In the beginning there was an altimeter - Meggitt PLC

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SIKORSKY’S SKIN The bulk of MPC Rockmart’s non-heated composites lie under the skin of Sikorsky helicopters— interior cabin products you can just “snap” into an aircraft, says Kirk Hargett, Composites Operations Unit Director. “If you got inside a Black Hawk helicopter, pretty much everything that you would see and touch would be produced here in Rockmart.” 00 38 REVIEW | AUGUST WINTER 2010
He lists the acoustic panels and blankets that suppress noise and vibration in these deafening machines, ducts for environmental control systems and supports and covers that protect everything from a simple seat to electronics, hydraulic lines and control rods. Amongst “a lot of miscellaneous items you would never even think of” there will be cabin and cargo straps. There are around 75 to 100 different parts in a typical shipset. All products are easy to fit and for maintenance purposes easy to remove. All are designed to maximise space and minimise weight. we slashed Sikorsky’s costs by 30 per cent This rapidly growing non-heated laminate composites business is housed alongside heated electro-thermal composites product lines in a brand-new composites centre, a single storey facility of 126,000 square feet next to the four-storey fuel tank plant. As operations director, Tony McCann observes: “It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to create the ideal architecture for Lean production in this new facility rather than have to work around the limitations of our fuel tank facility, which was built in 1929 to spin cotton.” Containing a state-of-theart clean room, the latest Virtek laser ply projectors, giant autoclaves and other hightech ovens, heated presses, paint booths, curing facilities and workstations, it is as bold a measure of confidence in the future of these product lines as you can think of. From a standing start ten years ago, composites for aircraft interiors now represents 16 per cent of Rockmart’s total output—doubling to 32 per cent with de-icing composite lines. Before Sikorsky, MPC Rockmart’s composites capability was viewed only in the context of speciality electrothermal de-icing. John Skubina, however (see the profile on page 44) could see that ice protection manufacturing drew on the capabilities needed to manufacture the composites Sikorsky was talking about outsourcing. What’s more, the plant had a residual sewing and upholstery capability associated with products the plant still makes like the Goodyear Blimp and products the plant used to make, like parachutes for bombs. A number of employees involved in an old shirt manufacturing business were also applying their craft skills laying up fabrics for iceguards—blade sheaths and nose cones. That skill-set, plus competitive labour rates and the requirement for certain military programmes to be supported on US soil, gave MPC Rockmart the ability to respond with confidence when Sikorsky finally put out its “offload” tender. Hargett explains: “There were a lot of Mom and Pop shops out there capable of doing interiors work but they did not have the infrastructure to service large military contracts—or the critical mass to deliver real savings. We had both and once we got into the swing of production, we slashed Sikorsky’s costs by 30 per cent.” Today MPC Rockmart makes a wide range of cabin products for all Sikorsky helicopters, outstripping sales of fuel tanks and ice protection components sales combined to this highly valued customer. Drive-thru upholstery Hargett makes it sound easy. However, dealing with nuts and bolts of parts management for the helicopter variants with similar but far from identical interiors is not for the faint-hearted. And lead-times are short. He jokes about the plant’s ‘drive-thru upholstery’ where speed is of the essence. He explains: “our products are the last to go on a helicopter before it is shipped out of the Sikorsky factory. If just one item in a ship set is damaged or mislaid, something that could be worth less than $500 could hold up the completion of a $20 million dollar aircraft. We have to act fast to provide a replacement part or a handful of parts in two to three days, sometimes less.” Employees will walk a product through the factory taking in all its manufacturing processes and quality control, queue-jumping if needed to keep the customer happy. A number of employees involved in an old shirt manufacturing business were also applying their craft skills laying up fabrics for iceguards— blade sheaths and nose cones Life in the composites centre is not all about crisis management. The team is supported by a well-managed finished goods inventory for production parts, Lean manufacturing techniques and the evolution of flow cells like those underway in the fuel tank facility. There is daily contact with Sikorsky by telephone and through on-site representation at the Connecticut plant. Sikorsky’s requirements are monitored daily through ERP system links to the customer’s supplier system. The team’s mission is to get one month ahead of production once all the engineering changes to a ship set have ceased. Hargett explains: “Interiors are the last thing to > REVIEW | WINTER 2010 00 39
Page 1 and 2: A MAGAZINE FOR EMPLOYEES WINTER 201
Page 3 and 4: A new chapter Chief Executive Terry
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Page 15 and 16: Adding values The threads that bind
Page 17 and 18: We will act with act as a team focu
Page 19 and 20: own site’s interests to the fore
Page 21 and 22: FACTORY FOCUS FEELIN’ GOOD In the
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Page 27 and 28: Right: It takes real dexterity and
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Page 37 and 38: The main tail and rotor blades of o
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Page 43 and 44: It’s an aircraft Jim, but not as
Page 45 and 46: to draw on other Meggitt capabiliti
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Page 51 and 52: CHEMISTRY LESSON As MPC President P
Page 53 and 54: Plevin’s Eastern Promise Adrian P
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Page 57 and 58: the region for several years, reels
Page 59 and 60: The comfort factor, meanwhile, was
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Page 65 and 66: Above: Bombardier’s C-Series low
Page 67 and 68: Richard Greaves, Meggitt’s first
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In the beginning there was an altimeter - Meggitt PLC

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