It’s been nearly 45 years since my first experience on a manufacturing line, as a summer intern at Hughes Helicopter in Marina Del Ray and Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, California. These were the days before automation, so aircraft assembly was strictly a hands-on ordeal. Large components were moved in at one end of a building and then surrounded by an army of workers riveting parts together while support personnel delivered smaller parts via tricycle. Once a week or so, the line would be shut down and all these work stands dispersed so each aircraft could be moved to the next production position.
The next morning, everything was spun back up — rinse and repeat. Some years later when I had moved onto high-tech electronics (at least, what was considered high-tech in the 1960s when these technologies were designed), I observed a similar process, though here the units were moved from room to room for the next assembly or test operation.
In the decades since, I’ve visited production facilities across the United States and Europe. Although the specific products varied — including commercial, military and general aviation airplanes, rotorcraft, weapon systems, and satellites and spacecraft — for the most part, the facilities are the same as the ones I worked at in the ’80s; their production processes are nearly identical. True, there have been small advancements — electric carts rather than tricycles, tracking parts and processes electronically rather than with paper — but these amount to a gradual evolution. Now, we need a step change.
The world is changing, and aerospace manufacturing must advance along with it or be left behind. Applications of new technology and tools must be integrated more quickly if the industry is to grow as projected. What’s driving this? The introduction of artificial intelligence and business intelligence technologies could usher in what some are calling Manufacturing 5.0 or Industry 5.0: the fusion of humans and automation to create turn-key solutions perfectly tailored to each product, which permits humans to work safely and collaboratively in conjunction with robotics.
The evolution of manufacturing:
Manufacturing 1.0 – The Birth of Mechanization
Manufacturing 2.0 – The Rise of Mass Production and Automation
Manufacturing 3.0 – The Digital Revolution and Birth of IT
Manufacturing 4.0 – The Smart Factory and Cyber-Physical Systems
Manufacturing 5.0 – Human-Machine Collaboration
But first, let’s look at how we got here. In the early 1970s, robots began popping up in large industrial production lines, largely driven by the automotive industry. These were the first instances of Manufacturing 3.0, which focused on repetitive activities for high-volume production. This was also when we saw the birth of computer-numerically controlled, or CNC, machining for high-precision parts. And this phase is where many aerospace suppliers are plateaued. Manufacturing 4.0 integrates digital networks with the physical hardware, enabling machines to communicate directly with one another and utilizing networked sensors and software to increase automation.
Consider, for instance, the Airbus Satellite factory on Merrit Island near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — formerly jointly owned with OneWeb. There, dishwasher-sized satellites are moved around on robotic trollies. Hand-held smart tools set the appropriate torque for each bolt, as determined by the sensors at the various workstations. Integrated software tracks and tests components and assemblies during production to discover nonconformance before it’s permitted to move to the next stage. To date, some 600 Arrow150 satellites have been built here for OneWeb’s broadband internet constellation, with a 99.7% operational success rate on orbit. The factory has now been retooled for the larger, more modular Arrow450 design, which is in production.
Another notable example is SpaceX, which built an advanced and automated facility to produce its Starlink satellites, with approximately 9,000 launched as of June 20. Agility is crucial, as the factory must be able to churn out hundreds of spacecraft per month, adapting the design as needed based on on-orbit performance. In parallel, workers are preparing for the production of the larger Starlink variants that are to be launched aboard the behemoth Starship-Super Heavy rockets once that design becomes operational.
Such high-rate facilities leverage not only automation but also AI and advanced cybersecurity strategies to ensure the uninterrupted production of high-quality, high-technology products. They have also adopted business intelligence that integrates suppliers into their systems to confirm that the right parts and assemblies are available at the right time. This also creates efficiencies in the supply chain, as suppliers can quickly track changes in demand for their products and adjust their production accordingly. Also integrated are the results of integrated testing at higher assembly levels, allowing faults to be traced back and suppliers to be notified. This means corrections can be made promptly before too much stock is produced.
As impressive as all this is, the aerospace industry has yet to make the next leap: adapting these processes for products that are larger, have many more components and are produced at rates at which repetitive automation doesn’t make economic sense. There are some near-term opportunities, including in-development commercial and military aircraft designs to which engineers are applying design tools such as Model-Based Systems Engineering and Integrated Design for Manufacturing. These approaches incorporate modern manufacturing technologies into the product design and the manufacturing and supply chain strategy.
Manufacturers will also need to consider the demands and constraints of a workforce that is appropriately trained and skilled enough to work in close collaboration with this automation. Without the incorporation of collaborative robotics, the industry will require a larger human workforce than currently appears to be available to meet future production demands.
At the same time, integrating automation and robotics into aerospace manufacturing and assembly presents a considerable challenge that must be addressed to achieve Manufacturing 5.0. Working in tight quarters inside an airliner — or in the assembly of smaller airplanes, rotorcraft and spacecraft — will require robotic systems that work collaboratively with humans, have sensors to remain aware of their proximity to humans, and have software and systems that ensure no harm comes to human workers.
Nevertheless, I’m confident we can do all this. After all, this is the industry that put humans on the moon and flew an aircraft on another planet. We can and will continue to push the frontiers of technology, meeting the production demands of the future with high-quality products that are delivered on time and at an economic price.
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