Rustam Minnikhanov, Anton Alikhanov and Maksim Reshetnikov give assessment to progress of modernization of Kazan Aircraft Plant and hold a meeting on improving labour efficiency

On 23 January the Rais (Head) of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov and Russian Minister for Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov accompanied by the Director General of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) (which is a part of the Rostekh State Corporation) Vadim Badekha, the Acting Director of the Tupolev company Yuriy Abrosimov, the Director of the Kazan Aircraft Plant Zufar Mirgalimov and other officials visited the Kazan Aircraft Plant (KAP) which is the branch of the Tupolev Company and part on the of the UAC.

During their visit guests looked round the TU-2014 aggregate assembly shop, the central supplying storehouse, mechanical processing and blanking and stamping shops where the new high-performance equipment is being installed and got acquainted with new warehouses of the logistics center which are being put into operation.

The management of the Plant presented ongoing and completed projects to improve production efficiency.

The guests were also informed about progress of the project using simulation for the clocked assembly of the Tu-214 fuselage and the digital model of the AOS-2 workshop.

In his turn,  Vadim Badekha said: “Work to improve production efficiency is very important for the UAC in achieving the Corporation goals for the serial production of civil aircraft and is ongoing. We will introduce best practices at all our production sites, including the KAP.”

The first off-site meeting of the coordinating headquarters for improving labor productivity held at the Plant discussed a mechanism for involvement of the Agency for the Development of Professional Skills, the industry competence center of the Rosatom State Corporation, and the Federal and Regional Competence Centers in the field of labor productivity in the implementation of complex projects.

In his turn Rustam Minnikhanov informed about work already done by the republic in the improvement of labor productivity within the national project initiated by the Russian President in 2019 and said that the republic started increasing efficiency of enterprises long before the federal initiatives. Thus since 2012 it has been implementing its own programme, which is regularly modified and operates in parallel with the federal project, with participation of 15 enterprises. “ The scope of participants in the regional programme has been expanded by including additional industries, lowering the revenue threshold for companies, and also covering enterprises operating under the simplified tax system. “ he said.

The Rais of the republic also said that there are two more extremely important spheres for improving labour efficiency, namely training specialists and the development of industrial robotics.

He stated that the activities of federal and regional projects contribute to the growth of enterprise efficiency and form the basis for further modernization and automation of production.

Speaking at the meeting, Anton Alikhanov said: “Active collaboration with the Agency for the Development of Professional Excellence and the Center for Competence in Labor Productivity allows us to confidently move toward our goal of reducing the Tu-214 fuselage assembly cycle to 12 days, which will allow us to produce up to 20 aircraft annually.”

“It is important that, using the example of aircraft manufacturing, colleagues are combining projects on robotics and automation, and testing out the end-to-end flow format. This is the creation of a unified chain from the manufacturer to suppliers, so that all components reach the plant on time and in the required quantity. In the future, we will expand the end-to-end flow format to other critical sectors such as shipbuilding, energy, and space, “Maksim Reshetnikov emphasized.