Abstract:
The work presented in this thesis considers the issues related to the design and
implementation of the rotor blade production facility at Rolls-Royce. The volume
production of this component will be significantly higher than Rolls Royce has
ever delivered on similar projects. As a result, a future factory consisting of
process lines and manufacturing cells will be built. The issue considered
includes the evaluation of various factory designs and layout techniques that
will improve production flow, optimal capacity utilization, and minimum work-in-
process and lead-times. The subject of manufacturing cells verses machine
utilization was also considered. This factory design and selection analysis was
supported by extensive research comprising literature review and simulation
study of various manufacturing layouts including cellular, job-shop type
functional layout and hybrid configurations. Therefore, this study provides a
basis to properly carry out analysis of the current Rolls-Royce production
facilities and subsequently the preliminary conceptual simulation design of the
future factory to manufacture L-Generic-blisk and F-Generic-blisk drive engine
compressor Generic-blisk. A number of cell and flow-line design concepts were
analysed with a succession of flexible Witness models (configured and driven
by Microsoft Excel) and used to analyse the flow and productivity, to support a
sustained growth in production volumes and maturation of process.
