This is not effectively practiced in aviation newlineproduction in India and the companies planning to enter into aviation production ending up newlineinto customized manufacturing of small parts or equipment, asked by the public sector newlinecompany. The present study is taken up in four existing layouts by using the value stream mapping to newlineidentify the lean practices followed in each layout.Data received as per the VSMs is analyzed newlineand compared each other under various factors.