OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Oboronprom, part of State Corporation Rostec, is showcasing key innovations in helicopter manufacturing at Oboronexpo 2014 and the Engineering Technologies 2014 international forum, taking place on 13-17 August in the Moscow region town of Zhukovsky. The company will focus at the events on how it is embedding digital technologies in its production processes, its experience of and future plans for improving energy efficiency and lean manufacturing, and its successes in re-equipping and upgrading its production capacities.

“The competitiveness of our helicopters directly depends on the innovative solutions that we are introducing today, particularly digital production technologies and energy efficiency," said Russian Helicopters Deputy CEO for Production Andrey Shibitov. “We are working hard to modernise and upgrade our enterprises, and are effectively creating a new production platform."

Russian Helicopters' digital manufacturing policy aims to boost productivity by introducing digital technologies into design, pre-production and manufacturing processes, as well as after-sales support. The policy focuses in particular on replacing traditional paper-based versions as the master copies of technical documentation and moving to 3D digital models. Implementing this policy in full will help Russian Helicopters to optimise production processes and execute plans quickly, as well as increasing technological flexibility and as a result production quality.

Another important pillar of the company's ongoing upgrade programme is lean manufacturing. This is a strategy to reduce energy and material losses from production processes to a minimum, through energy savings, recycling of secondary materials and by-products, and reducing warehousing, logistics and other indirect costs. In tandem with embedding lean manufacturing techniques, Russian Helicopters is also focusing on improving the environmental sustainability of its production processes.

Implementation of energy efficiency programmes is forecast to reduce the company's energy consumption by 40% by 2020 compared to 2010.

Russian Helicopters' upgrade and technical re-equipping programme is already producing significant results. In 2013 alone, Russian Helicopters enterprises brought online more than 800 new pieces of equipment and undertook more than 100 measures to improve environmental sustainability and workplace safety. Investments in production capacity in 2013 totalled RUB 8.3 billion, an increase of 8.5% on 2012.

Oboronexpo 2014 showcases the latest developments from the defence industry, including missiles and artillery weapons, armoured and military vehicles, unmanned multirole systems and communications technologies.

Engineering Technologies 2014 is a dedicated forum for leading companies from the sector to share their successes, talk about successful and effective solutions, and discover more about the experience of other producers. At the forum, Russian Helicopters plans to hold a number of business meetings and presentations.