SYSTEM. SPEED. QUALITY.
Ilya Fomin
Senior Deputy Managing Director and Director of Production at Perm Engine Company OJSC.
Doctor of Technical Science.
One of the tasks solved by the Chief Process Engineer Department within the scope of Production Technological Preparation business process is development and implementation of the system for control of hardware and universal assembly devices components.
This work was organized on the basis of Plan of activities on work improvement in universal assembly devices segment. The plan was approved in November, 2008 to provide maximum efficiency of universal assembly devices application due to the process through information support.
Until recently this process organization has not been systematic enough. Registration of flow charts with drawings using universal assembly devices was made on paper. It resulted in numeration mess-ups, full or partial information loss. There was no data on actual availability, identification, location and control status of universal assembly devices elements. Newly created assemblies did not repeat either in elements, or configurations. In its turn this fact lengthened the time of production, complicated assemblers work especially young ones, and decreased significantly the level of process repeatability.
It was necessary to have a complete inventory, conditioning of the used hardware assembly devices elements, creation of the computer-aided registration system, bases of photos and assembled configurations specifications to provide universal assembly devices at the design stage based on application of database with earlier stored typical universal assembly devices.
Specialists of the Chief Process Engineer Department, Development Production Plant, and the Computer-Aided Control Systems and Production Preparation Department, Design Department have developed hardware elements classifier. They have also developed and put into operation software that made it possible with the help of computers to support electronic registration of universal assembly
devices and to record requests, assembly, production, control, issue and return of the universal assembly devices arrangements to the line.
A base of 3-D models of hardware assembly devices elements has been created. Presently the existing elements base is being inspected to identify the each one and give its own control status. Specialists of the Chief Process Engineer Department enlarge the database on the regular basis, support an electronic registration of drawings flow sheets and orders for production, take photos of universal assembly devices and make correspondent specifications.
The algorithm of workers actions at the universal assembly devices line is the following: having received an order for assembly of the universal assembly device, the Head of the line finds the analog assembly in the database, prints its photo and elements specifications.
With the help of the database he also identifies the actual availability of the universal assembly devices required by the specification taking into consideration their movement and status and, in case of their absence the interchangeable elements are collected.
Besides a new operation of the universal assembly devices process inspection has also appeared based on the use of CIMCORE INFINITE coordinate measuring machine. It is designed to measure complex profile surfaces, three-dimensional geometric patterns and flat figures, angles and pipe bending radius. This machine is a coordinate measuring mechanism (measuring arm).
It has 7 axis of motion that let it perform high efficiency measurements of universal assembly devices complex configurations with minimum changes of the object position and without additional production accessories.
The special workbench for large size configurations of universal assembly devices for pipelines.
In the foreground: pipeline adjustment on universal assembly devices jigs.
One of the major customers of universal assembly devices at the Development Plant of Aviadvigatel OJSC, is line No.5 of shop No.20 dealing with pipelines production. For the first half-year of 2009 idle time at the line because of universal assembly devices configurations development amounted to 1.5 hours. But a special workbench made it possible to assemble up to 5 jigs of universal assembly devices for pipelines. Together with another measures of the universal assembly devices line modification in 2009 it was possible to produce 700 pipelines a month instead of the previous 500.
The established recording of hardware and universal assembly devices elements together with restructuring the managing of universal assembly devices allowed to increase the configurations quality and level, decrease labor intensity, increase line efficiency and repeatability and as a result to decrease the process variability level and make it more stable.
