Operations …. It is the lifeblood of an organization. It encompasses the day-in and day-out focus and attention to detail that can make or break a company’s reputation. This is where dreams become reality and quality, consistency and reliability are the order of the day.
The men and women that lead and staff Piper’s Operations take their work seriously … as they should. People’s lives depend on their diligence, and they don’t take that lightly. Instead, they bring the highest standards to their work. They take exceptional pride in the hand-built aircraft they produce and their ongoing commitment to furthering Piper’s rich heritage. Theirs is a heritage that has seen the production of more than 144,000 aircraft – 85,000 of which are still flying. It is a legacy they continue to build.
Process and Flow: Piper was one of the first General Aviation companies to employ extensive use of flow technology and lean manufacturing principles to improve efficiency and quality, as well as to promote cost savings that could in turn be passed on to its customers.
Rearranging the plant to provide smooth flow of production and the use of Kanbans to signal production activity under a “pull” system were among the first innovations manufacturing engineers put in place. Piper has also instituted an extensive “5S” program to thoroughly clean and organize the plant.
Operations engineers have developed a Demand Flow Technology Plan to increase production efficiency. Improvements include restructuring production layouts to eliminate bottlenecks and aggressive cycle time reduction efforts that have dramatically reduced inventories, cutting the time it takes to move airplanes through final production by entire weeks. In addition, on-time delivery performance improved from less than 50 percent to almost 100 percent over a 12-month period.
Manufacturing: With over 70 years of aircraft manufacturing experience, Piper has an extremely refined system for building high-quality, safe airplanes. Its excellent workforce employs lean manufacturing techniques and the principles of continuous improvement to produce dependable, rugged aircraft. With more than 700,000 square feet of facility space and a vertically integrated series of production processes, the Piper team boasts a comprehensive array of manufacturing capabilities.
Piper’s manufacturing capabilities are vertically integrated to a degree rarely seen in manufacturing and range from state-of-the-art metal bonding to certified welding, landing gear assembly, windshield and window fabrication, wire harness assembly, aircraft painting, composite layup, plastic forming and seat construction. The company also designs and builds its own tooling.
The Company operates a wide variety of fabrication, assembly, paint and inspection processes:
- Sheet metal stamping, routing and forming compose a major portion of the fabrication facility workflow.
- A full complement of milling machines and lathes are used to make machined parts ranging from instrument panels to landing gear components.
- The Welding Shop builds engine mounts and seat frames, while Composite Layup makes fiberglass fairings and cowls. Plastic Forming makes a variety of interior parts.
- The Upholstery Shop makes carpets, leather seats and sidewall panels.
- The Clean Line, Bond Room and Walk-in Ovens support a state-of-the-art metal bonding process that manufactures complex assemblies such as wing structures without the use of rivets or other mechanical fasteners.
- The Gear Shop starts with raw castings to build up landing gear assemblies, complete with brakes, wheels and tires.
- The Avionics Shop fabricates wire harnesses and builds up instrument panels.
- Elevators, rudders, flaps, ailerons and vertical and horizontal stabilizers are all assembled from sheet metal structure and skins, using jigs made in the Company’s Tooling Department.
- Wings and fuselages are assembled in dedicated production areas utilizing complex assembly jigs also built in the Tooling department.
- Wings are joined to the fuselages, engines are hung and systems are installed in preparation for rollout to Final Assembly. There, cowls are fitted, doors installed, controls properly rigged and systems tested.
- The airplanes are then test flown through a rigorous series of Flight Test Procedures. Any required adjustments are then made.
- Interiors are installed and the airplanes are painted. Then a final inspection and test flight is completed prior to licensing and delivery to the customer.
All manufacturing operations are conducted in accordance with the Quality System required under Piper’s Production Certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). That system requires a comprehensive series of inspections made by Quality Assurance personnel at all points throughout the production process. The FAA checks compliance with the Production Certificate on a bi-annual basis during its Aircraft Certification System Evaluation Program audit.
Production Engineering: Supporting Manufacturing is a team of engineers and technicians whose task is to translate aircraft design data into instructions and processes to be used by the production workforce. Manufacturing Engineers determine the physical processes to be used in building the particular part or assembly. Methods Engineers reference those processes in work instructions that also call out applicable tools, drawings, process specs and detailed steps to be followed. Industrial Engineers determine production layouts, capacity requirements and flow times for all manufacturing activities.
Supply Chain: With over 300 suppliers, the company’s purchasing function plays a significant role in the success of its operations. Attention is focused on vendor quality and on-time delivery performance. A supplier scorecard system is currently being developed to evaluate all suppliers on price, delivery and quality performance.
Quality Assurance: Responsible for inspection, FAA certification/licensing, quality engineering, tool calibration, supplier quality management, and continuous process improvements, Piper’s FAA approved quality system subjects Piper’s products and processes to constant auditing. These quality audits are conducted by Piper, as well as the FAA. At the end of the day, every element of the Company’s quality is measured and certified to ensure the safety of every Piper owner. Piper has excelled in this area, and in recent FAA audits, federal representatives have cited Piper among the very best in General Aviation.