Bowmill revamps production with Dugard support to expand airbus business

Citation

(2006), "Bowmill revamps production with Dugard support to expand airbus business", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778fab.002

Bowmill revamps production with Dugard support to expand airbus business

Bowmill revamps production with Dugard support to expand airbus business

Keywords: Aircraft components, Machine tools, Production equipment

Bowmill Precision had just four days to initiate the removal, relocation, installation and commissioning of 24 machine tools and install and commission four new Dugard Eagle vertical machining centres while maintaining a no compromise Kanban delivery programme of assembled landing gear kits and assemblies for Airbus A320. To add to the tactical problems of the event at the Poole (Dorset) company, every process change was subjected to rigorous “Delta First Article Inspection” to enable Bowmill to comply with customer-driven quality procedures.

In the event, the specialist aerospace contractor met the challenge successfully, as Managing Director David Boucher, outlines: “We have to deliver 16 sets of Airbus A320 kits that include slave links, lock-up bolts and complex bracketry direct to line every 10 days to Messier-Dowry, and we've a significant record of achievement backed by endorsements from the customer for 100 per cent on-time deliveries. Because we obviously did not want to fail in our commitment, we had to carefully plan the changes to improve workflow and efficiency and rearrange the shopfloor, where space is very economical, to enable us to meet increased deliveries to Messier-Dowty” (Plate 2).

Plate 2 Dugard Eagle vertical machining centres line up for high productivity machining cycles at Bowmill Precision

Nick Epps, operations director, relates how Messier-Dowty, the world- leader in landing gear manufacture, requested Bowmill Engineering to quote against increasing its existing contract by a third and at the same time add a previously fabricated part that had to be machined. “This meant we had to purchase additional machine tools which, from experience was straightforward. With the constraints of space on the shop floor, it meant a significant reorganisation”.

He follows on to explain: “From receipt of the contract we had just five weeks to re-map and re-organise. From our previous experiences with C Dugard – already having nine Dugard- supplied machines on the shopfloor – we decided to make use of their experience in planning and resiting machines to enable us to meet the tight schedule.”

Bowmill Engineering's experience with Dugard has grown step-by-step. The company is an avid believer that using multiple machines sourced from the same supplier creates the same “partnership” and working relationship that Bowmill, in turn, has with its customers. Adds Nick: “There is a lot of choice from the breadth of the Dugard Eagle range and other machines available from the company. We know the machine's fitness for purpose; they have a good reliable life span with high functionality without the complications of technology for technology's sake. Our business is to manufacture precise components from raw material – Dugard has an established reputation to provide equipment that will assist us in our objectives.”

A series of meetings were set up with Dugard engineers and other key suppliers to carefully plan the strategic moves. Bowmill managers and the “Lean Improvement” team, wanted to create a turning cell, extract and part- exchange a redundant large Quasar horizontal machining centre and install three of the new Dugard Eagle machining centres into a milling line.

The difficulty was the Quasar was in the centre of the workshop and so 24 machines had to be taken out of service and moved to temporary locations to allow for the new installations. Then all the machines affected had to be reinstalled and commissioned – and all in a window of just four days. Finally, the plans were laid down and all the machines were decommissioned early on a Thursday morning and production was reinstated by the Monday morning.

Nick explains how using the Dugard experience paid-off effectively. “They worked extremely closely with our engineers and everyone knew what had to be done, from emptying the coolant and disconnecting the machines right through to where they could be stored to provide access. We had to also install a new power switchboard, the floors had to repainted with new gangways, then machines reconnected and levelled. Once completed, the next phase involved programming, retooling and commissioning the new machines which had to meet quality approvals. But by the Monday, we were ready to recommence production.”

Bowmill Engineering is a £4.5 million turnover company employing 78 people progressing out of what David Boucher maintains was very humble origins back in 1970 when founded by his father Victor.

He reflects: “Our first customers were local companies Normalaire Garrett and Flight Refuelling, and the standard of work demanded by them made our name in the industry. This led to expansion and a decade of rapid growth as we became a strategic supplier for almost every flying control installation during the 90s.” Since, 2000, the company has progressively developed recently acquiring Bowmill Metal Treatments, and is still expanding under a continuous improvement strategy.

He maintains: “The plan now is to develop as a niche supplier providing a valuable 'integrator' service to customers involving in-house treatments, machining, assembly and test.” There is currently a joint venture underway with a North American company and a progressive engineering project in South Africa which is all being co-ordinated while the business maintains a specialist service to its small spread of quality-driven blue chip customers.

The new Dugard Eagle installations comprised two Eagle 660 and two Eagle 850 vertical machining centres. An identical Eagle 660 machine had already been installed but one of the second machine specifications was enhanced with a four-axis unit. One of the new 850 Eagles also has the added flexibility of four-axes of movement and a 10,000 revs/min spindle option to improve production of complex aluminium barometric instrumentation components. These are made in batches of 30-50 parts which include 1.5, 3.0 and 4mm diameter dowel and bearing diameters made to tolerances of just 7 m. Positional tolerances are within 0.025mm.

Indeed, at Bowmill Engineering machining complexity and strict surface finish requirements are regarded almost as normal working practice covering a diverse range of products including vital parts for flight control that encompass a broad spectrum of machining disciplines, assembly and test operations.

Summarising, Nick explains: “The installation and production down time would have been significantly increased with the end result compromised without the input from C Dugard. Their assistance was invaluable to us in securing the delivery of the project and long term contracts which will help maintain UK skill base in what is becoming an ever challenging global industry.”

Details available from: C Dugard Machine Tools, Tel: +44 (0)1273 732286, E-mail: bobhorton@dugard.co.uk, web site: www.dugard.com