Advanced Product Quality Planning to Reduce Risks of Defects / Productivity Loss in Turbine Production

Advanced Product Quality Planning to Reduce Risks of Defects / Productivity Loss in Turbine Production

Presenter John Tackett Director, Operational Excellence John is the Director, Operational Excellence for Broadwind Energy and acts as the Senior Operations Support Executive to the CEO with a primary focus on driving improvement in quote to cash business processes including, but not limited to, sales, operations, supply chain, engineering and maintenance. Additionally, he acts as the corporation's deployment champion for developing a lean manufacturing and continuous improvement culture. Prior to his current role, John spent nearly 17 years with Caterpillar Inc. in a variety of EHS, Six Sigma, operational, supply chain and leadership roles culminating in being one of a handful of leaders to design, launch and lead a diesel engine assembly, test and paint facility from 2009 through first quarter of 2014. John has a bachelor s degree in Environmental Health from Illinois State University and a MS in Public Health from the University of Michigan. 2

What We Do? We Make Towers for Leading OEMs We manufactured the first 100 meter tower in U.S. Highest quality utility-scale wind tower fabrications Built to meet technically advanced OEM specifications We ve built over 3,000 wind towers since 2008 We offer a design for manufacturability review Wind Towers that Stand Above All Others in Quality 3

Positioned to Service Prime Wind Belt Wind Belt Prime Wind Resources Broadwind 4

The Burning Platform: Ineffective New Product/Process Introduction = Inconsistent Quality, Productivity and Financial Performance Recipe for dousing the fire: Look to automotive for a better way Cultural shift towards proactive planning Rigorous process discipline and attention to detail Leverage lessons learned from past failures to drive future successes Enable rigorous leadership accountability Process Discipline and Accountability = APQP 5

What You ll Learn Automotive s Design vs. Broadwind Energy s Adaptation Key Process Elements Our Successes Benefits Quality Production/Financial Performance What is Next? 6

Automotive APQP vs Broadwind Energy APQP Traditional Automotive - APQP 7

Automotive APQP vs Broadwind Energy APQP BWEN APQP Adaptation Plan and Define Program Process Design and Development Verification Product and Process Validation * Engineering Drawing Review * Process Flow Review * Production FA Run * Reliability & Quality Goals * Specification Review * Floor Plan Review * Process Capability Review * Preliminary Bill of Materials * New Equipment/Tooling Review * PFMEA * "Find It/Fix It" * Preliminary Process Flow *Gages/Inspection Equipment Review *Work Instructions * Finalize Production Control Plan * Preliminary Listing of Special Characteristics *Quality Requirements Review * Final Quality Planning and Production Sign-off Simplified Relative to Automotive Only elements applicable to towers Manufacturing process focus 8

Key Process Elements Sustaining APQP Project Management Robust Procedures APQP Process Execution Elements Robust Work Instructions Robust Tools and Templates Process Failure Modes Effects Analysis (PFMEA) Customer Requirements Review First Article Production Review Embedded in QMS 9

Key Process Elements Gate Review Process Pre Pilot Gate PFMEA Customer Requirements Planning Template Materials Specifications Post Pilot/Pre-Run @ Rate Find It/Fix It Review Process Capability Post Production Production Metrics Financial Metrics Lessons Learned 10

Our Successes - Paint New paint specification Test sprays with marginal results Identified that specified paint product went through a truncated design cycle Cause for concern APQP process provided customer a means to quickly isolate and develop fix with their paint supplier Time from identification to issue resolution for BWEN = 1 week All prior to First Article Production 11

Our Successes Engineering Change Management Engineering Changes Common Critical to clearly understand changes and countermeasures Example Post-assembly handling specification Specification drove a cost prohibitive solution Resolved handling specification prior to first article production Detailed production planning template ensures thorough review of all requirements 12

Our Successes Quality Measurement Tools Collaboration with customer to improve data capture and measurement cycle time Geodetic - Flange Flatness 13

Our Successes Quality Measurement Tools Collaboration with customer to improve data capture and measurement cycle time Wiki Scan Circ Weld 14

Our Successes - Training Module Training Length (Minutes) Who Attends How to read drawings 15 ASM/QA 1 Quality Call-outs 15 ASM/QA Assembly Fasteners 15 ASM/QA 2 Fastener Quality Requirements 15 ASM/QA 3 Ladder Measurement 10 ASM Assembly Quick Reference 15 ASM 4 Dungeon Assembly 15 ASM/QA Cable Tray Installation 10 ASM 5 Mid Platform Assembly 20 ASM/QA Lessons Learned on the "Grow Line" 15 Weld 6 Weld Training 45 Weld/QA/NDT Pre-Assembly Special Charateristics 30 Pre-ASM 7 Pre-Assembly Doors 45 Pre-ASM 8 General New Product Introduction 10 All New product launch in WI followed by a second run in TX. APQP review both locations Lessons learned in WI led to robust training in TX Cross Training Training videos Manufacturing Knowledge Sequence of Operations 15

Re-work Hrs Re-work Hrs Benefits- Quality Not clearly understanding customer requirements/specifications results in significant spike in re-work hours New Product Launch APQP process incorporates planning template Planning template is refreshed with lessons learned and identified risks in the PFMEA Quality spike nearly vanishes maintaining pre-launch rates Time New Product Launch Time 16

HPS HPS Benefits- Production/Financial Performance Inconsistent production performance during a new product launch Significant re-work and additional inspection were drivers APQP process launched in 2016 Small production impact associated with learning curve followed by quickly stabilizing at pre-launch performance New Product Launch Time New Product Launch 1 New Product Launch 2 Time 17

Next Steps APQP institutionalized in towers Gearing business next Leverage detailed planning checklist, PFMEA, find it/fix it and leadership gate reviews Leverage CI initiatives to improve the process Further benchmark to make the process more robust APQP4Wind 18

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