Minutes for AIAA TCM Meeting
Gulfstream
Savannah, GA
February 15th and 16th, 2011
Host: Bill Shira
Monday, February 14th
Hotel: The Mulberry Inn (Corner of Bay and Houston Streets)
601 East Bay Street Savannah, GA 31401
Phone: 877-859-5095
1800--2200
Arrive at Hotel
Informal dinner at Bistro 45
Tuesday, February 15th
Location: Gulfstream
I. Announcements and Introductions - Bill Shira
Attendees:
Members: Larry Stevens, Don Burch, Paul Nielson, James Keeney, Wilson
Felder, John Dowdle, Andy Amram, Ray Flores, David Elrod, John-Paul Clarke,
Bill Shira (Host)
Alumni: Bob Lopina, Adarsh Deepak
Guests: Don Kinard (Lockheed Martin), Curt Richardson (Spirit), Brian Hullinger
(Gulfstream; also active in national org), Michael Wolfe (Gulfstream, Local
Section chair)
II. Welcome and Overview of Gulfstream – Bill Shira

General Dynamics is parent co. ($30B company, Aerospace: $5.3B)

Gulfstream expansion plans: expected growth in industry driven by emerging
economies

Product Line – sales and prospects

Advanced R&D: flight decks, vision systems, flight controls, cabin environment,
manufacturing, composites, supersonic

Worldwide Presence: presence on 6 continents with 44 facilities; growth is
largely in BRIC countries

Over 50 years
III. Focus Session: Barriers to Automation in Aircraft Production
Gulfstream Perspective (Steve Ritchie, Director of Ops for Advanced Programs,
Gulfstream.)
A presentation on the opportunities and practical implementation hurdles to the
use of automation at Gulfstream

Why Automate: repeatable process, improved quality, environmental
benefits, health & safety improvements, reduced labor content and cost,
limited skilled workforce, competitors investments

Challenges: high capital cost, low production volumes, intricacy of
product design, robotic accuracy and repeatability, fastener types, product
evolution vs. clean sheet, certification and inspection/validation, flexibility
for change (re-programming), labor content is small % of cost, 2D
engineering data

Progress on G650: machined components replacing sheet metal,
integrated panel assembly cell, robotic trim and drill on empennage
assembly, automated tape layup, automated electrical harness testing,
mortise & tenon furniture – CNC routing

