THE SPACE INDUSTRY OF TOMORROW: A CURRENT STATE ANALYSIS OF A CUSTOMER ORIENTED PRODUCTION

Background: The space industry has traditionally been focusing on the ability to deliver products with high quality and to the right time when the customer requests it. In order to achieve a low failure rate on a component level the production involves extensive test series and much time is spent on the initial phase to customize the product. This has required a flexible production setup that can adapt to what the customer requests. However, the trend within the space industry is now indicating that the customer is demanding cheaper products to a shorter lead time, e.g. COTS products. These new conditions demand for a new production set-up that can handle high volume but at the same time has the flexibility when the volumes go down. Methods: Qualitative interviews with key persons in the organization, list of system factors impacting on the current state analysis, observations of the material flows and the production as well as quantitative data gathering of cycle time and routing etc. Results: Process map visualizing the dependency of material flows, equipment and machines, resources and personnel, cycle time and volumes for the throughput of material. These dependencies will be important for the next step in the research project where a high volume scenario and thereafter a flexible production scenario are to be identified for this kind of industry. A simulation model or virtual model will be a next step based on this data. Conclusions: To be able to evaluate and assess the production setup it calls for a representative current state analysis. That involves equipment, material flows, cycle times, resources and personnel and to map the dependencies. In this current state analysis, it is evaluated how a systematic data gathering, qualitative interviews and observations support the construction of a current state analysis.