25 days - record turnaround time
March 2007
IL2-Check for Lufthansa Boeing 737 in only 25 days Record turnaround time (TAT) in Budapest:
in just 25 days Lufthansa Technik Budapest recently performed an IL2-Check on a Boeing 737 of Lufthansa German Airline.
The Hungarian subsidiary has beaten its own record of 26 days for an IL2-Check, performed in December.
These two impressive events are the results of an 18-month strategy focused on reducing the TAT for this check type on the Lufthansa fleet.
"During the summer of 2005 we were redelivering the aircraft in 32 days on average, and while this was reasonably competitive we recognized that it would not be sufficient moving into the future. We therefore developed a strategy to reduce the TAT for Lufthansa, focussing on a phased reduction of the TAT, and we targeted 28 days for the winter season 2005/2006. This was then followed by 26 days for winter 2006/2007," says Pat Foley, Chief Operations Officer of the Hungarian operation.
In order to achieve the reduction of TAT, changes were made to the organization structure, creating a single Operations Team which incorporated Production, Engineering and Planning, Materials and Facilities. TAT teams were also established to achieve the reduction, focussing on the detailed plans and the necessary changes and improvements.
Different techniques were used at various stages of the project to assist these teams in identifying improvement areas and means. "The project has not always been easy and we have had some setbacks over the last 18 months, but the enthusiasm and commitment of all our colleagues in delivering this success has been extremely impressive," notes Foley.
"Without our people's commitment we simply would not have achieved 25 days."
At the moment the priority is to maintain these results over the next few months. "We don't plan any further major reductions for the IL2-Check as we will complete the program in August this year and begin the D2-Check program in September," added Pat Foley.
"The experience collected from this project will be used for the Lufthansa D2-program, but of course for our third party customers' checks as well," adds Marek Wernicke, CEO of the company. On one side, Lufthansa Technik Budapest's continuous improvement in TAT results from the necessity to perform more checks during the year, on the other side from the requirement to remain competitive.
"We have used methods known from lean production as well as our own experience to achieve this result and we are proud of it," says Wernicke.
These two impressive events are the results of an 18-month strategy focused on reducing the TAT for this check type on the Lufthansa fleet.
"During the summer of 2005 we were redelivering the aircraft in 32 days on average, and while this was reasonably competitive we recognized that it would not be sufficient moving into the future. We therefore developed a strategy to reduce the TAT for Lufthansa, focussing on a phased reduction of the TAT, and we targeted 28 days for the winter season 2005/2006. This was then followed by 26 days for winter 2006/2007," says Pat Foley, Chief Operations Officer of the Hungarian operation.
In order to achieve the reduction of TAT, changes were made to the organization structure, creating a single Operations Team which incorporated Production, Engineering and Planning, Materials and Facilities. TAT teams were also established to achieve the reduction, focussing on the detailed plans and the necessary changes and improvements.
Different techniques were used at various stages of the project to assist these teams in identifying improvement areas and means. "The project has not always been easy and we have had some setbacks over the last 18 months, but the enthusiasm and commitment of all our colleagues in delivering this success has been extremely impressive," notes Foley.
"Without our people's commitment we simply would not have achieved 25 days."
At the moment the priority is to maintain these results over the next few months. "We don't plan any further major reductions for the IL2-Check as we will complete the program in August this year and begin the D2-Check program in September," added Pat Foley.
"The experience collected from this project will be used for the Lufthansa D2-program, but of course for our third party customers' checks as well," adds Marek Wernicke, CEO of the company. On one side, Lufthansa Technik Budapest's continuous improvement in TAT results from the necessity to perform more checks during the year, on the other side from the requirement to remain competitive.
"We have used methods known from lean production as well as our own experience to achieve this result and we are proud of it," says Wernicke.