Joint Strike Fighter Production Rates Set at 260 Aircraft Per Year
Joint Strike Fighter program plans call for production rates that haven’t been seen in the fighter business since the Vietnam War — one aircraft per working day, or some 260 aircraft a year. The problem with that, points out Northrop Grumman F-35 vp and program manager Janis Pamiljans, is that “if you make a bad decision, or no decision, it takes you 30 days to recover because you have 60 components in the pipeline.”
Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, two of the major partners on the F-35 airframe, are investing heavily in advanced manufacturing technology to reach much higher levels of quality than have been achieved in the past, minimizing defects and ensuring that components fit together the first time.
Northrop Grumman has enlisted the help of auto-industry companies to help plan the high-rate production line for the F-35 center-section. New features of the aircraft include the use of fiber placement machines to manufacture the complex inlet duct — one of the first pieces to be put in the assembly fixture. Artists’ concepts show large video screens above each workstation, providing a graphic, multimedia set of instructions for each task.
BAE Systems is investing $70 million in a new JSF factory at Samlesbury, UK. It will include a specially designed floor that will allow the assembly line to be reconfigured quickly and easily, in accordance with the doctrine of “continuous improvement” that is central to the idea of lean production. It will also be air-conditioned to the same state as the final assembly line at Fort Worth, eliminating effects of thermal expansion on the way that parts fit together. — Bill Sweetman
