Manufacturing Matters - Special Edition with JEH Aerospace

JEH Aerospace CEO & co-founder Vishal Sanghavi discusses how friend-shoring can help backlogs in the aerospace industry along with other supply chain and work force developments.

Vishal Sanghavi, co-founder & CEO of Jeh Aerospace joins the "Manufacturing Matters" podcast on the MFG Radio Network to discuss the latest technological advances in aerospace manufacturing and the latest developments in the supply chain and workforce.

Thank you to our sponsor, Jeh Aerospace!

Who’s speaking…

© JEH Aerospace Inc. | https://jeh.aero/

Vishal R. Sanghavi, co-founder & CEO of Jeh Aerospace, is a leader in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry for nearly two decades, co-founded Jeh Aerospace in 2022 with his long-time colleague Venkatesh Mudragalla. Sanghavi previously worked at the Tata Group, where he built and led large multimillion-dollar businesses and became one of the youngest CXOs for the group. He spearheaded the Tata Boeing Joint Venture (JV), Tata Sikorsky JV, and Tata Lockheed JV. Before that, Sanghavi honed his skills at TCS, where he consulted Fortune 100 companies on business processes and technology.

Sanghavi is an electronics and telecommunication engineer educated at RAIT, Mumbai University, and is currently pursuing the Smart Manufacturing Program at MIT. Vishal was selected for the TAS program, Tata Group’s premium leadership cadre, and nominated by Boeing for its Organizational Leadership Program at the Boeing Leadership Center (BLC) in St. Louis. He is a certified Gold Assessor of the Tata Business Excellence Model, based on the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

© GIE Media
https://www.aerospacemanufacturinganddesign.com

Jake Kauffman is the managing editor for GIE Media’s Manufacturing Group magazines including Aerospace Manufacturing and Design, Defense and Munitions, Today's Medical Developments, and their online publication EV Design and Manufacturing.

A rough transcript follows…

Jake Kauffman: Welcome to a very special edition of manufacturing matters from GIE Medias Manufacturing Group.

I'm Jake Kauffman, the managing editor for the manufacturing group of magazines, which includes aerospace manufacturing and design, defense and munitions, today's medical developments and our EV design and manufacturing online publication today.

We are happy to be joined by Vishal Sanghavi, the co-founder and CEO of JEH Aerospace.

They're an Atlanta, Georgia manufacturer of aerospace and defense components to address the industry's global supply chain constraints.

Prior to co-founding Jeh Aerospace in 2022, Sanghavi worked for Tata Group where he built and led large multi-million dollar businesses and became one of the youngest CX OS for the group. He spearheaded numerous aerospace businesses during his tenure there, including the Tata Boeing joint venture, the Tata Sikorsky joint venture and the Tata Lockheed Martin joint venture as they manufacture large and complex aerospace systems. Before that, Sanghavi consulted Fortune 100 companies on business processes and technology for Tata Consultancy Services.

Now, Vishal joins us today to discuss the latest technological developments in aerospace manufacturing and the latest developments in the supply chain and workforce. So Vishal, thank you so much for joining us today. I appreciate your time.

Vishal Sanghavi: Jake, thank you so much for having me here and I look forward to our conversation.

JK: So we will start with the start of your company now you and your friend Venky Mudragalla founded JE Aerospace in 2022.

How did you and Venky kind of come together and develop the idea that led to the founding of JEH Aerospace?

VS: That's a great question to start with, to set the context, Jake,  Venky and I worked in the aerospace sector in India for close to 15 years before JEH Aerospace. And as you mentioned in the introduction, kind of led some important joint ventures with global OEMs and what we did over there was that we unlocked the India capability to these large OEMs. Now if you see two major back-to-back, Black Swan events actually hit this industry. The first one was the 737 Max crash.

And then when people thought nothing worse can happen, we were hit by COVID.

Now that that really shook our aerospace industry and after that the demand has shot back post COVID, but the supply is still struggling to meet up with this demand and what happened during the COVID if you seen?

And there was this great resignation where a lot of people were either laid off or led gone in the Western world in aerospace industry and a large portion didn't turn back.

So now we were in a situation where the demand is high but supply is really struggling and that is where Venky and I got together and our thought process was that, hey, we have done this now for OEMs. But if this problem has to be solved in a meaningful way.

