The Challenge
“Make in India”
In September 2016, the French and Indian governments signed a contract for the delivery of 36 Rafale combat aircraft. Under the agreement, 50% of the contract value had to be offset and executed by Dassault Aviation and its partners.
Among other actions, our client, Dassault Aviation, had to set up a production entity in India (Nagpur) to manufacture parts for the Rafale and Falcon 2000 aircraft. The new production line in India had to demonstrate the company’s determination to establish local state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities with cutting-edge technologies as well as best-in-class international aeronautical standards in terms of efficiency in production and competitiveness.
Solutions
Creating a local supply chain
Dassault Aviation had to create a network of reliable local Indian suppliers to manufacture the assembly line’s jigs & tools. These tools included platforms, transport trolleys, workstations ‘built-to-spec’. The existing assembly line’s jigs & tools are designed in legacy 3D drawing software (Dassault Systèmes CATIA V4), on paper drawings or in real objects only. This means they all had to be “redesigned” in new 3D drawing software (CATIA V5). The tools’ overall functions had sometimes to be optimized, in order to comply with local rules and improve user-friendliness.
Outcome
A new, state-of-the-art facility in India
Thanks to its strong knowledge in jigs & tools design and manufacturing management, Expleo INDIA was able to deliver a complex project with many moving parts. Our global footprint, with an office in India, greatly increased coordination between the teams. Around 7-8 mechanical engineers specialising in design and stress based in France and two technical contract managers in India successfully redesigned the jigs & tools for the manufacturing of the front section of the business jet Falcon 2000 and for the manufacturing of parts for the Rafale fighter.
Over 200 jigs & tools were manufactured in India and delivered in Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) assembly facilities locally. In 2019, the first cockpit front section of the Falcon 2000 series produced by DRAL in its manufacturing facility at MIHAN, Nagpur, was ready to be handed over to Dassault Aviation. In parallel, larger infrastructures are being developed and will soon be completed allowing the ramp-up of DRAL capabilities toward the taking-off of an entire Falcon 2000 fully manufactured and assembled in India.
First pictures from inside the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Ltd (DRAL) JV facility in Nagpur. That’s the first Falcon 2000 cockpit section that will be formally delivered to @Dassault_OnAir tomorrow (Rafale parts could be built here with more orders). Detailed report coming up. pic.twitter.com/gyPtpTElXt
— Livefist (@livefist) February 7, 2019
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