Airbus Canada is almost ready to introduce a new way of pre-assembling fuselage sections at its Mirabel plant. The different pre-FAL method brings more efficiency to the final assembly line of the A220 and prepares Airbus for higher production rates of its smallest aircraft model. But what’s different? Airbus Canada almost ready for new A220 pre-FAL line. When Airbus in 2018 bought a 75-percent stake in the Bombardier CSeries (25 percent is owned by the government of Quebec) and renamed it the A220, it saw huge potential for the 100-150 seater. There was nothing wrong with the aircraft, but potential customers hadn’t been sure if Bombardier would be able to support the program long-term. The take over by Airbus has all changed this, as sales have demonstrated. In July 2018, the first month the A220 appeared in Airbus’ orders and deliveries list, the A220-100 had sold 123 and the larger -300 279 aircraft. Come late August 2021, and the score is 90 A220-100s (yes, there have been cancelations) but 553 A220-300s. Including eight cancelations, net orders this year stand at thirteen. It has delivered fifty -100s and 123 -300s. The current backlog needs 6.5 years to clear Airbus produces the A220 at a rate of five per month, with the plan to grow this to six in 2022. That will be 72 aircraft per year. With the current backlog of 470 aircraft, it would take Airbus 6.5 years to produce them all without any slots for new customers, which Airbus is positive will follow. There are also some slots Airbus Corporate Jets has secured for the ACJ TwoTwenty. In May, the airframer said that it plans to increase production of the A220 in Mirabel and Mobile (Alabama) to a combined fourteen aircraft a year by the middle of this decade. But back in July 2018, Philippe Balduchhi, CEO of Airbus Canada until September this year, said: “We have isolated some areas of improvements in the production and procurement.” One of the improvements is the way aircraft are assembled in Mirabel. Under Bombardier, the plant had adopted a traditional way of outfitting aircraft with systems. It’s done when a frame is on the final assembly line (FAL), which only has a limited number of slots. It results in aircraft staying longer on the FAL than is ideal, slowing final assembly and overall production rates. Here comes the new method, as Florent Massou, Senior Vice President and Head of the A220 program, explains to AirInsight: “We are bringing Airbus’ expertise and know-how in high-volume production - notably on the A320 – on the A220. We are building a pre-FAL section in Mirabel, reusing former space used by Bombardier to assemble CRJs, to support the A220 ramp-up. As of early 2022, we will start equipping fuselage sections that we receive from our suppliers, in our Mirabel pre-FAL – before they are shipped to our Mirabel FAL and Mobile FAL. In order to accelerate the A220 production rate, we need to be more efficient and lower production costs. These are the main reasons behind the pre-FAL investment.” The former CRJ assembly line has been transformed into the new pre-FAL for the A220. (Airbus) After announcing the pre-FAL line early this year, the former CRJ building has been transformed into a whole new pre-assembly site. It has a number of bays where fuselage sections are being equipped. “We will install the wires, as well as the pressurized dome of the fuselage sections (central and rear) in the pre-FAL and close the floors and the walls. Once this work is done, the pre-stuffed A220 fuselage sections will be sent to the FALs in Mobile and Mirabel for joining and final assembly”, says Massou. Mirabel builds on expertise from Saint Nazaire Bringing in the Airbus expertise means that the new pre-FAL line is following the same tried and tested method that is used in the Saint Nazaire plant in France, where the so-called ‘pulse line’ has been introduced on the A320-line back in 2013. “These are "rolling stagings" (in French we say "palette") on which the fuselage sections will be installed”, an Airbus spokesperson explains. “People can work on the floor level inside the fuselage but also on a second floor above the fuselage for more efficiency and ergonomy and these palettes will move or roll on rails on the floor. This is very different from the FAL set positions.” STELIA Aeronautique already equips the A220 nose section on its own pre-FAL line in Canada. (STELIA Aerospace) The A220 nose section is already equipped at STELIA Aeronautique in St. Laurent (Canada) using the pre-FAL method before it is ferried to Mirabel or Mobile. Other parts are joining from Belfast (wings from Spirit AeroSystems) and China. In July, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation produced the 100th center fuselage for the A220. But they are ‘empty barrels’ when they arrive in Mirabel and Mobile and this will not change, says Florent Massou: “The work that is done today with our A220 suppliers in China and Belfast will remain. In Mirabel, we will continue to equip these structures once they arrive in Mirabel. We are already doing it today in Mirabel – but on the FAL positions. This work needs to be done before the fuselage sections enter the FAL in order to gain in efficiency. We will regroup this pre-equipping fuselage work into a dedicated and organized area of our Mirabel site, called the pre-FAL.” Equipping fuselage sections on the new pre-FAL and stocking them until they are needed on the FAL will free up capacity and reduce the time an aircraft has to spent in final assembly. AirInsight asked Massou if a report on Leeham News is correct that the new method will reduce the time on final assembly by fifty percent. He replies: “This is not information that we share. We currently produce around four A220s in Mirabel, and around one in Mobile. We are ramping up to six early next year and are working towards ramping up to fourteen aircraft a month in the middle of the decade. In order to reach this production capacity, we need to be more efficient on the production line. The pre-FAL will be key in ensuring a successful ramp-up.”
