Safran Landing Systems
Safran Landing Systems is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems.
About Safran Landing Systems
Safran Landing Systems is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems.
Company capabilities encompass the full life cycle of our products, ranging from design and manufacture to in-service support, testing, repair and overhaul. Safran Landing Systems is a partner to 30 leading commercial, military, business and regional airframers, and supports more than 31,200 aircraft making over 73,000 landings every day. The company employs more than 7,800 staff working in locations across Europe, North America and Asia. The UK landing gear production and MRO facilities are located in Gloucester, employing a team of just over 1,000 people..
Safran Landing Systems and Made Smarter Technology Accelerator
Germain Forgeoux, R&T Advanced Manufacturing Manager, Safran Landing Systems said: “Innovation is at the heart of Safran’ strategy and participating in the Made Smarter Technology Accelerator will provide us an opportunity to engage with other industry partners and tech providers. Through the programme journey, we will develop knowledge and understanding of innovative digital technology to solve our operational challenges.”
Challenges brought to you by Industry Challenge Owner – Safran Landing Systems
- Challenge 1: Adaptive scheduling and performance monitoring
- Challenge 2: Implementation of SPC on all test rigs in the Assembly shop
Challenge 1: Adaptive scheduling and performance monitoring
Challenge Background
Safran Landing Systems is an international high-technology group, operating in the aviation (propulsion, equipment and interiors), defence and space markets. Its core purpose is to contribute to a safer, more sustainable world, where air transport is more environmentally friendly, comfortable and accessible.
Safran Landing Systems manufacturing operations in Gloucestershire focus on three key areas; large landing gear machining, medium machining and special processes. The medium machine manufacturing process specialises in a diverse array of product families requiring a range of unique and bespoke machines. These factors, alongside static data, complex routings and a priority list planning approach, bring a level of scheduling complexity to the operations.
Currently, scheduling is a predominantly manual process with support from a bespoke manufacturing execution system (MES) focused more on paperless execution rather than intelligent scheduling and execution. This setup can lead to delays, increased inventory issues and inefficiencies and a resource-heavy shop floor unable to react quickly to priorities.
For this challenge and from applications
Safran is interested in developing a dynamic scheduling system which can provide an intelligent rules based system capable of reacting to changing customer demand. The solution will need to be scalable and ultimately assist the workforce in reducing the complexity around planning whilst understanding impact and consequences. An agile and adaptable solution to increase scheduling efficiency.
Introducing Total Control Pro – minimum viable product phase startup
Total Control Pro will be working with Safran Landing Systems on the adaptive scheduling and performance monitoring challenge, developing a data-driven planning scheduling and resource optimisation solution to tackle the challenges of complex planning and resource management.
Challenge 2: Implementation of SPC on all test rigs in the Assembly shop
Challenge background
The operation and maintenance of test rigs is an essential component of Safran Landing Systems’ Assembly production shop floor. The age of the test rigs ranges between one and eight years. They are dedicated to one product each, covering the testing of complete landing gears (nose and main) and some detailed parts.
Currently, it is difficult for Safran to have a complete understanding of all the internal and external factors to enable it to anticipate test rig equipment failures and to identify root causes for test failures.
For this challenge
Safran will be exploring advanced technology solutions that can provide better visibility of these parameters both in terms of the test rig performance and those influencing the test results. Integrating these solutions in an intelligent way will control parameters, monitor routines and implement preventative measures. The end goal is to develop a system which can achieve first time pass rates and provide predictive maintenance to reduce equipment failures and resulting downtimes.
Introducing Zizo Software – prototype phase startup
As part of the prototype phase of the programme, Zizo Software worked with Safran Landing Systems on the implementation of SPC on all test rigs in the assembly shop challenge: A portable edge industrial internet of things (IoT) analysis platform to create a repository and platform to manage data across teams and across functions.
