Study On The Schedule Management Of The Concurrent Research & Development Project Between FAST And GE Aviation

On the promise of minimizing the lead time and investment cost of the new engine development, GE builds up an advanced model that enables the concurrent design and production of aero engines for airplanes like Bombardier Global Express. As a part of this program responsible for the development of the assembly, FAST must finish the parts within 12 months and deliver them to GE for test. Despite of the limited time, uncompromisable quality requirements and the engineering changes, FAST followed the plan well through effective project management, and after all, established a general management procedure for concurrent programs.FAST won the NPI PO via bidding competitions. NPI means manufacturing of new engine and new design parts. qualification by client is requried by meeting all drawings, and specification requirements. And then can go to batch production stage with more orders. To continuously improve fuel comsumption and environmental impact. Aero engine companies are develping new engines. This assembly is the key component of GE’s new engine with big size, poor machinability and special processes requirements. FAST became it’s world sole supplier based on the 10 years co-operation and high performance delivered to the customer. The project is a concurrent project between FAST and GE. GE do the design and FAST do the machining simutaneously. Through the entire process, FAST realize the design from GE and also provides suggestions to the design. GE was planning to finished the first set by end of 2012, and finished the first engine test by 2nd quarter of 2013. Thus, the plan requires FAST to finish the manufacturing by Nov. of 2012.and finish the qualification by Dec. 2012. Starting from Dec of 2011, the project requires concurrent design and manufacturing development and finish the new part introduction within a year.. Project management was the key point to the project success.The thesis studies Chengdu FAST. Based on the concurrent project and project scheduling management knowledges, FAST concurrent project requirements and difficulties were firstly studied. Impact and effect brought by program structure, scheduling and control, risk management, and communication management were also studied.This study also considered the implementation of the concurrent project in FAST company, and at the same time, provide a helpful clue on how to manage a concurrent project in a traditional aviation company.