Aerospace & Defense Case Study
M.C. Gill Corporation
M.C. Gill Corporation, in business since 1945, is the world's largest manufacturer of original equipment and replacement baggage compartment liners and
lightweight composite sandwich panels used for flooring in passenger and freighter aircraft. M.C. Gill provides products to Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop
Grumman, Airbus, Embraer, BAE, Fokker and other aerospace manufacturers. They also develop and produce a wide variety of reinforced plastics including
flat panel composites, bullet resistant ballistic laminates and honeycomb core and related products. At project start, M.C. Gill had 220 employees.
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“We were able to see an annualized cost savings
of $85,000 after working with CMTC.”
Paul Draghi
Director of Operations
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Issue/Needs
In M.C. Gill’s manufacturing process a variety of the materials used were
not part of the finished product. These materials (consumables) were
disposed of after the panel was constructed. What consumable materials
were used, and how those materials were used in the manufacturing
process, varied from product to product. The cost of the consumables was
very high. Management expressed a need to reduce their costs of consumables
used in the production panel by 50%. They also wanted to identify the
true function of all consumable materials used in the production process and
develop a model/process for determining the correct amount of materials to
use and correct method of use for any newly developed products.
Implementation Highlights
The project began in April 2005. Over the following three months, a
team of CMTC consultants working closely with management from
M.C. Gill, utilized a number of tools to analyze the existing conditions.
A measurement system analysis was completed and it was determined
that the current measurement system was incapable. This led to the
construction of new test panels. Screening experiments were used to
verify key input variables. Regression analysis was used to identify the key
input and output variables. Correlation analysis determined which of the
input variables had the strongest relationship to the outputs.
Once the key input variables and operation levels were determined, a
Design Of Experiments (DOE) process was conducted. The panels
included in the DOE process were evaluated on a ranked scale by five
experienced team members. Mechanical tests were also conducted on
the panels by the quality lab and engineering department. From this
information an optimized construction configuration was determined.
Improvement Description
The new configuration reduced the amount of consumable material used
in production. There were also changes in company culture that eliminated
the reliance on “tribal knowledge” as a tool for product development. The
screening experiments performed either refuted or confirmed the assumed
purpose for using various materials and parameters in product manufacture.
Management considered this to be one of the most valuable outcomes of the
project. In addition, a method for determining the optimum consumable
materials configuration was developed. This identified a standard construction
configuration that can be used across multiple existing product families.
The new model will result in a faster product development cycle with more
uniform results using fewer consumable materials.
Financial and Investment Impact
M.C. Gill was able to achieve their goals of reducing their consumable
costs used in production by 50%. They also saw an annual savings of
$85,000 due to the use of the new configuration.
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