During operation landing gear parts might suffer from corrosion or cracks of chrome-plated bearing surfaces. In the course of maintenance the chrome will be striped and subjacent corrosion is inspected. If the corrosion reaches certain extent, the diameter could be ground by a cylindrical grinding process until the corrosion is cleared. Afterwards it is re-chromeplated and subsequently ground to the required diameter. Due to varying depth of corrosion and varying chrome thickness each part is unique in geometry, which requires a manufacturing system optimized for lot size one. The late stage in the value adding process and the high sensitivity for operation safety of the airplane makes it crucial to avoid any damage to the parts during machining processes. The parts are among the few components of an aircraft that do not have a backup system. Due to their slender and thin walled light weight geometry they are difficult to machine. The grinding process underlies multiple sources for failure. In order to increase the reliability of the grinding process and the efficiency simultaneously a research project funded by "Spitzencluster Hamburg" is conducted by the Lufthansa Technik AG in cooperation with the Institute of Production Management and Technology of the Hamburg University of Technology. Based on a failure tree analysis necessary measures have been derived and subsequently rated by a failure modes and effect analysis in respect of occurrence, severity and detection. Applying a Plan-Do-Check-Act circle the planning stage is completed by previous experiments, leading to the definition of measures to face the failure events. The measures are rated by their expected effect according to the Quality Function Deployment method. Following former research in grinding technology, the events are grouped by thermal damage of the machined surface, geometric surface failures like chatter and unintended collision of the part with machine components. Analysis of applied grinding technology revealed potential for efficiency improvement and failure prevention by standardizing the processes. By establishing verified parameters the risk of creating burn marks is reduced and the process is shifted to stable conditions, which diminish the occurrence of chatter vibrations. Considering the high price of these parts the used grinding machine is equipped with additional process monitoring systems developed for usage in production environment. These systems are able to engage immediately in case of process abnormalities and provide information about grinding temperature, actual kinematic parameters of the workpiece and vibrations.