OREANDA-NEWS. Start of the anniversary aircraft assembly is coincident with the tenth anniversary of SCAC branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur (KnAF) opening on February 01, 2005.

The President of SCAC Ilya Tarasenko noted: "Ten years of Komsomolsk-on-Amur branch existence is a significant milestone in the history of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, it is another step in Sukhoi Superjet 100 project development. I would like to express my gratitude to the branch employees for their daily input in national aircraft industry development. During this period a large amount of work has been done in terms of facility modernization and introduction of new technologies, including lean manufacturing principles, mastering of modern equipment, increasing production output and quality, creation of favorable working environment and truly united professional team".

Today about 1300 employees work at the SCAC branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, their average age is 35 years.

KnAF consists of technological unit, which is a center of components' distribution among branch production facilities, Fuselage Assembly Shop, Final Assembly Shop and Flight Test Station.

The SCAC branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur is a leader in the number of manufactured civil aircraft on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Six aircraft prototypes were manufactured in 2007-2010. After that KnAF built five serial aircraft in 2011. From that time on production rate increases in a planned manner: 12 aircraft were produced in 2012, 25 aircraft in 2013 and around 40 aircraft in 2014. Presently the production capacity of the plant allows for manufacturing of up to 50 aircraft annually, smoothly reaching planned target of 60 SSJ100 aircraft per year.

SCAC branch in Komsomolsk-on-Amur is one of the largest machine builders of Khabarovsk region being the major contributor to economical growth of this industry.

These results were achieved thanks to up-to-date production and labour management, expansion of auxiliary and production areas, use of unique precision equipment.

The branch uses lean technologies to the fullest extent. These technologies are used for production efficiency increasing and production planning. Modern techniques, procurement optimization, minimization of labour costs and time expenditures are the foundation of lean technologies.

Large-scale work has been done since branch opening in 2007 till the assembly of the hundredth SSJ100 aircraft in 2015. Integrated program of retooling and modernization of the plants in Komsomolsk-on-Amur and Novosibirsk has been implemented as part of the project. So, for example, construction and reconstruction of the buildings and structures of the branch was performed starting from February 2005 till May 2006. Final Assembly Shop was opened in November 2005 and as early as in September 2007 first Sukhoi Superjet 100 prototype was presented to general public. On May 19, 2008 this aircraft performed its first flight which lasted 1 hour 05 minutes.

New technologies, which have never been used before in national aircraft manufacturing, are used in the airliner production, such as jigless assembly, automatic assembly of airframe components, automatic riveting and many other technologies.