© 2021 Auburn University
© 2021 Auburn University
Rolls-Royce Design & Fab Supplier Collaboration Improvements
Rolls-Royce is a global civil aerospace, defense, and power systems company with approximately 50,000 employees.
CHALLENGES
While faced with many challenges common to most manufacturers, following are some of the higher priority issues that impact the company’s drive toward developing digital capabilities.
Manufacturing tooling procurement and data management process was all manual and prone to errors and delays.
Application of available web technologies to apply to an internal manufacturing business process. A workforce paradigm shift of suppliers who were used to working from drawings provided via mail.
MOTIVATION
The business was experiencing a surge in New Product Introductions (NPI). Successful startups would require tightly integrated timelines for new tooling to meet customer demands.
RESULTS
The key value drivers for this project were: time to market, production startup costs, Quality/RFT for NPI, operational efficiency and productivity.
Saved MoneyThis along with other DfMA initiatives saved approximately $0.5M per New Product Introduction.
Improved Cycle Time99.8% improvement in cycle time for order initiation. Time Reduced from approximately 1 week to 5 minutes.
Improved DataEliminated duplication of data and data translation errors.
Improved CommunicationAll electronic data sharing between OEM, Tooling Design and Fabrication suppliers. Internet-based portal for linking Manufacturing Engineer, Procurement and suppliers so all could work off same data and models.
Reduction in Tooling Costs50% reduction in tooling costs for a new program.
SOLUTIONS
This project was completed in approximately 1 year and required efforts from IT developers, manufacturing engineers, buyers, and suppliers.
Established a Design & Make process linking the design and fab suppliers together for a more integrated collaboration environment.
Developed an Internet-Based Tool Management System. Manufacturing Engineering, Procurement, Configuration Management and Tool Design/Make Suppliers were all electronically linked. All Tool Design information was converted to an electronic format and integrated into the Product Data Management system.