Doing business in the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) sector poses additional challenges to a manufacturer beyond what companies face in other markets. They have stringent reporting requirements, often they are held to a higher standard of quality and reliability, and there is continual focus on efficiency and cost cutting. Engineering and product lifecycle management demands tend to be extraordinary and there is usually a strong need for full traceability through the life of the product.
This series discusses some important considerations for A&D manufacturers in the context of enterprise information systems and how they can help in addressing five important areas of concern—compliance, control, communications, competitiveness and cutting cost, waste and complexity. Enterprise systems are essential tools for running a manufacturing business effectively, but the demands of the A&D market can place demands on system that are not easily addressed by one-size-fits-all products that are not specifically tailored to this environment.
Cre8tive Technology (www.ctnd.com) will be posting a weekly six part series on The Five Cs of Aerospace & Defense Success
Part 1 The A & D Challenge
Part 2 Compliance
Part 3 Control
Part 4 Communicate
Part 5 Competitiveness
Part 6 Cutting
The A & D Challenge
Manufacturing in the aerospace and defense sector involves the same disciplines and requirements as every other manufacturing segment—plus. Plus the fact that it is nearly always high tech and strongly engineering oriented, with rapid change as a given. Plus increased scrutiny and rigid documentation and reporting requirements. Plus additional testing and certification that is often required. Plus a keen focus on costs and efficiency written right into the procurement contracts. Plus a lot more.
A&D manufacturers need all the help they can get, and appropriate use of information technology can go a long way to help in meeting these challenges. But A&D manufacturers have always struggled with off-the-shelf software that does not support the requirements of the A&D environment. Add-ons for program/project management, work breakdown structure and progress reporting are often cumbersome to work with, incomplete, and not well integrated with the operational applications. Software designed for volume production often falls short in the area of engineering controls and configuration management. Engineering-oriented software might not support the production scheduling and control requirements very well. And the list goes on.
The long and short of it is this—enterprise software should help, not hinder, your efforts to comply, control, communicate, compete, and cut costs and waste. This series will address each of these areas and discuss how a well-designed and supported enterprise software system can be an integral part of an A&D manufacturer’s success in serving this very demanding market.
Follow this series and other previous postings on www.ctnd.com.