Rolls-Royce
Bourton Group, 2010
World Leading by Design
Summary
Most areas of manufacturing are facing dramatic changes in market forces. Those like Rolls-Royce, who are at the leading edge of technological advancement, are facing more changes than most.
Pressure to accelerate the performance and lower the emission of aero engines, combined with intense competition in the market and a shift from engine and parts provision to one of total care, has had profound implications for aero engine design and manufacture.
Bourton has been the training and technical force, working globally with design teams across its Civil, Defence, Energy and Marine Divisions for the last five years.
The aims and objectives for this particular programme were:
- Train and support intact design teams to apply the DfSS method through a complete design cycle in a way that would realise additional tangible and demonstrable benefits.
- Codify the new tools and techniques in a common global design methodology that could be implemented across all business streams.
- Stimulate the organic growth of “robust design” as the standard way of working within the design community by providing thought leadership and through continuous development of highly skilled internal mentors - experts in DfSS application and the DfSS equivalent of Master Black Belts.
The approach was tailored to Rolls-Royce’s specific engineering environment by aligning the DCOV (Define -Characterise -Optimise-Verify) approach to Design for Six Sigma, with RR-specific engineering tools and their core “gated” engineering process. It quickly demonstrated benefits by dramatically increasing the fidelity of designs within a similar design time and cost envelope and solving some previous intractable engineering problems. The systematic approach also aided in rapid deployment and successful embedding within the business. Ultimately, this enhances speed to market, cuts development costs and reduces costly in-service design modifications.
The programme quickly demonstrated benefits by dramatically increasing the fidelity of designs within a similar design time and cost envelope and solving some previous intractable engineering problems.
The systematic approach also aided in rapid deployment and successful embedding within the business. Ultimately, this enhances speed to market, cuts development costs and reduces costly in-service design modifications.
By adopting robust design, Rolls-Royce is dramatically reducing the number and impact of failures. Early indications show that this approach is having the desired effect, saving £20m to date with preventative benefits of the order of £100m per annum targeted.
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