Determining appropriate levels of robotic automation in commercial aircraft nacelle assembly

This thesis examines the application of reconfigurable industrial robotics in the assembly of the engine nacelle inlet for a commercial aircraft. In addition to addressing the achievable level of automation, this thesis also reviews the evaluation of robotics vendor proposals and the accompanying financial justification requisite for implementation. The aircraft industry has long been dominated by manual fabrication and assembly methods. Variability in human skill, however, results in defects, rework, and reduced production throughput. One approach to reduce variability, decrease cycle time, and increase throughput is the implementation of robotic automation for various assembly tasks. Low aircraft production volumes have made it difficult to justify large investments in robotic automation. Decreasing cost and increasing capability of industrial robotics, however, are making investment more palatable. The excellent repeatability of robotic automation can significantly reduce individual task times for a wide range of operations. Standard automated task times are 60{85% lower than standard manual task times for drill and fasten operations which represent the greatest opportunity for cycle time improvements because typical aircraft assembly requires tens of thousands of holes and fasteners. The optimal level of automation is a balance among decreasing manual touch time, improving production capacity, and increasing automation costs. A semi-automated solution is shown to reduce manual touch time by 70% and total touch time by 30%. The implementation of this solution requires an investment of tens of millions of dollars and results in present value savings of hundreds of millions of dollars for the program lifetime.

Department dc:contributor.department

Leaders for Global Operations Program at MIT

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Durham, Bryce J. (Bryce James)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Charles H. Fine and Julie A. Shah.

• Sloan School of Management.
• Aeronautics and Astronautics.
• Leaders for Global Operations Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/90609

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/90609