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Assembly Design and
Documentation Phase I
Background
U.S. manufacturing firms and DoD depots are under increasing pressure to reduce
operating and maintenance costs while also significantly reducing lead times for
new and repaired/refurbished parts.
Since the early 80’s aircraft engine providers have used complex assemblies of
3D CAD data to assist in the engineering design of components. This process
eliminated the need to create expensive physical mockups used for interference
and clearance checking. Even with complete 3D definitions, the downstream
assembly/disassembly planning process, and associative documentation, is still
developed using an Engineering Bill of Material (BOM), 2D drawings, and
specifications.
Problem
Engine assembly/disassembly planning and documentation is a manual process that
is often dependent on the skill and experience of the individual defining the
process. The current processes have not fully realized the benefits of working
from a complete digital representation. The sequence of assembly/disassembly
operations is determined manually from the Engineering BOM. The associated
documentation for assembly planning and maintenance manuals are created
manually. Any changes in the engineering design or assembly process have to be
incorporated into the documentation manually.
Solution/Approach
The Assembly Design and Documentation project will utilize commercial software
solutions from UGS, including Teamcenter™ Manufacturing and eM-Simulate. The
technology developed by GE Global Research Center MPAD will be integrated into
eM-Simulate. The integration will be targeted to the following:
- Automatic assembly process generation
according to party geometry constrains
- Verification of the assembly process in a
3D dynamic environment
- Generation and editing of assembly and
disassembly path for each part
- Generation and editing of parallel and
sequential sequences
- Editing of the simulation for
documentation generation
- Generate AVI and picture documentation
- Generation and editing of documentation
templates
- Creation of documentation for each
assembly step to a predefined template.
MPAD provides the necessary algorithms to
create and edit an intelligent assembly and disassembly sequence based on
complex geometric shapes.
eM-Simulate is a UGS product designed for assembly process verification that
enables generation and edits of assembly paths and sequences in a managed 3D
environment. In addition, eM-Simulate has assembly sequence generation
capability utilizing the Engineering BOM hierarchy as a basis. Automatic
assembly sequence generation will be enhanced to accept arbitrary 3D solid
assembly models (technology provided from MPAD) as the basis and therefore
removing the dependence of complex Engineering BOM hierarchical structures.
Deliverables
Phase I project deliverables are as follows:
- Preliminary current and future state
process maps of the assembly design and documentation development and
revision processes
- Integration of technology developed by GE,
with UGS technologies (MPAD functionality of automatic assembly sequencing
embedded into UGS eM-Simulate)
- Results of validation testing by GE
- Limited templates for the reuse of
intelligent sequencing capabilities from validation testing
- Preliminary measured improvement in change
management effectiveness, productivity, and cycle time reduction (based on
pilot results)
- Preliminary cost/benefit analysis
- Phase I Interim project report and
documentation.
- Phase II go-no-go decision.
Anticipated Benefits
The benefits of this project are improved productivity, elimination of errors,
and reductions in lead time by linking assembly design and documentation
processes to the full Engineering definition:
- Reduce manual effort to author complex
assembly and maintenance manuals
- Work directly from complete Engineering
definition
- Avoid time to identify and interpret
specifications
- Improved generation of animated assembly
instructions
- Improved quality and accuracy of the
documentation
- Interaction animations: better content, no
additional cost
- Positioned for automated flow of digitized
procedures
- Reduce transcription risks
- Change impact analysis – accurate and
complete propagation of design changes.
These anticipated benefits will be partially
achieved in Phase I and will be fully achieved at the completion of the second
phase planned for 2006 funding. At the completion of Phase I, the system will be
tested and validated as operational. Work will remain for Phase II on automating
user tasks and on the user interface.
Participants
Industry – GE Aircraft Engines, UGS Corporation, Manufacturing Resources, Inc.
Depots – OC-ALC, Albany Marine Depot
NCMS Program Manager: Tony Haynes,
tonyh@ncms.org, 734-995-4930.
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