Success Stories: Bell Helicopter
Bell Helicopter’s transmission plant in Grand Prairie, Texas, was pushed to the limit. Orders for new military and commercial helicopters were increasing, but Bell's machining capacity had run out. With literally no space left on the shop floor for new machining centers and existing machines already over-utilized, manufacturing engineers needed to reduce cycle times.
- Challenge: Improve productivity using current capital
equipment
- Approach: Place a TWS engineer on-site for technical and applications training, then analyze machining of transmission components through a series of software simulations in order to reduce cycle time and increase capacity
- Software: AdvantEdge Production Module 3D
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Results: Cycle time reduction of 37%
