metrology
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM // SEPTEMBER 2019 57
of an aircraft functions and systems, from primary
flight controls to water waste and entertainment in
cabin are tested.
This resulting test data will soon be fed into the
enterprise wide digital system Airbus is introducing.
This system is a key aspect of how the company plans to
operate in the future. Airbus is not only incorporating
its own in-line production data to this system, it also
plans to receive suppliers’ data as well, “on specific
topics,” says the company.
This digital system is called Digital Design
Manufacturing and Services (DDMS) (See box: Digital
Design Manufacturing and Services). It aims to create a
collection of all the data from the very start of an
aircraft’s design process to its ultimate disposal and
recycling. Whereas today the Airbus’ IT systems can be
described as monolithic and separate, in the future they
will be linked using DDMS. Testing’s role in this
connected vision of the future will broaden to provide
data via DDMS which will help streamline
manufacturing processes. The company believes a
streamlined assembly process for the A350
eXtraWideBody (XWB) should allow manufacturing
teams to work in parallel, reducing the time from start
of final assembly to aircraft delivery by 30%.
PRODUCTION RATES
Airbus states that: “The A350 XWB final
assembly process has been thought out
with efficiency in mind, to reduce the
assembly time compared to current
programs.” The company had a goal of an
A350 production rate of 10 per month,
which it achieved this year. Each aircraft
takes two and a half months from the
start of final assembly to finally being
delivered to the customer.
Other Airbus sites with major A350
structural sub-assemblies are: Broughton
in the UK where the wing is built;
Bremen where the wing is equipped;
Getafe and Illescas in Spain which
produce the horizontal tail plane, and
Toulouse itself, where the engine pylons
and nacelles are made. These different
parts of the aircraft arrive at the
Toulouse Final Assembly Line (FAL)
already tested, which further reduces the
amount of work required at the latter
stages of the aircraft’s build. The cabin
monuments, the galleys, toilets and crew
DIGITAL DESIGN
MANUFACTURING AND SERVICES
Airbus’ Digital Design Manufacturing and
Services (DDMS) conducts enterprise
resource planning, managing product data,
the manufacturing execution system and
the Skywise platform. Skywise is the Airbus
open data platform, launched two years ago,
for use internally and by its customers and
is used by its factories’ quality management
system. Every month there are 10,000 users
of Skywise, the European manufacturer says.
Two years ago, Skywise had only fourearly
adopter airlines and around 20
internal Airbus applications. In the future
Airbus wants Skywise and its other areas
to be interoperable and is aiming for a
single flow of manufacturing-related data
with common tools. This “data backbone”
will run through each of the company’s
functions, to create “data continuity”. With
such a comprehensive approach Airbus
believes DDMS will help it achieve higher
factory output rates to move aviation into
mass production, and for all of its software
platforms to include data changes and
update users.
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