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The aerospace industry is continually becoming more competitive. With an aircraft's large number of components, and the large supplier base used to fabricate these components, it can be a daunting task to manage the quality status of all parts in an accurate, timely and actionable manner. This paper focuses on a proof of concept for an aircraft fuselage assembly to monitor the process capability of machined parts at an aircraft original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and their supply chain. Through the use of standardized measurement plans and statistical analysis of the measured output, the paper will illustrate how stakeholders can understand the process performance details at a workcell level, as well as overall line and plant performance in real time. This ideal process begins in the product engineering phase using simulation to analyze the tolerance specifications and assembly process strategy, with one of the outputs being a production measurement plan.

The effects of thermal expansion and gravity on assembly processes in automotive manufacturing can and often do cause unexpected variation. Not only do these effects cause assembly issues, they can also create non-conformance and warranty problems later in the product lifecycle. Using 3D CAD models, advances in simulation allow engineers to design out these influences through a combination of tooling, process and tolerance changes to reduce costs. This whitepaper examines the process of simulating the effect of both thermal expansion and gravity on automotive structures. Using real life examples, a number of solutions were determined and tested in a simulated environment to reduce product variation and account for unavoidable environmental variation.