The World is Digital

Supply Chains in the aerospace industry to benefit significantly from opportunities in digitization.

Editors: Josip T. Tomasevic Angela Qu Dr. Hajo Drees, MBA

Commercial aerospace has over the last decades incorporated increasingly complex digital tools that can cope with heightening regulatory requirements, a global supply chain, connectivity and advanced materials. The full potential is yet to be explored by collective inter-connectivity, by utilizing data to predict machine behavior and by removing inefficiencies from the system.

From an aircraft design, industrialization and maintenance perspective, the digitization of processes, increasing integration across business segments and setting common standards will open opportunities to simplify, accelerate and increase transparency in the aerospace domain.

Aircraft design is the art of mastering a design that meets all requirements ranging from aerodynamics, performance, structural systems, control systems, stress, and others to achieve viable cost at a suitable weight.? For the past decades, the use of computer-aided design (CAD) has gradually been phased in starting in the 1970s with the Alpha Jet (a Franco-German military trainer) main structural parts[1] and then going to full CAD on the 777 of The Boeing Company where Dassault Systèmes and IBM deployed their CATIA software in a joint effort. Besides the benefit of managing growing complexity, additional requirements can be added in determination to make the aircraft safer and more reliable. This statement is supported by the current safety statistics[2] for commercial aircraft by airworthiness authorities such as the EASA in the European Union and the FAA in the United States and its dependencies.

Further benefits of digitization include simulation and testing opportunities that will increase reliability calculation, and predictability, reduce testing facility requirements hence cost, and allow for concurrent development which will accelerate schedule. For instance, the aerodynamic performance of an aircraft can be modelled in a digital environment using CAD models. The models are then validated using wind tunnel testing. This reduces the testing hours, as simulations can be used to predict behavior in different environments, the position of the aircraft and specific conditions of speed, altitude, or loading of the flight envelope. This digital twin mimics the behavior of the physical hardware.

Aircraft industrialization is the next step in the life-cycle, which takes the aircraft from the drawing board to the production environment. The notion of CAM is deployed (Computer Aided Manufacturing) to make parts in accordance with the digital design requirements. For instance, a five-axis machine is programmed for milling using computer numerically controlled (CNC) programming. High levels of precision are achieved. More recently a trend has been observed to use, instead of reducing material, to work in the additive, through 3D printing. Seamless transfer of data from the original design to the 3D model ensures full data integrity. A challenge remains on the material properties, that time will solve.

Aircraft industrialization has a specific challenge compared to other industries: it operates on relatively small volumes, therefore particular focus needs to be on limiting factors such as set-up times, transition times, small batch production and the highest quality standards and traceability requirements. All of these elements can be monitored using interconnected machines. Smart factories are already online in parts of the world and have delivered on promises: production times reduced by over 65% and staffing has rightsized from 60 to 24 full-time employees[3] .

Finally, in the aircraft life-cycle, comes the aircraft maintenance during the next 30-40 years. During that time the aircraft will undergo maintenance, known as A, B, C or D checks. The longest and most extensive is the D check, known as hmv (heavy maintenance visit) and that may include a complete removal of the paint. It is not untypical to cost 50,000 hours or two months. A 747-400 may accumulate a bill of up to USD 4 million for this D check. The frequency is approximately 8 years. How does digitization help in this? Besides maintenance, the notion of preventive and mostly predictive maintenance helps to anticipate. Airlines worst nightmare is unpredictable AOG (aircraft on ground), which means passengers or cargo don’t fly, and possibly hefty fines from regulators for compensation kick-in, in addition to lost revenue. The more aircraft systems are connected and provide real-time data on reliability and performance, the better maintenance can anticipate checks and spare parts at the right time and the right location and avoid the AOG condition and performing only the required hmv. Statistical process control and data mapping will allow for the reduction in the cost of inventory for spare parts and optimize availability. For instance, observing from a maintenance perspective, can data about the air filters of a piston engine onboard the aircraft be captured by sensors, so that preventive measures can be taken at the next point of landing of the aircraft?

In the life-cycle of the development of an aircraft, we have discussed the benefits of CAD and CAM and how technology may accelerate development, manage larger complexity, increase safety and move towards anticipation of events. The next reflection that will be made is about digitization of processes, increased integration across business segments and common standards.

