Embracing digital mindsets

Manufacturing delays in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry – and their associated costs – are a major challenge for companies in this market. There are many reasons for these widespread delays including inconsistent, incomplete, and disjointed communications among the many companies in the extended supply chain. These companies include fuselage, engine, wing, and component manufacturers.

To help remedy this, executives leading these aerospace companies should consider embracing digital technologies on a broader scale, including mobile applications, connected products, analytics, and services. This new way of thinking should guide strategic decisions in every aspect of their business. By adopting digital technologies, companies can achieve more effective collaboration and communication in all phases of aerospace manufacturing. This would make aerospace manufacturing faster, less complicated, more synchronized, and less expensive throughout multi-dimensional supply chains, across multiple continents, and for hundreds of suppliers.

Digital technologies that customers of Tier 1 aerospace suppliers use will dictate which suppliers will get to interact in the supply chain. If suppliers fail to take advantage of these new technologies, their cost profile will be higher because they’ll be unable to take advantage of the cost benefits of interacting with others in the digital realm. Expectations will extend down from the OEMs, increasing pressure on supply chain partners to get onboard with digital capability.

A&D executives should focus on integrating digital technologies throughout manufacturing, supply chains, legacy infrastructure, assets, differentiation, products, and services. Rather than continuing the industry’s traditional practices, executives should consider leveraging digital technologies and their capabilities on a broader, more thorough, and strategic scale.

In doing so, it will likely become easier for everyone in the manufacturing supply chain to be aware of changes to product specifications, scheduling, and communications. In an all-digital process, a late-breaking decision to change the size of an aircraft’s wings from the original plan could be made more rapidly, accurately, and on-the-fly.

A product change using traditional engineering and manufacturing procedures could prove disruptive and costly. Information about the change, if not communicated quickly or accurately, can lead to mismatched parts, higher costs, or late deliveries. Digitally enabled analytics tools can collect, organize, synthesize, and evaluate disparate and voluminous amounts of data to generate more actionable and timely insights for effective decision-making. For example, some companies are leveraging the power of in-memory data processing to reduce final assembly time and increase production.

Although digital technologies are used in manufacturing processes today, they have limited applications. As a result, their business value has not been maximized. Aerospace companies could gain greater performance and efficiency benefits by increasing digital use across their businesses through a more integrated, enterprise-wide strategy. Manufacturers should look at what they’re doing, where they fit in, how software is going to impact their business, and how they can capitalize on updating software.
 

Research findings

Digital transformation is already on the minds of many leaders in this industry. An Accenture report, Digital Coming of Age: Seizing the Digital Opportunity in Aerospace, found that 50% of aerospace executives expect digital technologies to help reduce manufacturing delays. Focused on the new and changing role of digital in the A&D industry, the survey polled executives about their companies’ digital investments, strategic priorities, and challenges. These executives work for A&D aircraft and engine manufacturers, as well as suppliers, from eight countries: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The research also revealed that reduced costs, optimized processes, and faster airplane deliveries are the three largest impacts that digital strategies are expected to have on airplane design, development, and supply chain processes.

Half of these companies are looking at the biggest expense in engineering – core to what aerospace companies do – but the bad news is companies are missing the opportunity to invest in digital capabilities elsewhere. They need to think about where that digital capability can be integrated in the products and services they provide and how they leverage digital to shorten development life cycles, and reduce delays in the supply chain due to tardy information exchange or materials logistics.

Almost three-quarters of Accenture’s survey respondents believe they lack internal skills to leverage digital capabilities. To overcome deficits, they need to retrain current staff while seeking new recruits and other outside resources. An outside firm that already works with the new digital technology daily – and in many cases, works with the software to understand its capabilities before its release – can mitigate risk.
 

Final thoughts

Manufacturing airplanes is one of the world’s most complicated engineering feats. In many ways these are flying computers. There are a vast number of customized technologies involved; many types of companies that have to be synchronized in the manufacturing process. Simultaneously, people working on multiple continents for various companies need to be informed about changes in manufacturing plans, adjustments to production schedules, and supplier issues.

Communication between different parties in the supply chain is a formidable undertaking. By implementing digital technologies, such as collaboration tools on mobile devices that can access up-to-the-minute data from cloud resources, all parties can have access to the same information at the same time. The entire manufacturing process needs to be harmonized in new and more creative ways. Aircraft should be thought of as fully integrated digital systems from nose to tail. No longer should they only be viewed as aircraft that have a few digital technologies. The manufacturing process should be viewed as a single, fluid, and interoperable digital channel from one end to the other, integrating all functions in between.

The reality is: The digital aircraft is here and the industry needs to fly fast to meet it.

Accenture
www.accenture.com

About the author: John Schmidt is the managing director of Accenture’s North American Aerospace and Defense business. He can be reached at john.h.schmidt@accenture.com.