Conduent researched and analyzed engineering work instructions, and the actual work performed by painters, to design an innovative learning solution for workers who paint commercial airplanes. The solution leveraged the concept of team Playbooks, designed and developed to integrate multiple engineering references in a visual job aid accessed electronically. This enabled the client to reduce the duration of the painting process and therefore overall production times.
Industry: Manufacturing
- Curation
- Workflow Learning
The challenge
The client's painters apply hundreds of stencils, decals, and FAA exterior markings on each wide body commercial airplane. The paint team needed to reference multiple drawings and work instructions from computers while working on elevated platforms with hazardous materials. The process is very complex, exact, time consuming, and requires teamwork. With production rates increasing for all models, the client needed to reduce flow time for this process to enable airplanes to be painted faster and released to the field for final testing and delivery to the customer.
The solution
Conduent designed a solution based on the concept of team Playbooks, designed and developed to integrate multiple engineering references in a visual and iconic electronic job aid. Key elements included:
- Design of the workflow around the best practices of the painter teams
- Sequencing of the work using iconic references and color drawings of the airplane
- Photography that showed properly completed work
- Providing all engineering references on one page
- Alignment with the client's value stream and lean manufacturing initiatives
The results
Conduent's Playbook helped the client painters complete the work process for their section with a significant reduction in process time. The new process was documented on video and shared with painters, supervisors, and managers. The Playbook achieved client’s objective of reduced production times and faster delivery of finished planes and was ultimately produced for each airline customer’s unique paint livery design.