NEAR MINIMUM MATERIAL ZONE - A NEW CONCEPT TO REDUCE THE WEIGHT OF THE AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS IN MACHINING USING LEAN SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY

摘要

A component in machining is accepted when the dimensions are within the tolerance specifications. In aircraft components machining, controlling the weight of the components is of high importance. In this paper, a new concept called near minimum material zone was introduced, which would address the control of the weight of the aircraft components in machining. To prove this concept, two sets of experiments with 20 samples were conducted using Deckel Maho CTX310 ECO VI CNC machine. The first experiment was conducted with normal machining processes. The second experiment was conducted using a new concept. Lean Six Sigma DMAIC methodology was adopted for this study. Several Six Sigma tools such as process capability analysis (C_p, C_(pk)), cause and effect diagram, X Hi/Lo and R-charts, etc. were used. The paper suggests that this new concept not only helped to control the weight of the aircraft components but also improved the desired quality by minimizing the dispersion of the component dimensions to obtain higher sigma level.