here's life

The date is 2007. The place is a factory floor in the Air Capital of
the World. Technology level: feasible at present day.

I'm talking to another investigator as I finish up describing my
latest fix to the airplane parts. "Just think, a year ago the 'Super
CAR Team' wasn't a team, just your joke name for the impending train
wreck you were working on!" "We have come a long way..." Before, I
was working on CAR's an acronym that meant "problems on every plane".
I was trying to keep up with a constant flow from the shop. It took
me way too long, but my megalomanical delusions prompted me to call
my efforts the Super CAR Team. I though about making a t-shirt... My
lead's voice fades into the conversation we are having over the
pilot's headsets we wear on the noisy factory floor...
"Abu, that change looks good. I've run it past our support people,
when you get it submitted, I'll queue it to the supplier." I tap the
submit button on my tablet, and then tap my lead's name.
"Here it is, I got the description inputted---why we made
the change. Can you check the photos I've marked up, make sure
they make sense?" "Sure, meanwhile, I've got this tag..." an icon
pops up on my screen "...it's on the other side of the factory, but it
came in yesterday..." Yesterday? We'd better get this fixed to reduce
the number of planes that have this issue. Our managers used to ask
us about 60-day-old problems---the averages had changed, now that we
have this new system.

I click on the icon, and photo pops up. A map shows me where in the
factory it is located. The map is pretty detailed, since it is
constantly being updated by the cameras on the overhead cranes. As I
walk, I glance at what we've got so far. The mechanic was about to
install this clip, but when he drilled the hole from the pilot in the
surrounding structure, it came in closer to the edge of the part than
is best. So, he got the PDA from the inspector, and clicked "created
new issue". Then he took some pictures, and marked them up with the
stylus to highlight the problem and gave a short description and
possible solution. Last year we started to specify where on parts
they get their number stamped---somewhere they could be seen easily
throughout assembly. Even our OCR software could load up the parts
based on the numbers seen in a picture. Plus, the RFIDs on the PDA and
a few parts, and the two-way positioning information from the time
delay in the wireless links helps the software know what parts it is
looking at, based on where it is.
Looking over the pictures, I'm not sure what the nominal distance is,
so, based on the part, and where in the assembly process it is, I
bring up the pertinent solid models on my screen. My tablet pc is just
a "thin-client"---all the computing power is provided by the extra
processor time on the computers in the office, taking what I do, and
piping me the results over the multiple wireless links that my tablet
is seeing... A view of the parts pops up on my screen, aligning
itself with the photo, which is now shown transparently over the
parts. I dismiss the photo, click the "measure" button, and click the
pilot hole, and the edge of the part. It tells me the distance, and
how that relates to the diameter of the fastener that goes through it.
Well, that should be good...if everything works right.

Oh, I need to turn left here, the where-I-am dot on the map is getting
close to to the where-the-problem-is dot. The mechanic says that the
distance to the edge is changing all the time, it just recently
started dipping beyond what it deemed best. The one he is currently
working on also looks bad---I take a picture with my tablet, and
compare it to what-it-should-look-like... yup, it's a bit short, and
it is because the part is shifted down...due to allowable tolerance.
Are the parts not the right size? I pull up the data from the
suppliers--the measurements they took when they made each of these
parts...import the data as fuzzy, shifted solids...move some around,
ok, the data shows that the parts should be close to nominal. Well,
do I move the edge of the part, or the hole? I expand my view to show
more of the parts--parts that get put in later. As I work my way out,
fading in parts in different directions, I see there is a part that
gets pretty close to the offending edge...but nothing is keeping me
from moving the hole. I call up my lead and discuss it with him. We
get stress on the line, and I show them the drawings I am working
with. They suggest some camera angles of the problem parts for better
clarity, so I move my tablet around until we get the views they
wanted. They agree that we need to move the hole, stress is happy
with the analysis they are getting--in fact, they say there is some
extra material, we could save some weight by moving this edge---a red
line appears on my screen---to about here...20 thousandths. Ok,
sounds good. I thank the mechanic, and he says he'll contact us if he
has any other problems.

I sit down to do some "drafting". A year ago someone else would have
done this because it would have taken a week---because at that point,
we had really just computerified the drafting-table-and-ink process.
Now I just double click the pilot hole, and a sketch defining it pops
up. I double click the dimension holding it in place, and type "-.02"
after the number and hit enter. There! Update part...pilot hole snaps
over. Now I move that edge...that was as easy...update assembly...a
flurry of activity...type in why we are changing it...done! The
pictures that the mechanic took, as well as the one's I took are
already attached. I call my lead, and we determine that we want this
implemented as soon as the parts get here. We approve it and forward
the change to the supplier.
Across the country, a CNC mill is drilling holes in parts. It was just
about to start a new one when the change came through. An instant
later it has updated the hole location, and the next part won't have
the problem. Tomorrow after it is painted it will be shipped here,
and soon our line will have the new parts.

Meanwhile, I've finished up all the problems that have been reported
for the day, so I go talk to some mechanics, see if I can redesign
some parts so they are quicker to put together---do they need more
holes? Less? Are there some shims that really aren't needed anymore?
Can we consolidate two parts into one?

# posted by abu : 3:50 PM