Achieving Manufacturing Excellence for Gas Turbine Components Through Focused Implementation of Technology
This paper explains how focused implementation of a broad range of technologies was used as the key strategy resulting in the establishment of highly efficient, dedicated facility for manufacture of gas turbine disk, hub, and drum rotor components. The physical and operational constraints associated with the conversion of an existing operating facility, along with the rigid time constraints, required a carefully phased and integrated plan. Reviews and tradeoffs of each of the many available manufacturing technologies are discussed and those selected, such as flowline units, group technology, rule based design/manufacturing and product improvement teams are explained in the context of their implementation phase-in. Before and after performance results are provided and on-going enhancements of this manufacturing system are covered.