| Customer | Collins Aerospace |
| Industry | Aerospace & Defence |
| Application | Aircraft seat assembly |
| Location | Kilkeel, Northern Ireland |
| Employees | 800+ |
Here’s a tighter version with the smart torque tool requirement integrated naturally:
Aircraft seat assembly is a highly complex manufacturing process. Each seat consists of numerous components that must meet strict aerospace quality standards while supporting multiple customer configurations and frequent engineering changes.
At its Kilkeel, Northern Ireland facility, Collins Aerospace produces economy, premium economy, business-class, and first-class seating across multiple production lines.
To maintain consistent quality and production efficiency, operators need clear, up-to-date assembly instructions at every workstation, together with smart torque tools to control and verify the tightening of critical fasteners. Traditional paper-based documentation makes it difficult to manage revisions, standardize work, train new employees, and ensure critical tightening operations are performed correctly.
Collins Aerospace needed a solution that could digitize work instructions, integrate tightening control, reduce assembly errors, and provide traceability, while ensuring every operator follows the latest approved manufacturing process.
Founded in 1967 as Aircraft Furnishing Ltd., the Kilkeel facility has grown from five employees into one of the world’s leading aircraft seating manufacturing plants. Today, as part of Collins Aerospace, a business of RTX, the site employs more than 800 people and produces aircraft interiors for airlines worldwide.
The 215,000-square-foot facility operates 11 assembly lines for economy, premium economy, business and first-class seating. Using skilled operators, digital guidance and an efficient track system, production is designed for both speed and quality. A three-seat economy section, for example, can be assembled in just nine to eleven minutes, demonstrating the facility’s highly optimized manufacturing process.
To support consistent, high-quality assembly, Collins Aerospace implemented Ansomat Operator Guidance throughout its aircraft seat assembly process.
At every workstation, operators receive step-by-step digital work instructions that guide them through each assembly task.
The system ensures operators always see the correct instruction for the specific seat variant and process step, helping manage the complexity of assembling numerous seat configurations. When a mistake or process deviation occurs, built-in repair and rework flows guide the operator through the appropriate corrective actions before production continues.
Because instructions are managed digitally, operators always work according to the latest engineering-approved process rather than relying on static or outdated paper documentation.
Assembly stations are connected with smart tightening tools, such as electric screwdrivers, nutrunners and pulse tools from multiple brands, allowing fastening operations to become an integrated part of the guided assembly process.
Ansomat receives real-time torque and angle feedback directly from the tightening tools and verifies that each fastening operation meets the required specifications. Operators receive immediate feedback, helping prevent incorrect tightenings and ensuring critical assembly steps are completed correctly before moving forward.
The Ansomat Management System gives process engineers one central platform to manage work instructions, users, tools, and shop floor operations. It provides real-time visibility and full traceability while keeping production processes controlled and consistent.
Key features:
By replacing paper-based instructions with digital operator guidance, Collins Aerospace has further strengthened the consistency of its manual assembly operations.
From a small workshop in 1967 to a world-leading aerospace interiors facility today, the Kilkeel plant is a powerful example of how modern manufacturing excellence is achieved, and how Ansomat plays a vital role in keeping aircraft seat production moving at full speed.
Modern aerospace manufacturing demands complete process control, rapid implementation of engineering changes and consistent execution across every operator and workstation.
By providing real-time digital guidance, Ansomat Operator Guidance helps manufacturers replace static documentation with controlled, standardized workflows that improve quality, simplify training and support continuous improvement.
From its beginnings as a small workshop in 1967 to today's globally recognized aerospace manufacturing facility, the Collins Aerospace site in Kilkeel demonstrates how digital manufacturing technologies contribute to world-class production performance.
Together, Collins Aerospace and Ansomat show how digital operator guidance can help manufacturers standardize complex manual assembly processes while improving quality, efficiency and operational consistency.
Whether you manufacture aircraft interiors, automotive components or other complex products, Ansomat Operator Guidance helps operators perform every task correctly the first time.
