Setting up repair facility of al-31fp engine at HAL NASHIK

Abstract

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is a Navratna public sector undertaking under Ministry of Defense. HAL is divided in to four complexes, the MIG complex of HAL is involved in making all Russian origin aircraft from 1973. The complex comprises two manufacturing divisions and 2 R & D centers located at Nasik and Koraput one each. Koraput division makes all the engines pertaining to Russian aircraft and Nasik division manufactures airframe and does the final assembly of the aircraft. In last 3-4 years the number of engine damage cases has increased significantly. The cause can be attributed to 1. Increased number of aircrafts in service 2. Engines produced in phase V has been put in to the service. 3. Start of overhauling of engine. All the damage engines either damaged in production units or operating bases sent to HAL Koraput for repair. Number of engines sent to Koraput has increased to #50 last year. This causes the many problems in Koraput division in terms of production of new engine as per schedule and on time clearance of engines after repair.

Considering the problem, in this project I have propose to establish the dedicated repair facility of AL-31FP engine in Nasik Division. The reason behind this idea is that, The Koraput division is overloaded with work and at a same time Nasik division has idle man power. The project of SU 30 MKI aircraft manufacturing is almost complete. The idea of repair centre at Nasik has number of benefits in terms of centralization, manpower utilization of Nasik division, increase productivity of both the divisions, better customer services and reduced cost of repair etc. All the benefits has been discussed in this paper.

The paper also consist the discussion about The Implementation plan, Cost- Benefit Analysis, Challenges and recommendations for the success of the project.