Deli system brings tasty improvements to NDT

Citation

(2002), "Deli system brings tasty improvements to NDT", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 74 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2002.12774bad.008

Deli system brings tasty improvements to NDT

Keywords: Aerospace industry, Systems, Management

An electronic queue management system more commonly found in supermarket delicatessens has streamlined throughput and boosted productivity at TRW Aeronautical Systems' non destructive testing (NDT) facility in its Lucas Aerospace plant (Plate 2).

Plate 2 QM's 'take a ticket' Turnomatic system has brought improved order and efficiency to the throughput of parts at TRW Aeronautical's NDT facility

The system, supplied by QM Group, now ensures that all NDT tasks are dealt with systematically on a first-in, first-out basis. TRW Aeronautical reports that the QM system has brought a greater degree of order to the NDT operation and eliminated bottlenecks, enhanced traceability and increased the efficiency of the service to its internal customers.

TRWs Lucas Aerospace division in Marston Green, Birmingham, deals with a range of refurbished aircraft components – such as fuel systems – which all have to undergo an NDT process. Before the QM Tumomatic "Take a Ticket" system was installed parts were simply delivered to the NDT centre to await processing. Parts were taken forward in no particular order, and the process would often be interrupted by queue- jumping jobs, which were spuriously claimed to be urgent. The result was frequent bottlenecks and in some cases parts waiting days before processing.

With the QM Tumomatic system parts are in effect treated as customers in a queue. As staff bring the components for processing they take a numbered ticket from a dispenser at the NDT station. Each ticket is in two halves; one half is attached to the paperwork accompanying the part, the other is kept by the member of staff delivering the job. The action of taking a ticket from the dispenser automatically logs the number into the NDT department's schedule. Technicians deal with parts in strict numerical sequence, according to the tickets attached to each job.

The QM system also incorporates a pair of prominent LCD display panels, suspended from the ceiling at each end of the assembly area. When a job has completed its NDT sequence and is checked out the NDT technician presses a keypad, which brings the job's ticket number up onto the display panels, indicating that the item is now ready for collection. Individual numbers on the display can be made to flash if a job remains uncollected.

With the new QM system the NDT personnel now have a dear indication of the sequence in which jobs should be tackled and, by looking at the display panels, the assembly area staff know when a job is completed or where any specific job is in the queue.

To accommodate genuinely urgent jobs TRW has instituted a 'Priority Board', strictly monitored by the NDT staff, by which components can be authorised to jump the queue. When these urgent jobs are completed the NDT department can use the keypad to scroll through the system to bring the appropriate job number up onto the screen.

Details available from: QM Group, Tel: +44 (0)1908 511400; Fax +44 (0)1908 511466; E-mail: info@theqmgroupcom