Session
Technical Session I: Production
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
In 2018, Sinclair Interplanetary accepted an order constituting 40 star trackers and 80 reaction wheels, an order three times larger than had been received previously. Moreover, the delivery cadence was three times faster (12 units per month) than any previous large order. Faced with these obligations and an internal requirement to maintain quality, the company took stock of itself. Since drastically scaling its staff complement of seven people to meet the demand would have risked negatively impacting quality, Sinclair Interplanetary set out to meet its obligations by adjusting the way it manufactures its products. A combination of outsourcing, process changes, equipment upgrades, descoping, and other techniques were ultimately used to improve efficiency and meet production needs. As a result of these changes, both quality and consistency have been improved. Relevant to any small space company looking to scale its production capacity, this paper details the obstacles encountered, successes, failures and lessons learned during this exercise of production enhancement. Further, it uses this experience to predict the limits of the processes that are now in place, and what further steps would be required to exceed those limits.
Quantity and Quality: Scaling Small Business for Large Constellations
Utah State University, Logan, UT
In 2018, Sinclair Interplanetary accepted an order constituting 40 star trackers and 80 reaction wheels, an order three times larger than had been received previously. Moreover, the delivery cadence was three times faster (12 units per month) than any previous large order. Faced with these obligations and an internal requirement to maintain quality, the company took stock of itself. Since drastically scaling its staff complement of seven people to meet the demand would have risked negatively impacting quality, Sinclair Interplanetary set out to meet its obligations by adjusting the way it manufactures its products. A combination of outsourcing, process changes, equipment upgrades, descoping, and other techniques were ultimately used to improve efficiency and meet production needs. As a result of these changes, both quality and consistency have been improved. Relevant to any small space company looking to scale its production capacity, this paper details the obstacles encountered, successes, failures and lessons learned during this exercise of production enhancement. Further, it uses this experience to predict the limits of the processes that are now in place, and what further steps would be required to exceed those limits.
