Factory Flow Benchmarking Report

Abstract

The Lean Aircraft Initiative benchmarked representative part fabrications and some assembly operations within its member companies of the defense aircraft industry. This paper reports the results of this benchmarking effort. Comparisons are made using an efficiency metric called flow efficiency. Flow efficiency is defined as the ratio of the fabrication time to the cycle time. In addition, this report explores the major components of the cycle time: fabrication time, lot process delay, storage delay, and transportation delay. The report concludes that the major portion of the cycle time in this industry is storage delay and points out the opportunity to improve cycle time drastically by reducing the amount of storage delay being experienced in the fabrication of products.