Robotics/Industry Observations on Robotics Applications: acquisition
costs reduced, improved accuracy and repeatability, integrated
programming
Overview, brief out from NIST Extreme Manufacturing Workshop, discussion of
read-ahead material (Wilson Felder)
 Salient points that restrict automation: conservatism, regulation, design
for manufacturing, scale, low production rate, low production rate of
supply chain piece/parts
 Questions to be addressed: flexible a/c production w/ automation,
efficient manufacturing approaches, problem of technology or the cost of
using technology, role of the government
F-35 Fighter Production System Advances in Automation – The Digital Thread
(Don Kinard, Principle Engineer Fighter Production Systems, Lockheed-Martin
Aeronautics)
 Program Overview
o Value Proposition
 Tri-variant design (CTOL, CV, STOVL)
 2 interchangeable engines (F135, F136)
 Commonality is the key to affordability, global delivery,
economies of scale (projected orders exceed 3700) – global
capitalization (production – to – service)
 International Production (e.g., Allinia delivering 40% of wings)
 F-35s Comprehensive Digital Thread: Form (creation: solid models),
Digital Verification, Produceability
 Production System Evolution
o X-Plane “Craft” Production
o F-16 “Mass” Production
o F-22 Lean Production
o F-35 Flow Based Manufacturing (LockMart, BAE Systems,
Northrup Grumman)
 Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (Precision Fabrication, Flexible
Automated Solutions, Lean Practices, Digital Assembly)
 Advanced Processes: Electronic mate and assembly, robotic finishing
(coatings used on the F-35 require robotics), laser ultrasonic inspection,
laser control (projection of work instruction on the airplane, esp.
fasteners)
 Factory Flow and Supplier Collaboration
 Automation Challenges
o Technical Hurdles
 Designs and tolerances driven by weight reduction
 Interchangeability
o FAR requirements for capital expenditures
o ROI for capital investments related to affordability: point here is
that capital expenditure cannot be recovered (except through
overhead) as a program expenditure
o Internal funding for development
 Gov’t funding for technology development, incl. SBIR
o Programmatic implementation funding
o Industry investment
Automation in Aerospace & Defense (A&D) Manufacturing: Role of cost
effective automation as a business strategy to compete in the global marketplace
(Curtis Richardson, Spirit Aerosystems)
 Why Automate?
o Increase/stabilize productivity or throughput
o Reduce/avoid/stabilize cost
o Improve/stabilize quality
o Improve safety, ergonomics
o Regulatory compliance
o Technology or capability enabler
 Why flexible automation
o Installation, process integration flexibility
o Cost-effective capacity scalability
o Minimal lead times
 What’s so great about robots?
o Low capital costs
o Low installation costs/requirements
o Process flexibility
o High degree of repeatability
o Offline Tool Center Point (TCP) programming capability
o Range of motion, speed, payload
o Large network of integration specialists (large community of
people who understand robots)
o Mass produced
o Mature infrastructure
 Traditional (automotive, electronics) vs. A&D Use of
Automation/Robotics incl. processes that automation would need to
address such as precision drilling, fastening/riveting, NDI
 Issues: robots not designed for accuracy-critical applications; suppliers
see aerospace as low-volume opportunity; fear of losing jobs to
automation and how to allay those fears through guaranteed employment,
re-training, the role of outsourcing
 How do we address these issues: use what’s already working; establish
internal automation infrastructure (e.g., skilled trades for programming,
maint., etc.); adapt engineering designs, manufacturing processes (be able
to automatically produce what comes out of design; retrofit floor space);
Collaborate with each other (SME, SAE forums); Partner with OEMS,
integrators, researchers
IV. Group Discussion (Felder)
Roundtable discussion centered around government procurement practices driving
behavior; the ability of lower tier suppliers to invest in automation; looking at
costs of entire product delivery stream (where are the costs, and how can they be
driven down); the cost of re-work compared to other incurred costs incl. our risk
tolerance
Discussion about a consortium (possibly involving AIA, AIAA, Industry) that
would advocate for manufacturing automation and the gov’t funding of such
initiatives.
V. Chairman’s Report and Review of Subcommittee Membership (Elrod)

Charter
o Scope/Objective

Goals

Org Chart/Committee Assignments

Events
VI. Committee Business and Subcommittee Reports
A. Membership (Stephens)







Actions since Oct
Membership Changes
o 27 active members/27 alumni
Members on the fringes (5 active who have missed 3 mtgs in a row)
Associate Fellow/Fellow Upgrades: Action – TCM members “nominate”
TCM member to fellow. Send to Jean-Paul Clark
AIAA Sustained Service Award: Oct. 1, 2011 due date
New AIAA Guidelines for TC membership: 35 members/50 total incl
alumni; action to Larry/Ernie to whittle down list to 50.
Larry Stephens stepping down and Ernie Wu stepping up to chair
committee, effective immediately
B. Awards (Nielson for Beskar)


von Braun Award: evals to be lead by Andy Amram, John Dowdle
no new nominations and past nominations expired; some names were
suggested
C. Programs (Felder)


May 2011: Seattle, WA (3rd/4th or 17th/18th); Potential Future Topics:
Integrating design across the supply chain, aka, Concurrent Design and
Engineering or 787 Lessons Learned and Supplier Mgmt
Oct. 2011 (2nd/3rd week) Draper Labs; Boston, MA
D. Operations (Irvine)
 Minutes of Fall 2010/Newport News Mtg
VII. Social Hour/Dinner (Vics)
Wednesday, February 16th
Tour of Gulfstream Facilities including the following:
 Production: G450/G550 final line… “the old way”
 G650 Building: “the new way”
 Integration and Test Facility (ITF)
 Research and Development Center Labs (RDC)
Mtg Adjourned