We need to bring the solution to a lot of tier one and Tier 2 aerospace manufacturers in US and Western Europe and that's what the birth of JEH Aerospace as an idea and also Venky and I have worked with each other for close to 15 years now so.

We know each other. We have complemented each other in various aspects, so it was just the right problem to solve with the right people to solve and that's how JEH Aerospace started.

JK: Well, yeah, it sounds like you guys are doing some great things over there now.

You mentioned obviously the pandemic.

We are several years post pandemic.

It seems like all of the airports that I've gone through are packed.

There are planes in the air, but do you still see that the aerospace industry is struggling as far as the supply chain and you know kind of how are you guys helping that out?

VS: I'm certain two ways.

One, if you see even just in last year between Airbus and Boeing, they were not able to deliver close to 200 aircraft that the airlines wanted.

That's in a way close to $20 billion of revenue lost.

Just I was reading a recent Aviation Week article where the top issue that the CEOs of all major companies are thinking about.

Is either part shortages or quality issues in their supply chain.

So it's a, it's a huge issue.

So while the airports are packed and that shows the demand, the supply is what is really struggling and unless we solve those problems properly in from a long term standpoint, it will continue to be a bottleneck and it will continue to be a problem.

JK: I think it's something where the backlog for airplanes is up into 2040's, 2050's so there's definitely planes that need to be made.

VS: Absolutely. And right now, Jake, as you know that even Boeing is still struggling with the labor strike issue, so is Textron.

Airbus is struggling to, you know, their plans is to go up to 75 aircrafts a month, but they are struggling over there. And if you actually hear them out, one of the bigger reasons the OEM would say they are struggling is because of supply chain issues and.

If you ask the Tier 1 Tier 2 manufacturers and ask what are your biggest problems, they would say it would either be labor shortage or talent attrition.

So we have to solve these problems if you have to find a way out.

JK: How would you say that geopolitics is impacting all of this as far as you know the the backlogs, the supply chains, you know, how is geopolitics really playing a role?

VS: The world is changing.

It is becoming, you know, more and more volatile, uncertain and complex and ambiguous as they call you know, the vuca world.

What has happened?

A couple of things.

One is that the Russia Ukraine situation created a lot of stress on the material side also.

Earlier, people used to look at China as the manufacturing hub, but in the current context, that not necessarily is the best solution for a sensitive industry like aerospace and defense.

And invert in home. In us there are issues of Labor shortages and high cost and high inflation.

So you we will need alternatives of talent pools to get this manufacturing engine and that's where you know geopolitics is also shipping on how companies and countries are deciding on how to redesign their supply chains.

JK: So what are some possible solutions that you think could make a meaningful impact and kind of build that supply chain resiliency?

VS: I have to solve these problems properly.

There are two major pillars on which the solution will have to stand.

One would be talent.

We will need to attract the right quality of talent, the right quantity of talent, and then have an infrastructure that keeps on upskilling this talent so that they continuously become more effective and more productive.

And the second pillar, as I see is going to be technology.

We have and when I say technology, there are two major categories of technology.

One is the operations technology.

It can be as basic as what machine you are selecting to using AR/VR, to using sophisticated quality instruments, to using automation and robotics and the other side is the digital technology on how you can try a digital thread. How can you create strong data structures? How can you leverage AIS and analytics going forward?

So the way we always articulate ourself is that you know, talent cross technology is transformation and that entire thing will have to come in place for us to solve this problem meaningfully.

JK: You mentioned talent and technology, there's obviously a ton of it in India. How can these Western companies tap into that talent pool and use that to their advantage to kind of shore up the supply chain and kind of clear the backlog that we're seeing in the aerospace industry?

VS: So Jake and that's a complex question.

On one hand, India is the most populous country, is the is the youngest country and also.

It has like a million and a half engineers passing out each year that joins the workforce and many more at the worker level.

But having said that, it does not mean that all of them are productive, are effective at the level.

They can do quality work, so the way we see this problem to be solved is that not only we need to do a good job in recruiting good people, but we need to do a much better job in training these people in a way that makes them effect.

In aerospace and defense manufacturing, and unless someone does that, they will not be successful because India is very diverse.

The concept of quality is very fluid, based on where you are talking with whom you are talking.

On one side we have.

Reputation of bad quality on various aspects, but on the other side the same Indians do some of the most important.

Maintenance of IT systems that handle all the financial transactions, manufacture vaccines and medicines at global scale, and everything in between.

