Aerospace Manufacturer, AVPE Systems increases factory uptime by 30%

Sean Thomas, Head of Operations at AVPE Systems

About AVPE Systems

In the competitive aerospace manufacturing industry, every minute of production time counts. AVPE Systems, a leading aerospace component manufacturer, recognised this and turned to FourJaw's machine monitoring technology to boost their productivity. The results were impressive: a 30% increase in factory uptime has transformed their operations and enhanced their ability to meet customer demands.

AVPE Systems, based in Bristol, UK supplies customers throughout the UK, Europe and Asia with complex machined components for the aerospace industry, specialising in airframe and landing gear parts as well the machining of castings, forgings and 3D printed parts.

"FourJaw has delivered a significant and sustained improvement in the productivity levels we're getting from our manufacturing centres. Monitoring downtime, eliminating the various causes of waste in our processes, and deploying colleagues to where they are needed most has helped achieve a 30 per cent overall increase in uptime.”

AVPE Machine Operator logging machine downtime

FourJaw timeline view showing shop floor production data

Results

30% INCREASE IN UPTIME

Project Objective

Striving to deliver the best service to its customers and after seeing a surge in demand for its products, AVPE Systems decided to invest in machine monitoring software. Since installing the smart technology on their machines, AVPE has achieved a 30 per cent increase in shop floor uptime.

AVPE, part of the Broadway Group, introduced FourJaw’s plug-and-play analytics platform in 2023 as part of a broader business transformation programme to enhance productivity, eliminate process inefficiencies and gain capacity.

Identifying and addressing the top causes of downtime

Machine data gathered using FourJaw has enabled AVPE to identify and address the top causes of downtime across its factory, boosting overall production uptime by almost a third.

AVPE has also used data gathered with FourJaw to improve the accuracy of its planning processes. Armed with a real-time view of production schedules across its factory and a more precise understanding of how long each production run takes to complete, AVPE can provide more accurate lead times to customers and unlock additional capacity by finding more space in its schedules for urgent incoming jobs.

"We used to focus on fixing the most irritating things rather than the issues that are now proven to have caused the most downtime and lost productivity. In some areas, even without additional resources, we've seen a 10 to 15 per cent increase in productivity by addressing the true causes of downtime with FourJaw.”

Operations and commercial manager on shop floor

Summary

Manufacturers have recognised the importance of using business intelligence and analytics technologies such as machine monitoring in recent years, as the race to become more productive and competitive has picked up. This is particularly evident in sectors such as aerospace where there is huge pressure on the supply chain to meet demand.

AVPE Systems is a great example of this, achieving results that have a direct impact on the success of the business and its customers by improving production uptime and productivity, supporting investment decisions and aligning its processes perfectly with the OEMs and Tier 1 customers it serves in the global aerospace industry.