Orchestrate Delivers First Class Scheduling for B/E Aerospace

Introduction/Overview

Creating an integrated scheduling and capacity plan across 3 sites in 2 countries is a key challenge for BE Aerospace (B/E) Super First Class Division, the world’s leading provider of interior products and solutions for the commercial, business jet and military markets. Orchestrate production scheduling software from UK specialist Production Modelling provides B/E SFC the ability to ensure production across 3 sites aligns so that individual components involved is at the right place, in the right order, at the right time. Production Modelling’s partnership approach demonstrated at each step how the system would work with B/E’s processes and data. And, because Orchestrate is so intuitive to understand and easy to use, B/E configured and implemented it themselves in a matter of a few months, thereby avoiding installation costs. Thanks to Orchestrate, B/E has much greater visibility across all 3 sites, improved scheduling efficiency and can now introduce new orders without interrupting existing business.

The Challenges: Managing Multi-Site Complex Assembly

B/E produces customizable and prestigious Super First Class (SFC) interior for prestigious customers including Emirates, Qantas and British Airways, with each seating solution contains individual components from all 3 manufacturing sites. The process steps range in complexity across the three manufacturing/assembly sites, and ensuring that the right components are in place at the right time is critical to the B/E’s success. While final assembly takes place in Tucson, Arizona, this is dependent on operations being completed on time at the company’s Miami, Florida and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico sites. In addition to managing the 500 skilled employees across multiple business sites involved in the production of each finished unit, time to produce in-house manufactured parts as well as source external purchased parts all have to be accurately taken into consideration to avoid costly delays. Orders range from recurring business which can extend up to six years in advance to unique seating solutions that have to slot into existing workflow.

Three of the biggest challenges the SFC division faces are in managing workflow, capacity, and new business. Challenges that spreadsheets have been increasingly unable to deal with due to the very strong growth B/E has experienced over the past three years. “The past three years have seen us grow from a 300 employee operation to now having over 500 employees in our business unit across multiple sites.”

Why Spreadsheets Fail

Prior to the rapid business growth, all scheduling was handled by a range of spreadsheets. As the business grew however, so did the size and complexity of the spreadsheets involved as James explains. “By 2012, the number of product groups we would be working on at any time had doubled. We had a separate spreadsheet for Miami, Nogales and Tucson, all of which had to be updated manually, and all of which were on top of the data stored in our ERP system. We had multiple ways of communication to get the same data but often different spreadsheets had different data because nothing was consolidated. The increasing time this took combined with the inaccuracy of the data began to impact our On Time delivery capabilities. And for a business like ours, On Time deliveries are essential. Now, with Orchestrate, all data across each site is consolidated into one source from which clear, concise and accurate information can be quickly extracted which has positively impacted our On-Time delivery capabilities.”

The other area where Orchestrate production scheduling software excels and spreadsheets failed was in trying to view and create capacity for future orders. James again, “Given that every day, everything moves which impacts every other process step, this was difficult to achieve quickly with Excel - we simply couldn’t see the impact of decisions on the rest of the business. We would say yes and then do whatever it took to deliver, even if this had a negative impact on other existing orders. Now with Orchestrate, not only can we see what capacity we have available, we can see the range of finite possibilities we have to fulfil any new orders. Orchestrate offers us more than simple visibility – it gives us options and the intelligence we need to make the best decision for the company as a whole.”

Why Orchestrate production scheduling software and Why the Internet?

Like most companies, B/E used the power of the Internet to identify potential solutions. Unlike most companies, B/E then used the Internet to source, purchase and implement Orchestrate from Production Modelling. With considerable experience in master scheduling within the Automotive Sector, James was brought into B/E in Sept 2011 and assigned the task of finding a powerful yet flexible scheduling solution that met the company’s many demanding objectives and also its budget. Many systems appeared to deliver what was required but as James explains, all was not what it seemed. “I looked at 8 to 10 systems and saw many presentations but when I started asking questions about wanting to see the system do what we want and whether it could work the way we needed it to, the companies concerned couldn’t provide us with a scenario that showed this.”

Production Modelling provided a completely different response. Not only did Production Modelling provide James with a demo-version of the software to fully evaluate, the company also built a bespoke demo based on B/E’s own data which essentially replicated the company’s production at a high level. “Whenever we asked for any bespoke work to be considered, everyone within Production Modelling from the management down to the developers worked collaboratively with us to show us that what we wanted and needed was achievable. It was a real partnership and provided us with a lot of confidence in our investment decision.” This helpfulness even extended as far as Production Modelling extending the free trial use of the software as further modifications were being made to allow B/E the time it required to sign off an IT investment of this size. “From a Sales perspective, this was outstanding,” recalls James.

An Innovative Implementation

This helpfulness has permeated the implementation and has been at the heart of the ongoing development of the system ever since. Self-implementation is typically the preserve of basic systems used in small companies to solve simple issues. Such was the confidence that Production Modelling gave B/E combined with the highly intuitive nature of Orchestrate production scheduling software as a system, B/E decided to self-implement across all, with James received expert tuition in the use of the software via a number of web demos and what he describes as access to an excellent support network and help files. “I was trained by Production Modelling not just in how to use the system but also to develop the system myself. In addition to the early benefits the company has already received, this again helped to reinforce to the company that it really was investing in a custom business solution at a very reasonable price.” This partnership approach was also greatly appreciated when B/E took the strategic decision to move from a high level use of the system to a much more detailed view. Not only did this necessitate changing the way B/E used the system, it meant changing the way the system itself worked. Once again the entire team at Production Modelling provided the expertise and assistance B/E needed.

Early Benefits.

The company is already seeing benefits from Orchestrate production scheduling software. It is not uncommon for manufacturers to be adversely impacted by major IT implementations and given the complexity of B/E’s operations over 3 sites and in 2 different countries, its ability to maintain a ‘business as usual’ attitude is testament to the dedication of its own personnel and the support of the Production Modelling team. Other major benefits already in place focus on the increased visibility and accuracy of information that Orchestrate has brought. “Now we can see where everything is across the entire business unit and at which stage” explains James. This has been further helped at the Tucson site by the installation of flat-screen displays on the assembly floor which allow everyone to see not just what is currently supposed be happening, but also what is coming down the line. As an example of the time and cost savings achieved, in just one schedule change, Orchestrate saves 1- 3 hours in updating Excel files for scheduling depending on the complexity of the schedule change. Also Production Modelling developed a presentation plug-in that turns our master production schedule into a presentation that refreshes at the end of the presentation and runs continuously on the flat-screen monitors on the assembly floor, this keeps our production schedule current on assembly floor and encourages employee buy-in as they see the demands of their individual production lines.

A Final Word

“From the outset, Production Modelling’s partnership approach combined with the intuitive, flexible nature of Orchestrate has enabled us to get the best from our investment. Not only are we now able to schedule more efficiently across all sites, we can take on new business with increased confidence which is essential to our ongoing growth and success.”