“Unlocking Africa’s Aerospace and Defence potential”
This is the tagline of Africa Aerospace and Defence (AAD) 2018 which will take place from the 19th to 23rd of September at the Air Force Base Waterkloof, City of Tshwane, South Africa. AAD is the only event of its kind in the African region demonstrating the latest technology in the sector. It provides government departments, businesses and armed forces a unique platform to establish and strengthen relationships throughout the continent.
The event is held over a period of five days in the following format: a 3-day trade exhibition that showcases air, sea and land defense technologies, including a static aircraft display, opened to media and trade visitors only and a 2-day air show with live aircraft demonstrations, opened to media, trade and general public visitors.
AAD is a real asset for Africa. It brings together the largest gathering of industry players in Aerospace and Defense (manufacturers and innovators) and buyers (high-level international delegations, Defense Chiefs of Arms and senior procurement officers). Rated amongst the top six exhibitions in the world, AAD boasts more than 450 participating companies in the defense and aerospace industries, from over 30 countries. It provides a conducive environment for business-to-business linkages, as well as an ideal platform for engaging in dialogue and discourse on international defense, aerospace and other related best practices.
The Future Factory is here
Dassault Systèmes will be exhibiting in Hangar 4, stand 4W10 and we look forward to discuss Aerospace & Defense industry challenges and trends and share with you our vision of the factory of the future.
According to Deloitte, the global industry is “on a solid profitable growth path”. Indeed, commercial aircraft deliveries are rising due to an increased passenger travel demand which is having a ripple effect.
Innovation is required to fast track thanks to new technologies. New entrants are learning quickly and are putting pressure on large A&D companies. As a result, executives at these companies must change their strategy in terms of capital expenditures and R&D spending to increase support for new technologies and partnerships with the goal of designing and engineering new products faster. Said differently, organisations need to be less risk-averse. This is what we aim to do too: innovate to place new technologies within the reach of our customers. For example, coming to our stand at AAD, you will be able to assemble a UAV by means of instructions given in Augmented Reality, showing how you can use this technology in your company to train people in a whole new way.
The industry players are looking for ways in which they will be able to accelerate the maturity of an engineering cycle, reduce costs and enhance collaboration in real time. They will have to be able to make virtual test, validation and verification in order to eliminate costly prototypes or physical testing and to continue to grow, evolve and take market share. Dassault Systèmes on its fast phased innovation track is bringing you the solution to this in more ways than one. Come visit us at AAD 2018 and ask us about our Virtual Reality solutions.
The Future Factory is here. Aerospace companies can achieve more flexible production while reducing waste. They have to leverage innovation collaboration for that. Aerospace & Defense OEMs and large suppliers are often faced with the challenge to manage large manufacturing sites and complex global supply chains to meet aggressive delivery targets. And in the rush, they make errors causing waste in production which makes it difficult to achieve their goals. This is something we believe to be one major use case of our 3DEXPERIENCE platform. It allows everyone inside the company (and out) to collaborate together to win and deliver more business, the goal being to learn from the past to enable you to successfully navigate the future.
According to Bernard Charlès, the CEO of Dassault Systèmes, manufacturers can prepare for this factory of the future: “What must be understood is that the factory of tomorrow must not be an improvement of the factory of today. The revolution is on the march, like it or not. It is going to even accelerate because it is linked to economic and sociologic factors which overcome the production world. We must not only improve the connectivity of machines. It is the whole production world changing.”
Indeed, while transforming their innovation process, leveraging virtual environments, digital continuity, and simulation, companies are also rapidly integrating new technologies like additive manufacturing into production (otherwise known as 3D printing). It is definitely on the rise amongst A&D companies for manufacturing parts and components as it is known to improve productivity and allow for decentralised production. Visit us at AAD, as we will be presenting a show case about additive manufacturing with our customer Aerosud and our partner Intrinsys.
Click here to set up a meeting with us at AAD 2018.
As Solution Consultant for South Africa, Value Solutions channel, Jason Fagan works closely with Dassault Systèmes' partners to bring value to our end customers' businesses. Having more than 10 years' experience in Solution Consulting, covering multiple industries - including A&D, T&M and IE - allows him to use cross-industry knowledge and best practices to support our customers better. In his spare time, he likes reading, drones and metal detecting.