Digitization of processes is a further opportunity to work in a more agile way and an ever-growing complex environment. It is desirable to operate in an environment in which the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) runs the business end-to-end: form the order intake, through operations, until delivery and payment. For instance, looking at the procurement-to-pay process, demand forecasting is important to secure capacities in the supplier, to model cash exposure and to pay suppliers. An integrated database will ensure that there is no mismatch between demand and supply. What is worse: not to produce for a demand or to produce without demand, either case can be fatal for the financial profitability and the reputation of a company and its financial rating. Centralized planning is a key to the digitalization of the procurement process. Nowadays digitization of processes is not only desirable but mandatory. An additional complexity observed in Western European economies is a growing attrition rate for entry and mid-career white-collar sobs. ?These jobholders work extensively with databases. To reduce dependency on these jobholders the digitalization of processes, automation and people-independent processing offers an excellent opportunity to prepare for the future. The usage of standard tools instead of home-grown tailored solutions reduces training times, and integrating new workforce becomes cheaper and faster.

Increased integration offers a further opportunity to reduce layers of processes and to phase out historic databases that no longer keep up with expectations of real-time data and complex algorithms. For instance, the performance ranking of a supplier based on the OTD (on-time delivery) and OQD (on quality delivery) in a database (created on the booking of an inspector in the incoming goods) no longer meets minimum expectations. Real-time data from financial markets need to be continuously assessed to anticipate risk. Market intelligence needs to flow in. Profound disruptions such as Panama Canal waiting for lines, or the Suez Canal closure will impact supply chains profoundly and ultimately deliveries to customers. The challenge is to identify trends early on by using adequate data sources and to continuously adapt the algorithms that will help predict. A company may then define alternatives, options, and a strategy of redundancies.

Common standards that stretch across different industries will help increase efficiency levels. For instance, by standardization of electronic components and interfaces, the number of specific qualifications can be reduced, testing can be optimized or shared, and the number of specific components or part numbers can be reduced. Another global standardization is for instance measurement of energy efficiency: a common standard on the measurement of efficiency level will bring visibility to energy-intensive business areas. This visibility and common standard will help evaluate and compare an alternative to reach higher energy efficiency and substitute machines or products for more energy-efficient ones. At the end of the day, humankind needs to transition to higher energy efficiency, no matter if it's an automobile, an aircraft, a microwave oven, or a flat-screen television.

Now that the digitization of processes, increased integration across business segments and common standards have been discussed, a reflection on the benefits will be done concerning opportunities to simplify, accelerate and increase transparency in the aerospace domain.

Simplify: from a delivering perspective, the digitization of the supply chain also allows for mapping material flows, identifying and managing bottleneck or capacity constraints and simulating events such as quality defects and their repercussions on the supply chain and the end customer. With the help of digitized scenarios, such as rate adjustment, the supply chain will be able to anticipate, or at minimum react appropriately and make decisions based on data. Despite the complexity of a global aircraft supply chain, the simplified visualization and focus on key perimeters simplifies the managerial task of supervising the few critical elements, that may be upstream in the supply chain but are critical and pacing any rate adjustment.

Accelerate: from the vast supply chain perspective, the benefits of digitization accompany the life-cycle of aircraft development. The seamless access to a digital aircraft model enables remote teams to collaborate and work in sync on problem-solving. Models are updated in real-time, for example, the visualization of possible clashes becomes evident, for instance, if a new part has to receive a space allocation, the model will detect if this space is available or not. In the second step, once the space is allocated, the part may be integrated and connected to systems, such as electrics. This simulation is instantaneous. The designer saves time and concurrent tasks may be performed. With access to the database, the supply chain may also instantaneously contribute further knowledge to the development.

Increasing transparency is essentially providing adequate information to the right stakeholder at the right time, for example, a disruption in the supply chain of a key component due to material shortage. The early warning through connected databases will alert the organization about possible issues and supply chain disruptions. This data point will be put in the context of the organization, for example, is a single-source supplier or not. Is inventory available to bridge the disruption? How long is the disruption and is an action required? What alternative is available to the organization such as adjusting the component integration, alternative source or temporary suspension of production

This last consideration provided further benefits of digitization from a supply chain perspective talking about simplification, acceleration and increasing transparency thereby reducing cost, increasing collaboration, and improving time-to-market enablers.

A final consideration should be given to security and data integrity. Despite high levels of security, there cannot be a 100% guarantee against intrusions. What used to be, two decades ago, a prohibited site access or breaking, is nowadays the intrusion into the system. Trojan horses, malware or phishing put a company at risk and ever-growing security measures need to be taken, for instance by 2-step authentication, file scanning, etc. It is required to maintain the effort and to quickly eradicate this type of behavior and prepare contingencies in case of worst-case scenario.

In summary, the testimony to digitization in commercial aerospace is favorable and still in the development process. The high degree of complexity, long development cycles and capital intensity make aerospace somewhat peculiar, compared to other industries. Further potentials of digitization will lead to mid to long-term benefits of lower cost, faster schedules and higher safety.

?(c) Maximilian D. Fahr, B.A. EBS London, M.B.A. RIT New York

[1] Source?: https://isicad.net/articles.php?article_num=20184

[2] Source : https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/20th-anniversary

[3] Source?: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20210422000813