FABRICATION AND ASSEMBLY COST DRIVERS FOR AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURING

Aircraft acquisition cost contribution to the direct operating cost is about three to four times higher than the contribution made by fuel cost for the sector of operation. As a result, commercial aircraft design is driven more by customer demands of reduced acquisition cost and lead-time than by technology itself. The paper describes the fabrication and assembly cost drivers in the field of cost estimation and proposes a manufacturing process and weight centric methodology, which captures the key cost drivers at the concept design phase, based on a Rapid Cost model developed by Queen’s University Belfast. Designing for part fabrication and their assembly starts at the conceptual stage of a project in a concurrent engineering environment that helps trade-off studies to arrive at the ‘best value’, specifically aimed at industrial and operational needs. A methodology to establish the key fabrication and assembly cost drivers based on the Rapid Cost model relative to DFM/DFA methodology at the concept design phase is proposed. Nomenclature