Make “Lean” a Part of Teamwork in Aerospace

Recent global events have put the Aerospace & Defense sectors in a precarious position. Commercial aerospace is dealing with the sudden drop in demand followed by a gradual ramp-up of production while defense spending has remained strong fueling new production requirements. With these changes occurring, companies must ensure their operations and manufacturing teams are prepared and — anything less could lead to missed goals and opportunities for the business.

Both sectors face common challenges related to organizational silos, increasing regulation and aging facilities and manufacturing methods. It can be all too easy for production errors to happen through miscommunication, lack of focus on key objectives or poor engagement. This is because team members handle such complex operations while working within various requirements and constraints. In many companies, this is a sign of inefficient or ineffective collaboration and teamwork where Lean manufacturing methods could help.

Trends Affecting Aerospace & Defense Teams

Your teams need to be especially focused across the entire process — from design to operations — to ensure competitiveness. Company operations need to be well planned yet agile in responding to disruptions in order to bring your products to market as fast as possible. Those who face trouble getting their teams to operate efficiently and collaboratively may struggle in addressing these increasingly important trends:

• Manufacturing efficiency: Teams are pressured to accelerate program introduction while driving production and assembly costs down. Daily shop floor operations need to be executed flawlessly.
• Improving production flexibility: Companies need to support flexible rate as market demands and supply change. Teams and processes need to adopt lean principles.
• Supply chain visibility: Lack of integration between organizational silos impacts delivery and quality. Teams need to find ways to engage and connect effectively.

These requirements will be even harder to meet without the right tools to promote visibility and information sharing between different departments in the organization.

In order to get your teams on track and achieve efficient, cost-effective operations that can deliver at rate and with high quality and low cost, you need them to operate like a lean, well-oiled machine. For Aerospace in particular, it is key to raise the efficiency and agility of all teams across operational strategy down to tactical execution, regardless of whether teams are all internal or part of the larger value network. This is key as everyone has a part to play in driving continuous improvements in process and manufacturing.

Digitally Lean Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing

Teams need to move from a paper trail to a digital thread to more effectively maintain information and track accountability of decisions and actions. In this case, it requires a collaborative digital platform with a scope wide enough to connect the dots between people, innovation and information yet simple enough for everyone to use effortlessly. Thankfully, DELMIA has just the solution.

Powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, DELMIA 3DLean is a customizable and interactive digital tool designed for operational teams anywhere — on the shop floor, in design and development and across departments. The software leverages virtual universes to model and optimize resources and work processes before performing them in the real world. It allows teams to capture, monitor and track operational meetings and problem solving, providing the ability to aggregate relevant and key information from different areas of operations.

3DLean supports Aerospace teams through various challenges and goals to continuously improve operational efficiency, regardless of role. It helps companies and teams reimagine, enhance and optimize their practices at every new turning point in operations. The collaborative nature of the solution enables you to drive better team relationships despite physical or organizational barriers. It allows teams to visualize 3D content and complex data with a digital Lean framework, promoting lean principles so that you can make “lean thinking” a standard part of business and company culture, enabling lean manufacturing.

Such a tool will allow you to optimize team operations by encouraging impactful, efficient interactions between all workers and stakeholders in the enterprise, ultimately driving greater project success. What’s more, understanding the potential of your teams to solve problems and be efficient together will empower them to realize their role and impact in the value network, enabling them to create more value for your organization.

Learn more about the benefits and value of lean manufacturing software solutions for your Aerospace & Defense manufacturing and operations teams by downloading our eBook.