Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1504794
14 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2023 lot of automation, even if it had existed. Today, the F-35 is probably the highest volume pro- duction of a sophisticated fighter in the world today. at's a whole different ballgame and it really depends on what you're doing. Johnson: You mentioned Level Five digital twins. Tell us about these levels. Level One is vir tual twins, where all product is in the design stage. You start with something and then go into a program for the configura- tion because you have some idea that the config- urations work. You've done the computational fluid dynamics, maybe a bit of layout and con- figuration, but you haven't built anything yet. e better we get at Level One, the smoother the transition will be into development and production because they're more mature. Level Two is where I start getting some sys- tem-level test data. is may be structural development, vehicle systems, or test data from our suppliers on their individual compo- nents and qualifications. At Level ree, we're into a full-scale structural labora- tory testing for soware with hardware in the loop. is level means we're put- ting the aircra together and getting the system done. Level Four twins predict the behavior of the aircra using model- ing and simulation. At Level Five, I take that that Level Four twin and put it in an ecosystem so it can play with other twins. Johnson: Do these levels translate into manufacturing processes? Yes, exactly. We lay out the manufactur- ing plan in Level One and develop the man- ufacturing plan and tooling concepts in Level Two. At Level ree, we can predict the man- ufacturing plan, staffing, tooling, and every- thing else. Not everything will go to Level Five. In fact, only those things that are used routinely to support the aircra in the field even go to Level Four, but you need all kinds of those things. Johnson: You also talked about field data and bringing that data back in to understand how the systems are performing in the real world. How does that feed back into your manufacturing processes? e field data feeds back from a system reli- ability point of view. For example, if we find that we have certain issues on the airplane they find in the field, we have a system to capture that data in manufacturing. We also collect enormous amounts of data for each aircra in AR Applied to Harness Installations. (Source: Lockheed Martin Corp.)