Creative Cost Efficiency Article From 2008 European SEER Users Conference
In his opening speech to the 91 delegates at last April’s conference, Galorath’s Cost Engineering Consultant and former Cost Estimating Engineer at Agusta Westland John Henson explained the ‘back to basics’ approach the company was now taking, the message being that only the application of common sense is required to make the most of its range of products for hardware and software development, manufacturing and IT systems. Addressing representatives from over 50 different companies, both current and prospective users, the conference featured speeches from several users in the field of cost engineering, including representatives from Raytheon, Airbus and BAE Systems, each giving an insight into how the software was being practically applied to current projects.
As long-term users of the manufacturing tool SEER MFG (formerly DFM), Senior Value Engineer Martin Dunklcy and Cost Engineer David Tyso of Aicbus UK detailed how the software was being used as part of the development process to derive potentially new cost-effective design solutions for spoilers on the A320 and allow them together with their current supplier to come to well informed trade-off decisions. In the study, three different generic concept designs were established: a composite monolithic structure, a composite sandwich and a more traditional metallic structure.
After entering the specific data, it was found that a composite monolithic design offered the largest cost saving as, although the material costs were higher, the structure was less labour intensive to manufacture while still meeting functional and design standards, and adhering to the appropriate Joint Aviation Requirements. These studies analysed a whole range
of viable materials and manufacturing technologies including prepreg, Nomex, reinforced foam, resin infusion materials and aluminium alloy, and also revealed the feasibility of outsourcing some work to Asia, which was contingent on the source of materials, cost and complexity of manufacturing operations.
As for future designs, Mr Tyso also explained three alternative wing rib designs for future aircraft programs, with current investigation looking at metals, carbon-fibre reinforced plastics and hybrid laminates. Using SEER MFG in this instance offers Airbus designers and cost engineers the advantage of allowing for multiple refinements to be made without having to adjust the base model too much, giving greater flexibility and ease of use. Such levels of detail as far as total component cost is concerned, allows for a reasonably accurate estimation of die manufacturing costs at a preliminary stage, making it easier to establish which technologies should be pursued and can potentially be used in other aircraft programs. Airbus’ use of the program has even allowed the company to become active in its development and has worked with Galorath to increase its complexity and accuracy in handling individual components. Airbus is now also using a CAl (Composites Affordability Initiative) plug-in for greater precision including specific aircraft assembly modules for operation modeling.
The importance of such studies into life cycle costs increases when one considers the rising cost of fuel. With the price rising from around $200 per metric ton in January 2002 to S900 as of January 2008, the amount of weight reduction a manufacturer can achieve will have an increasingly magnified effect on running costs. In an independent study conducted towards his PhD, Markus Kaufmann of the Kungliga Tekniska Hcigskolan in Stockholm demonstrated how based on a fixed �400 per metric ton, a ikg weight reduction on an A330 could save between �1,500 and �2,000 on fuel expenses over a typical 25 year aircraft lifespan.
As it is designed to encapsulate the entire process, the SEER range of programs can account for most aspects associated with the common problems of weight saving. For example, although composite materials usually offer superior properties their impact is felt all the way through additional development, product lifespan, maintenance and disposal costs, and it Ls these changes that SEER MFG is designed to track. In several papers presented to the conference. Mr Kaufmann used the software to find the optimum solution in a cost/weight trade�off by combining all the relevant information into one objective function.
A simplified form of direct operating cost (E>OC) on a component level was evaluated for each design solution based on the cost of each flight, maintenance, depreciation, fees and the financing strategy, where SEER MFG was used to estimate the manufacturing cost. An FE analysis was then completed to review the structural integrity. This systematic approach was applied to the optimisation of a generic stringer/skin panel for both a low cost and low weight design. The low cost design featured larger stringers and a wider pitch while the low weight design had smaller stringers and narrower pitch. What was discovered through the analysis however was that a wider pitch could reduce cost by using fewer stringers without compromising structural strength. Using this information, it was then possible to focus the study on different material configurations, with the finding that the choice of material should be dependent on the type of structure, the load case and the desired cost/weight ratio.
Once the design had been decided, an external module was used to produce a cost strategy for NDT (non-destructive testing). By producing reports on various flaw sizes, Mr Kaufmann was able to determine that larger flaw sizes would compromise the component weight and manufacturing cost, which could then lead to higher direct operating costs. When smaller flaw sizes were applied, some weight and cost savings could be obtained by requiring thinner structures, despite the higher inspection cost. As a result, it was possible to embed quality management into the design phase optimising cost efficiency for the whole product life cycle. Higher, carefully focused spending in manufacturing therefore ultimately proved to reduce expenses overall.
The big announcement from Galorath itself, was of the release of SEER for IT, which has been four and a half years in development. The program features project estimating software supporting planning throughout a project development life cycle and project planning software for detailed insight into the risks, uncertainty and cost drivers associated with IT project development and management. One benefit of the new software is the ability to tailor the application to a user’s own requirements, improving ease of use and reducing errors. A new plug in for SEER-H that reproduces plans in Microsoft Project was also announced. www.galorath.com
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
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