CHALLENGE
Providers of business aircraft must be able to respond quickly to customer requests. Because the company had accumulated diverse data silos over decades, it sometimes took hours to provide support information to customers. And introducing tens of thousands of new product parts per year led to unnecessary duplicates and costs. In order to provide the service level customers expect, the company wanted to be able to leverage the power of its data. With increased volatility and challenges to the global supply chain, it needed to prioritize 1) reducing the cost of goods sold, 2) increasing efficiencies, 3) accelerating time-to-market, and 4) optimizing overall maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO).
SOLUTION
The company chose NETVIBES data science solutions to optimize its supply chain and improve customer satisfaction. They allow it to aggregate and access data from a single internal application that combines the data from all the systems used daily, such as ERPs, PLMs, CRMs, and all the documents with supporting content linked to clients and products in order to gain information intelligence. Each of the nearly two million parts that make up an aircraft is indexed, as are certifications and all their paper archives in digital format.
BENEFITS
This visibility has allowed the company to increase agility and accuracy while empowering users, resulting in improved efficiency and customer service. Engineering time has decreased, thus the time required to deliver an aircraft to the customer. New part introduction has also decreased by 1% to 3%, leading to a potential annual savings of $2M to $5M. Analytics enable technicians to answer questions in minutes instead of hours, driving faster repairs and happier customers. Providing the right teams access to the right data in only seconds has contributed to business transformation throughout the enterprise.
Data Overload
Aircraft production, usage and maintenance generate exponential amounts of data spread across different systems, such as the ERPs, PLMs, CRMs, and documents. Employees were required to navigate between three to ten systems to research part information during the course of their day. This unorganized data management resulted in frustration and lost time, as people were spending between 30 minutes and two hours daily looking for the right information in a business where speed and accuracy are critical, especially when repairing an aircraft. The company needed to reorganize how it worked to optimize its data management.
Customer Satisfaction Mindset
The company’s clients have expectations typical of high-end luxury business consumers, whether individuals, corporations or governments. “Our customer’s time is money, our customer’s perception is truth and our customer’s satisfaction means our survival,” said the company’s PLM director.
Decentralized data management was adversely affecting customer satisfaction. Prior to personalization, a standard aircraft contains nearly two million parts. The company could spend “an embarrassing amount of time to find the part number” for a repair, the PLM director explained. That required long delays during the maintenance process. It was very challenging to prioritize issues and determine what the problem was, where it was located and how to procure the parts to solve it in a timely manner. “Timely access to data is everything…. Customers want accurate information, fast,” declared the PLM director.
Timely access to data is everything…. Customers want accurate information, fast.
– PLM Director
Connecting the Disconnected
In order to overcome its significant data management challenges, the company chose NETVIBES data science solutions. NETVIBES helps customers reveal information intelligence in order to gain insights based on data to make better informed decisions.
Whereas previously employees did not necessarily know what they were looking for, whether it existed or how to find it amongst the many data silos, today they are able to easily access internal and external multisource information. Data is aggregated and streamlined in an internal application, making it available on user-friendly, targeted dashboards to the thousands of users who need it company-wide.
Seamless Part Reuse
The application improves customer satisfaction by helping deliver planes faster. The ability to search for, find and reuse parts is critical. The company had been introducing tens of thousands of new product parts per year, which led to unnecessary duplicates and costs. With queries returned in less than two seconds, NETVIBES artificial intelligence-driven Sourcing & Standardization Intelligence enables designers and engineers to search for parts by 3D geometry, find them quickly and compare them using attributes, such as weight, material, shape, and more, to integrate the right one into their design for improved quality. They’re able to retrieve all data related to parts to track and ensure their certification globally. Thanks to NETVIBES optimized sourcing, new part introduction has decreased by 1% to 3%, leading to a potential annual saving of $2M to $5M.
We’ve addressed a lot of our supply chain issues.
– PLM Director
Happier Customers
The NETVIBES business intelligence layer also helps the company perform seamless MRO. Searching for replacement parts could take hours. The application provides visibility into the ecosystem in seconds, speeding turnaround time on quotes and repair. It allows users to check whether parts are in-stock around the world. The ability to procure them quickly and get them to where they need to be is essential for efficient repair. As a result, the Aircraft on Ground resolution time has decreased 36%, boosting customer satisfaction. The company estimates it has achieved 400% ROI for $20M savings. “We’ve addressed a lot of our supply chain issues,” said the PLM director. Analytics enable technicians to answer questions in minutes instead of hours, driving faster repairs and happier customers.
Unlocking the Vault
In addition, the company’s records, including paper and CAD files, were stored in an “engineering vault” stationed in the company’s main manufacturing facility, and maintained by a team of engineering archivists and data analysts. “You would never know it was here, but it is probably one of the more important rooms in our entire manufacturing facility,” said the PLM director. They explain that this room was considered an “aircraft time capsule filled with tubes stacked from floor to ceiling holding seven decades of critical engineering documents, including hand-drawn blueprints of parts, cabin designs, and aircraft drawings. There are hundreds of thousands of documents, including many of the original drawings from the very early days of the company.” If anyone needed information from the archives, they had to search through sometimes fragile paper documents hidden in the basement. Digitizing all of these documents in the application has improved the classification and conservation of the archives, making them instantly accessible.
Knowledge Transfer
NETVIBES data science solutions have added an agility layer above the company’s siloed systems. Employees are empowered to find the information they need when they need it, no matter where it resides. They know that the information is accurate and up-to-date. Instead of searching for data, users are able to spend more time innovating, designing, producing and servicing aircraft more seamlessly. In addition, the application ensures that knowledge is transferred. The company reached its goals of not only improving on-time delivery, but also reducing the cost of goods sold, increasing efficiencies, decreasing development time and accelerating time-to-market. It will continue to work closely with NETVIBES to help meet and exceed its short- and long-term goals of reducing production and operating costs in manufacturing, quality and procurement.
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Karin is a brand content creator on the NETVIBES Marketing team.