So it's about that.

You know, how do you get good people and how do you upgrade them to do aerospace manufacturing work is going to decide who wins this game.

JK: Now something cool that you know JEH Aerospace has begun to do is set up these global manufacturing centers that are for U.S. companies in India. How does that happen? What are these manufacturing centers doing and how does the set up process work if you are a US company that wants to use one?

VS: So what we are doing Jake in this one is that while the Boeing's and the Lockheeds of the world have set up large offices and large teams in India, a lot of the US manufacturing companies do not have that wherewithal to do that.

What we are doing in a way is that we are helping them get the benefits of India.

Of good talent, great quantity of people.

English speaking workforce.

Enabling that with technology, but without having to deal with the bureaucracies of India.

The uncertainties of India.

The challenges of India.

So here we are, that expert team that you know translates the potential of India into real value for our customers without they having to deal with all the headaches that are associated with it.

JK: How many of those would you say are kind of up and running at the moment and is that something that obviously you want to continue to grow?

VS: So we have now a very strong traction of customers because the problem that we are solving is not a vitamin deficiency problem. It's a real pain problem that our customers are having and we have a real solution out here. So to give you one particular example we have.

This amazing customer called GS Precision, who is one of the largest small and medium part manufacturer for companies like GE Aviation.

So for them we are setting up a dedicated manufacturing capacity within our floor. So it's like a shop arrangement where we are setting up for them machines dedicated for them, people dedicated for them. We take care of everything, ensure delivery quality, compliances right in a very effective way.They get the benefits of India. They get this committed demand, they get IP protection.

And we take the burden of doing it in a seamless way without they having to go through any challenges of approval.

Bureaucracies, land, labor, and everything in between.

So that's I think that's the equation that is really working and very glad to share with you that most importantly the path that we have delivered to GS precision. They're extremely happy with the quality of these parts. So, so All in all, it's a win, win situation working very effectively.

JK: We've obviously touched on the talent pool that's in India, but also you mentioned that there is a marriage between talent and technology. So to talk about that technology, one of the big buzzwords throughout pretty much any industry is artificial intelligence, AI. How is that being tapped in India for the use of the aerospace industry and how would one approach using it?

VS: That's a great question, Jake.

I think in today's world, AI is one of the most misused and abused word and people you know from basic software to basic analytics is branded as AI from anyone who talks with me. I generally have the perspective that if you want to look at AI first create the foundations and we are in advanced manufacturing?

But if you see the digital processes, the digital adoption.

Is very, very low and decimal, so the first and foremost thing to do is that do you even have all your processes in digital format? Because if that is not there, then how are you going to get data?

And if you don't have the right quantity and quality of data, then what are we even talking about AI?

So it has to be done in a step way for it to be effective.

So from our perspective, the way we look at this is that on one hand.

Why people are grappling with digital transformation? What we have been able to do is we have been able to set up a digitally native company.

So right from the moment we get in order to the moment we deliver a part to our customer and everything in between is digital.

It's a paperless factory.

So very few companies can actually claim to have achieved this level of digital maturity that we have.

The second thing is to have machines which are industry 4.0 I I OT enabled.

So that you can now start capturing information from those manufacturing assets.

That this digital processes with this manufacturing assets now you are certainly in with various aspects of cameras and microphones now certainly you are gathering insane amount of data.

Once you have that data, once you ensure good quality of data, a lot of AI use cases now can be built on this.

So it has to be done in this stepped way in this graded way.

For us to really unlock the AI potential and for us it is not gimmicky, it is more important that we at the end of the day, our technology needs to create value values for our customers, for our productivity and efficiency.

So that's how we are targeting this AI.

JK: AI is one of the newest technologies out there.

I would say one of the most used would be the automation and the robotics industry.

How are you seeing those being incorporated into aerospace manufacturing and also you know what kind of tasks at the moment can be automated using robotics?

VS: You actually see automation is going to play more and more important role.

Just yesterday night I was seeing Elon Musk launching the latest version of Optimus Robots and it's mind boggling the level and the speed at which the robots and its maturity is increasing. But on in our industry, if we specifically talk about it.

We are a high risk, a high mix, low volume.

Industry and which creates its own challenges and constraints in terms of how much can you really automate?

So we have to be.

