Methods and Systems for Assembly and Installation of Airframe Crown Modules

A portion of an aircraft fabricated by a process that comprises:

• receiving an upper half barrel section of a fuselage that is in a crown up orientation at a crown module attach station of a first assembly line;
• advancing the upper half barrel section on a track in a process direction along the first assembly line through a line of serially arranged work stations according to a takt time;
• fabricating a crown module of the aircraft in a second assembly line according to the takt time, wherein the second assembly line is a feeder line to the crown module attach station;
• and
• installing the crown module into the upper half barrel section at the crown module attach station, wherein the crown module and the upper half barrel section are fabricated in parallel such that the crown module and the upper half barrel section arrive at the crown module attach station just in time to install the crown module into the upper half barrel section.

A crown module for an aircraft, wherein the crown module is fabricated by a process that comprises installing crown module components onto a ceiling grid by a process that comprises:

• receiving an upper half barrel section of a fuselage at a crown module attach station of a first assembly line, wherein the upper half barrel section advances on a track in a process direction through a line of serially arranged work stations of the first assembly line which perform work on the upper half barrel section while the half barrel section advances on the track;
• and
• fabricating a crown module in a second assembly line, wherein the second assembly line is a feeder line to the crown module attach station, wherein fabricating the crown module comprises:
• pulsing the ceiling grid in a process direction;
• providing additional components for the crown module just in time to a plurality of work stations of the second assembly line that perform assembly of the crown module;
• and
• operating the work stations to assemble the crown module during pauses between pulses;
• wherein pulsing the ceiling grid in the process direction comprises advancing the ceiling grid via pulsing by less than its length through the work stations;
• and
• installing the crown module into the upper half barrel section at the crown module attach station;
• and
• wherein the crown module and the upper half barrel section are fabricated in parallel such that the crown module and the upper half barrel section arrive at the crown module attach station just in time to install the crown module into the upper half barrel section.