Shaping the future

Boeing supplies and supports a significant number of the RAAF’s front line platforms from the classic and Super Hornets to Wedgetail and the C-17. In addition, local airlines Qantas and Virgin have between them ordered over 300 Boeing aircraft over the years and indeed it is commercial aircraft that are accounting for a greater than ever share (US $49.1 billion in 2012) of the company’s revenue as orders for commercial passenger aircraft surge.

On the back of this upturn, the plane-maker is decidedly bullish in its outlook and sees world airlines spending $4.8 trillion on 35,000 aircraft in the next two decades.

Boeing can only contemplate delivering on its share of these future aircraft orders if its global suppliers to do their part by harnessing emergent technologies to produce competitive, technologically advance components.

One such supplier is Boeing Aerostructures Australia (BAA), whose manufacturing and design facility at Fisherman’s Bend in Melbourne recently played host to Australian Aviation.

Melbourne only

Three years ago, as Boeing Australia’s operation became more intertwined its global parent’s supply chain, a structural shift saw the consolidation of component fabrication in Australia to Melbourne.

Fisherman’s Bend is now the centre of excellence for the entire Boeing Commercial Airplane division in the design, testing and certification of composite control surfaces on its range of airliners, which are produced using advanced robotics and techniques such as resin injection

Specifically, BAA manufactures ailerons and tabs for the 737, outboard, mid-span and inboard variable camber kruger panels and bullnoses for the 747, and cove lip doors (which seals a hinge gap when the “flaperon” (a combination of aileron and flap), is used as an aileron), elevators, tabs and whole rudders for the 777.

BAA has continued to export these components for final assembly in the US despite the Australian dollar’s continued parity with the US greenback. To offset the impact of this disadvantage and to remain competitive as a supplier of components to Boeing’s larger supply chain, BAA has undertaken “relentless” productivity gains through cost reduction and innovation.

And it’s in the company’s Melbourne Technology Centre that many of its innovative techniques and practises are born.

Boeing Research and Technology-Australia (BR&T-A) has established enduring and mutually beneficial strategic relationships with local research organisations such as the CSIRO, DSTO, Swinburne, RMIT and the University of Queensland.

Headed by Michael Edwards, whose background includes stints at the CSIRO and Orica, BR&T-A is currently exploring the potential benefits of resin infusion and coupling this technique with light robotics and automation.

Resin infusion, unlike pre-impregnated composites, do not require an autoclave and can instead be cured in ovens, and is capable of producing high-strength composite components with intricate geometries as often used in aerospace.

The manufacturing process involves placing a fibre ‘layup’ in a mold, applying heat during which heated resin is injected. The resin, in a vacuum, is held at constant temperature until it is cured, then removed.

As Edwards explained: “Pre-impregnated composite technology is now part of the furniture. Resin infusion composite is really Australian-centric, we’re the centre of expertise for Boeing. For example, the facility that we’ve invested in here has seen significant upgrades in the last year or so- is because the group here is the centre of expertise for this technology that has great promise to grow separately. It won’t surprise that we’re looking at applications on the 777-8X and -9X that might be suited to resin technology because of the cost advantages it might have. But ultimately, for us it’s about finding the right application for that technology and not trying to force the technology onto the applications.”

“Resin infusion composite is really Australian-centric. We’re the centre of excellence for Boeing.”
Michael Edwards

A key enabler of this technology is the use of light robotics, which are already engaged in the production process at Fisherman’s Bend. Edwards continued: “We’d like to bring in robots for accuracy and reducing the number of hours it takes. Now, if you go to an automated process, it doesn’t necessarily lead to lower staff. It’s the cost gain and production, and quality gain you get.”

Dreamliner

For Boeing’s latest passenger aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, BAA is charged with the production of the inboard flap, flaperon, outboard flap and aileron under a 20-year, $4 billion deal that sees BAA acknowledged as a Tier 1 supplier.

Dreamliner components begin their production process as raw materials to be cut or injected in the case of resin. Individual parts, composed of French-made carbon fibre enter lay-up before progressing to the oven for curing. Kits of parts begin with automatically tooled trimming before undergoing quality and non-destructive testing. Once passed, they are then sealed and painted before proceeding to sub-assembly.

In the case of a 787 inboard flap for example, this will involve structure build-up, then drilling (by robots programmed with locally-designed software), before final assembly begins. Once completed, the sub-assembly is painted and dispatched by ship to the US where they will be attached to 787s being produced in Renton, Washington or Charleston, South Carolina. It is the same story for other Dreamliner components produced at Fisherman’s Bend such as the flaperon, outboard flap and aileron.

A number of these locally made trailing edges are likely to return home, joined to the wings of Dreamliners operated by Jetstar.

Australian long-term

During the visit to the Fisherman’s Bend facility, Australian Aviation was briefed by Boeing Australia chairman Ian Thomas and the managing director of BAA Michael Dickinson on the company’s long-term vision for aerospace manufacturing in Australia.

“Over the next decade or so, two or three billion people will enter the middle class across the Indo-Pacific region and Australia is really well positioned to meet the needs of this middle class and harness that dynamism across the region.

