Will Rogers with Able Aerospace

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

aerospace, part, industrial, cnc equipment, aircraft, people, customers, industrial iot, reduced, company, fajitas, plating, systems, assets, reliability, conversation, functionality, professionals, started, learning

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Welcome to the Industrial Talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional dedicated to transferring cutting-edge Industry Focus innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hard hat, grab your work boots, and let's go

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02:40

Well, I've learned a lot of things that I didn't know. And I've

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just looked at dangle in there when like, like, why? How to Cook fajitas how to how to mix a great drink, how

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to eat them?

02:51

How to eat them? Yeah. No, go ahead.

02:56

We we use email at Abel aerospace. And I want to get better at it.

03:03

Okay, I see, here's the deal, I gotta correct myself. It's not able engineering. But your card says able engineering as the URL, and I don't see on it, I just see able. So it's Able Aerospace, see how I screwed that up. Okay, continue.

03:26

We will use an email at April aerospace. And it could use a little bit of polishing on my part to get where I can utilize some of the features that are already inherent in the program. So when I received the flyer for x 23, showing that we were going to eventually be moving from x Four 2x Five, my interest was piqued, I decided that I need to come here and decide what I need to do to first off, be better at what I do as a facilities engineering manager. And secondly, to ready our company to make the transition to x five.

04:04

This is an interesting and you brought up something interesting. You have a system x four, I want you to be headaches for

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about eight or nine years, eight or nine years. And

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you're still in you're still learning about some of the functionality that exists within the system or is it you're a super user?

04:27

I am I don't know if I go say super user, but you're you're always learning. Part of the problem is we're always putting out fires as most facilities managers have to do on a daily basis. And so the betterment of the program tends to take second seat to putting out those daily fires. But I believe that a lot of things that I wanted to do in email, x four are unavailable that will be available next five oh

04:58

So that's interesting. So did you, were you able to sort of communicate some of the, hey, it would be great if x five, did you know, better scheduling or do this or connect to that or whatever you like?

05:14

It was, it was more on the I was on the receiving end, they would say, Hey, did you know that x five is able to do this? And I go, I had several aha moments at this conference.

05:26

So that was pretty cool. Because I don't know. I mean, there's some there's a point in, in all of these systems, there's a tremendous amount of functionality. It's like, I hate to use this analogy, but it is, whenever you use Excel spreadsheets, you can pull up the book of all the functionality, and it's about five inches thick, and you only use just a sliver of it. Like, yes, I can add that self, things like that. Does does the the x 4x. Five, solution sort of, are you are you is there more to lean in and extract value out of there,

06:05

there are many modules, probably as the best way for me to describe them that are available, and couldn't be utilized that because we have other systems in place that are company wide that I choose not to use those modules. Not not because I haven't tried them, it's just because I don't see the plan to run two systems side by side would bring any value. But it's important parallel.

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No, don't do that, whenever

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there is an opportunity to to, to introduce the problem. Big time, the most important feature for me that I want to get better at is the reporting structure, how to take the data that I'm already gathered, and how to take the information that is available to me scattered throughout the program, and put it in a comprehensive format, but I can use to better my team. And also so I can report upstream to to the people who have all the monies and the paychecks and allow us to spend money where we need to spend it helped me make better decisions. Okay, so

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we're here to learn a lot. Good aha moments, collaborating. Learning more. Why don't you take the listeners through April aerospace? Like what? What does that company do? Why is it important?

07:27

Oh, we are an aerospace MRO maintenance, repair and operations. And although we do have a few options, where we bring in aircraft and take and take off the parts and modify the aircraft, vast majority of what we do is our customers put their mechanics put aircraft parts in boxes, ship those boxes to us, we open the box, beside, through non destructive testing what needs to be done on that aircraft part tell the customer how much it's going to be and they have the option of either gone with us to repair that or to replace them. And if they choose to repair it, we've got all the capabilities to do that anything from plating to machining to non destructive testing to painting where we do it all in house under a roof quarter million square feet of repair facility. And after those parts are finished and completed, they get put back in a box they look brand new and they go out to the customer. So the customers mechanic put them back on the aircraft.

08:31

Whenever you deal in the world of aerospace, it is what it is. You have to be you have to be right. Every time. The whole time. How does an organization like Able Aerospace? How do you? How do you ensure the right?

08:53

Every part has a travelers what we call it goes with the part. Now before I answer this question completely. I'm a facilities manager. I'm not the guy that actually works on the aircraft parts, but I'm around it. So I see it from an outside you stayed at a Holiday Inn? Yes. There's a travel that goes with the partner stays with the park the entire time. And in that Traveler is a set of instructions for each and every step that has been decided on the part was first brought in what needs to be done to it, whether three pace bushings or replace bolts. You know, it could be a lot of things that have to be done, including the painting and the plating and all that. And that traveler is the lifeblood of that part as it travels through our shop. And if that's lost than the history is lost, and we've essentially have to start from square one with that. And then that gets archived, and we'll keep it for years and the part goes back with that information goes back to the customer.

10:00

How long is able been in business? 40 years? It's always been in the world of aerospace.

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11:08

With that said, with that activity. Are you sensing or seeing sort of changes taking place within the aerospace industry? On how to manage assets? What are you seeing any future trends that are taking place that you can sort of share with listeners?

11:33

Well, from a facility standpoint, yes, we are becoming more and more technical in what we do. And so we're bringing in equipment that is highly accurate T and CNC equipment, whether they be five axis meals or laser homes. Now we have to hold tolerances that are extremely tight. In much of our equipment, the tolerances are 510 thousandths of an inch, I can't even see that. And so the building has to be kept at a certain temperature parts after heat soak 24 hours before they can come in because of variant of a few degrees is going to change the dimensions on that, that park. And so the CNC equipment that we get, that's where I see us going more automation, more opportunities to push things through automatically and yes, have reduced the amount of errors that's inherent with with manual operations.

12:27

That is a great conversation. And that is many within the world of manufacturing in general are looking for greater automation just because of resource constraints, the need to reduce introduced errors into whatever the process might be through human contact. That is a huge, huge area. Another area of conversation are are just resources, people, human beings with the skill sets to be able to.

13:03

Absolutely, just last week, we completed the installation with the physical installation of a robot that was being used as a replacement for a very mundane task at a shot blasting media blasting aircraft parts to get the dirt and grime off them getting them ready for machine, right and it was a thankless job. dusty environment, very hazardous, very heavy lifting the the media hoses it's going to boards apart and a lot of turnover letter. And, you know, obviously, hiring people to replace those that left became very difficult to do, the robot that we installed is going to eliminate 80 or 90% of that work. And so they'll be able to push a button and go and do something else come back after the robot is finished in touch up and with the part off so we're doubling up on the work getting more iron pass through the through the building

14:03

that question about the robotic arm? What's the brand? You know FANUC it is a Fanuc

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or FANUC if you're from

14:13

fat egg go great people great company had a number of conversations with those guys. And And yeah, that that whole conversation around Cobots and and eliminating the mundane. There's a safety component to a to that that is important. So and automation is so you see it that's good. I like all of that. How do people get a hold view? If they want to say hey, I know you're short timer I got it doesn't matter. I want to get a hold of Abel aerospace. What do we do?

14:55

Well, we've got a website, but the number

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website is able to engineering.com For Abell aerospace, okay. advented to we'll go ahead. Fun

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You're listening to the Industrial Talk Podcast Network.

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