Industry 4.0, automation paving way for clearance for aviation manufacturing

By OEM Update Editorial August 7, 2019 3:20 pm IST

Discussing on the key aspects of manufacturing and automation activities of the aviation industry, Sharadhi Babu, Chief Executive Officer, AXISCADES, in a discussion with Athira Bejoy of OEM Update shares his view on how Industry 4.0 expedites the whole customisation and design process and be a game changer for various industries.

How Industry 4.0—including simulation, sensors and virtual reality are transforming the aviation manufacturing?
Industry 4.0, is one of the important developments in the latest trends which is equally important to certain industries, especially for aerospace and defence, to ensure industry’s complete migration to the newer technology. Aviation is an enormously growing market, especially in India and the Asian sub-continent as a result, there’s a huge increase in the number of aircrafts and the entire requirements that serves the aviation industry. Secondly, the OEM’s predominantly serves this industry by supplying the required aircrafts. It’s imperative for them to meet the demands, in terms of supply, including the growing requirement of services to these aircrafts and other essentialities like aircraft maintenance, aircraft repair and ORM.

Industry 4.0 has listed a few technologies, including IoT, augmented and virtual reality, automation, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, digitalisation of data, analytics etc. These are among the key things to increase the production. It’s important to see, how the aviation industry is using these technologies in various aircraft productions, right from the design and modification. As we know, the aircraft, nowadays, are 60–70 per cent done already, and the remaining 30 per cent is customised with the airliner requirements like, the interior, engines, avionic requirements, entertainment and infotainment devices installed in the aircrafts. There is a dire need to expedite both, the manufacturing and internal configuration of the aircrafts, and these industry 4.0 technologies and certain level of IoT and digitisation caters to different areas of an aircraft like aircraft manufacturing and customisation.

We have already infused automation into the manufacturing, as it has become one of the primary tools for the industry. Earlier, the requirement of aircraft was one per month, but today, we take orders for almost 2 aircrafts per day, so the requirement can only be met by adopting these new technologies under the umbrella of industry 4.0. The next phase, is the post delivery services, like, maintenance, repair and the ORM of the aircraft. IoT plays a significant role in seizing the whole data of an aircraft and a digital twin, which measures the aircrafts ageing with its actual usage.

How exactly, it is helping the manufacturers to stay ahead in the competition? Is it customisation or something else?
It is in four different stages. Firstly, it expedites the whole customisation and design process and helps you conquer the greatest speed, highest quality and reduce the time ride during the aircraft’s manufacturing. As the process is complicated, we source multiple sub-systems from various team and OEMs for handling and assembling the aircrafts. So, there’s a requirement to expedite the supply chain industry where we deploy various tools to fasten the supply chain’s speed and also fasten the applied 10 key stages of the aircraft’s assembly, including the structural, engine, avionics assembly and the final clearance. Whether its automation, robotic, installation process or creating any data or analytics database, we ensure on clearance of flight tests and engine expedite performance, before releasing the final aircraft and process for further final deliverance.

How is AXISCADES enabling OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to conceptualise and build futuristic aerospace solutions?
AXISCADES, holds a very strong expertise in the domain of aerospace. We have been on talks for working with the global OEMs after having delivered a lot of aircraft programmes within India. We are also directly associated with some of the OEMs to deliver the best solutions to the industry. We also have services catering to the design tools of the aircraft. Moreover, we are in-charge of the larger section of the aircraft, including the upper, lower and side shelf, floor grid, cargo, and the surrounding doors, spoiler, radar, engine pylons and the avionics. We provide complete manufacturing support for an aircraft, right from the initial manufacturing process till the final processing stage, including the assembly services and the assembling instructions. For e.g., when there is a genuine problem that occurs during any manufacturing process, we get an indication, after which we offer instant solutions to the process, so that the there is no disruption in the manufacturing process and is done with ease. Precisely, we provide comprehensive solutions for the entire lifecycle of an aircraft.

Besides, we are also catering to the sections of defence, automotive, engineering space. This is including the military transport aircrafts, fighter aircrafts, whereas in automotive and heavy engineering, we provide design and manufacturing solutions.

Technology upgradation calls for disruption as well. What disruption does Smart Factory technologies cause at the operations level? How do you deal with such disruption?
At the manufacturing level, there are four different essential aspect which we need to consider during manufacturing, both in terms of automotive and aerospace. Pertaining to aerospace, once you start doing it, you realise that quality and velocity are the most important factors. To achieve quality, it imperative to understand and comply with the pre-manufacturing, actual manufacturing and the post manufacturing activity. Moreover, the mentioned 3 stages must be competitively controlled from the technological, process and the management point of view, with the inclusion of supply chain becoming very crucial. So, it’s an obligation for us to be more conscious to ensure the input material, raw material, assembly, purchased or finished goods, preparatory instructions, the process, machineries etc. Various technologies allow us to comply and complete the entire process.

We also deliver 3D instructions for assembly, for both before and after manufacturing. It gives a very deep and clear understanding to assembling engineers. We also do the simulations to ensure the processes are correct and are being conducted under proper guidance and with accuracy. Moreover, the 3D instructions are prepared and guided by the experts to further ensure on the machine’s health and workability. Once the manufacturing activity is completely processed, you must perform a quality check and other required simulations to meet the particular standards.

The requirement of aircraft was one per month, earlier, but now we take orders for almost 2 aircrafts per day. This is made possible by adopting Industry 4.0 technologies.
Sharadhi Babu, Chief Executive Officer, AXISCADES