“That will come through the provision of natural resources for industrialisation and urbanisation. And a burgeoning services industry. But we also think it will come through manufacturing – aerospace manufacturing, food processing, medical devices, mining, technology and services and unmanned systems – there’s a great unmanned systems story to be told here in Australia.

“Boeing thinks Australia has a strong manufacturing future. And if you look at what’s going on globally there’s a significant revolution in this sector. It’s being driven by the emergent technologies and the application of digital technology. It’s leaner, more agile, smarter and it’s design led, and sits at the heart of innovation. And there’s some new and powerful trends driving that revolution: big data, the industrial internet, low-cost computing, automation, robotics, autonomy, nanotechnology yielding new forms of precision, new ways of collaborating and organisational innovations that are emerging on the back of these other trends.

“There’s also flexible fabrication and mass customisation, a lot of which is driven by 3D printing and adapted manufacturing. In the aerospace sector, it means cheaper parts, which are lighter and faster to make.”

Death of the offset

In response to the declining opportunities for local industry to participate in offset agreements that were previously integral to large-scale defence procurement programs, the Defence Material Organisation (DMO) introduced its Global Supply Chain Initiative.

This exists as a series of agreements with major defence contractors (such as Boeing) and are designed, according to the DMO, “to outline activities and engagement strategies to increase additional opportunities and scope for Australian industry to compete for work within the supply chains of multinational Defence companies”.

The program pays these global defence giants to establish staff inside their organisations to act as company advocates promoting Australian industry into the business units of the company. This includes seeking and creating opportunities for Australian industry, training the local defence industry in a given multinational company’s purchasing practices, educating Australian industry in the company’s requirements and helping make Australian industry globally competitive.

Currently, seven global defence contractors have signed up to the GSC, including Raytheon, Thales, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Finmeccanica. Boeing was the first signatory to the agreement, which was launched in 2009.

Ian Thomas was keen to promote Boeing’s contribution to the scheme.

“We have a significant supply base across the commercial and defence side. There is no offset in Australia and in lieu of that the Defence Department and DMO about four years ago set up its Global Supply Chain (GSC) initiative and Boeing were the first signatory to that.

“Over the last four years GSC has let over just over $500 million worth of contracts to SMEs and of that Boeing has let $284 million worth. Well more than half of the total has accrued as a result of Boeing’s engagement with the supply chain.

“One principal example is Brisbane based Farra Engineering. Out of 18,000 companies supplying Boeing, they were our supplier of the year. And they work on the 747 and 787 programs, and they’ve got a nice bit of defence business on a variety of global programs (including the supply of F/A-18 rudder pedal kits). We’re emphatically not engaged in off set, but are engaged with the supply base to help them compete and win onto our global programs. So we’ve got work, in Australia, on V-22, F/A-18, F-15, Chinook, P-8, to name a few.”

The future

If Boeing Australia is to keep open the doors of its expansive manufacturing facilities at Fisherman’s Bend, which once turned out such classics as Beaufighters, Beauforts, Lincolns and Wirraways, then continued provision of niche capabilities within the broader company is the key.

BAA managing director Michael Dickinson observed: “If we were to try and compete at this facility with standard, built to (blue) print standard product, which could be built at 80 or 90 other facilities around the world, that’s got high labour content. We can’t because the value of the labour drives up the cost of the product.

“The difference here is the development of the material system and the process on how to utilise it, design it and take advantage of it. It’s the inherent cost benefit of being able to innovate processes. For example, we used the resin infuse process as opposed to the pre-impregnated process for the 787.

“We have an ability to build that value stream from development to the engineering to the manufacturing and there aren’t many companies around that can do that. Once an innovative process becomes commercialised to the extent it can be migrated out to multiple other companies, essentially it opens up space for us to then take new technologies and bring them up to production. That’s really the skill base we have here.”

The recent softening of the Australian dollar and healthy increases for large commercial aircraft bode well for the 1,300 employees of Boeing’s Fisherman’s Bend plant. New orders for the best-selling 737 will likely see a sharp rise in locally made ailerons, which are currently rolling out of the factory at the rate of 42 per month.

However, as always the iron rules of business apply. Even this subsidiary must bid for its work and meet strict price and quality criteria if it is to avoid the fate of so many fellow Australian manufacturers. That said, Ian Thomas is realistic but enthusiastic about the future of high end, precision component manufacture continuing in Victoria.

“Boeing Aerostructures and BR&T-A have succeeded because they have the ability to innovate in-house, to work with university partners, and tap into a collaborative innovative system, to marry research, technology, design and development to manufacturing. Our R&D is closely intertwined with our manufacturing. Australia will not be able to compete and win if we’re not creating at least some of the IP and applying it to the manufacturing system. It will be very hard to compete. So we’ve been leveraging our supply chain, R &D partners and also ensuring that we’re not doing in an isolated way. We tie it up and integrate it to the company’s global technology efforts, to our global technology strategy and we really have applied and commercialised research and development to really help the business compete. It’s all about taking out cost, improving processes and improving quality.”

“It’s all about taking out cost, improving processes and improving quality.”

Ian Thomas