We have to be kind of be sure of that, that we are looking at the problem in the right way. What we see is that more than automation is the cobots or you know, augmentation of human capability is going to play a key role, two areas where we.

See significant penetration that it will do is to.

Kind of replace the repetitive manual labor tasks like what?

Automatic drilling and riveting machine does or to get into areas which are not necessarily safe, like welding.

Or handling chemical processing.

So those are the places where we believe that automation robot slash cobots will play a huge role and will continue to grow. And we see that it would be more of human machine collaboration.

That will be a bigger role as we move forward in this journey.

JK: Now another emerging technology in the aerospace manufacturing industry would be the use of augmented reality or virtual reality. What role is that playing right now? And then also like, how will it expand in the future?

VS: So AR we are capabilities also another way of augmenting human capabilities and agency what we see right now already here we are able to do is play a key role in inspection in draining in finding issues with a product giving directions, digital instructions so on and so forth.

It is gaining traction.

And we are seeing more and more use of it in various use cases. I think it still has some time to mature, but in the labor constrained environment that we are here, especially in the Western world, in US and Western Europe, I see a much bigger application of AR.VR in various aspects of manufacturing and training.

JK: OK, now I think you touched on this with the training aspect of it. How does that help with new employees? As far as having them? Kind of learn before they actually are making the parts and potentially costing money.

VS: I think that's a very important use case that you just mentioned for arvr. If you see today what happens there are you're having a hard time getting people and then you are having a hard time retaining people now that you get some people you need.

To get your experienced people out of the current shop floor and make them teach to these new people in a machine then which cannot be productive. Now take a step back and think that if 80% of this work.

You know, when a new person is wearing it and he can in a virtual world, learn how to operate a machine and how to change a cutting tool and how to measure certain aspects of your parts.

Isn't that amazing?

So you have solved 80% of that problem and then only those last 20% is where you actually get an experienced person out of your running line into a running machine to tease them and solve questions and answers. So that would be a big order of magn.

Improvement.

The way we induct people and make them productive into the line.

JK: Yeah. It's kind of like the next step up from the whole measuring twice cut once scenario actually using the different technologies to help out. Like I said with the training aspect now as far as technologies, are there any more that you can see kind of getting into the aerospace manufacturing industry that could make an impact pretty soon?

VS: Additive manufacturing is definitely something to look for and watch out for.

Lot of the parts.

Well, it's not a huge majority, but it's in early stages and lot of the parts are moving from.

Traditional milling operations into additive manufacturing.

And as this trend keeps on growing, we will see more and more parts kind of getting into additive manufacturing, so to say.

So this additive manufacturing is definitely technology to look out for.

We also see a lot of new materials coming in, in ceramics, in polymers, etc.

That may change the game because if the metal if the material changes, then the manufacturing technology changes.

So those are some of the things that have the highest potential of disrupting what we are doing.

But having said that, Jake, this industry for a lot of good reasons.

Moves slowly just because it's such a safety critical industry.

So while any change is not suddenly going to change something overnight or over a year, but these are some macro trends that we have to be cognizant of.

JK: So then we're just about to wrap up the conversation today, Vishal, so are there any kind of, you know, main points that you want people to take away? Any kind of closing remarks that you want people to to understand after listening to this conversation?

VS: Very important thing is that, The people in USA, lot of startups, a lot of aerospace manufacturing industries.

They are probably only looking at automation as a solution or just some digital twin as a solution for all their problems.

On the other hand, a lot of Indian suppliers and low cost country suppliers are only looking at labor arbitrage as the only.

Arsenal as the only weapon in their arsenal to solve this problem and my take is that if someone wants to solve these problem meaningfully, we will have to both adopt technology and tap into large talent pools and capable talent pools in order to create the solution so.

That's probably, you know, one big take away that, you know, I hope all of us look into and solve for.

JK: Well, yeah. That like I said, just about wraps things up today, Vishal. And obviously with the backlog of aerospace parts that are you know needing to be made. It's definitely something that everyone can listen to and kind of figure out like this could solve the problems that we're seeing. So once again, Vishal Sangavi the Co founder and CEO of Jeh Aerospace, I thank you so much for your time today.

VS: Thank you, Jake.

It was great talking with you.

Appreciate your time and giving me this opportunity to talk to you and your audience.

Thank you so much.

JK: That wraps up today's manufacturing matters from GIE Media's manufacturing group of magazines. We will see you guys all again soon.