Quality upholstery is not a seat-of-your-pants operation.

Like any true art, hand-crafted upholstery takes time. Unfortunately, today’s MROs don’t have any to spare. Every minute counts when a customer brings their aircraft in for interior work.

How do you achieve consistent quality while minimizing downtime? Duncan Aviation’s answer: Upgrade its interior shops with the latest digital design and automated production equipment to help its team of experienced upholsterers continue to provide the extremely stylish and high-quality cabin completions they have been known for since 1981.

“In 2023 alone, we had over 460 interior work orders across our three facilities, and that means we have to strive for efficiency,” explains Duncan Aviation’s Lincoln, Neb., Interior Manager, Jared Stauffer. “Traditional upholstery work would mean significantly longer downtime for those aircraft. To help reduce that downtime, we’ve been upgrading our upholstery shop with automated tools to save time and maintain quality.”

A stitch in time…

Stauffer says that Duncan Aviation’s evolution to advanced upholstery automation started in the early 2000s when it installed its first CNC machine for leather cutting. The next big step was adding software to create custom seat and divan patterns.

“We’ve eliminated the time and cost of shipping the seats to Lincoln,” he explains. “All we need is a couple of measurements from the seats, and we can start the production process before the aircraft even arrives in our hangar. Or we can cut the leather here and send it to our Provo or Battle Creek facilities for final fitting. That saves a tremendous amount of time.”

Another recent automation addition is a new leather quilting machine, significantly increasing Duncan Aviation’s ability to create unique designs for its discerning customers.

“We were using outside vendors for this work, but that limited our control of the process both from a design and delivery standpoint,” Stauffer said. “Being able to work in-house is a big plus for us.”

Another big time-and waste-saving technology adopted by Duncan Aviation is the addition of a five-axis CNC machine to cut seat foam to the most exacting design specifications.

“These technologies make it much easier for our technicians to produce top-notch quality and consistency in less time,” he continues. “That leaves more time to concentrate on the finer points like uniform stitching, consistent panel gapping, and the overall high level of final finishing that sets our interiors apart.”

Shortening the curve from apprentice to artisan.

Like so many MROs, Duncan Aviation is faced with the fact that many of its talented upholsterers are approaching retirement. In the past, it would take years to train an apprentice with the skills necessary to maintain the company’s legendary quality. Today’s automation is helping to dramatically shorten that learning curve.

“With routine tasks like material and foam cutting now being done by the CNC machines, we can concentrate on having our experienced craftsmen mentor our less tenured technicians, reducing their training time,” Stauffer explains. “By bringing the new hires up to speed quicker, we will be able to continue to deliver the exceptional quality our customers expect from us.”

While it may seem that advanced automation and digital technologies will replace experience and craftsmanship, Stauffer stresses that this is not the case—not at Duncan Aviation, anyway.

“Just to be clear, there’s nothing the machines can do that our craftsmen can’t. We have a lot of talent and experience under our roof,” he says. The main thing is that the automation enables us to better support our customers’ needs for high finish quality and low aircraft downtime.”

“It’s just one more way for current and future Duncan Aviation customers to see that we are constantly innovating to improve our services and meet their goals,” Stauffer adds. “We are taking steps to continue to do what we’ve done well since 1956: delivering the services our customers want.”