Engineers from McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co. in Huntington Beach, Calif. needed to reduce the costs of parts design in the C-17 cargo jet, and in the main avionics rack (MAR) in their passenger aircraft. So they used the TeamSet Design for Assembly (DFA) from Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) in Grosse Point, Mich.
"If you`re going to reduce costs you have to redesign the device," says Terrance Dunder, principal engineer at McDonnell Douglas. With CSC software "we were able to eliminate about 1,500 fasteners on the main landing gear pod of the C-17 aircraft," he says.
For the cockpit/cargo liners on the C-17, Dunder estimates McDonnell engineers were able to eliminate about 500 details, at least 3,700 fasteners, reduce material costs, and eliminate about 3,000 assembly hours.
With MAR, engineers at McDonnell`s commercial division were able to achieve an 80 percent part reduction, 47 percent reduction in structure weight, 31 percent fewer build days, 19 percent fewer labor hours, and one fewer mile of wire in the manufacture of the MARs with a total savings of $54,000 per aircraft.
The software program from CSC enables a design team to explore and compare design or re-design options quickly, says Dunder.
Problems the software addresses include time-to-market, quality, reliability, and cost. - J.M.
For more information on the DFA software, phone CSC at 313-343-8858, fax 313-343-8859, or email [email protected].
