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Recent years have brought a revival to the aerospace and aviation industry: domestic air traffic outgrew the pre-pandemic level, and the geopolitical situation encouraged growth in the aerospace and defense sector. However, the growing demand for aerospace and aviation services and products brings new challenges to the manufacturing companies in this industry, which have to deal with supply chain issues related to the shortage of raw materials and components, inflation, and changing workforce expectations.
To remain flexible in the changing economic and geopolitical arena, aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies should have the ultimate control of their operations, resources, and assets. With the growing digitization of various enterprise processes, aerospace ERP software has become the central control point of aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies, connecting every business process and providing a deep insight into the organization’s performance.
Learn how ERP for aerospace and aviation companies helps, consolidate and manage business process data, overcome economic and industry challenges, and ensure compliance, security, and production quality.
Key features to look for in ERP for aerospace and aviation:
1. Procurement and inventory management
Aircraft manufacturing involves hundreds of materials, and ERP for aerospace and aviation can help manufacturing companies efficiently manage the sourcing of raw materials and ensure visibility into procurement processes. Also, an ERP system assists with managing supplier relationships (like selecting and assessing suppliers or managing contracts), as well as keeping procurement spending under control by monitoring current spending against the allocated budget in real-time.
Moreover, ERP software ensures real-time inventory visibility across multiple locations, from goods in transit to warehouses and shop floors, using lot and serial number tracing of the materials and end-products. Finally, relying on inventory analytics and reports generated by ERP, aerospace and aviation companies can also replenish their materials based on demand.
2. Production management
With an ERP solution, aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies can ensure better production planning and control over the production process. ERP software connects information on the availability of raw materials at warehouses, current production workload and placed orders, equipment condition, and many other critical data required for efficient manufacturing. Further on, by integrating ERP with MES systems, a company’s managers can oversee shop floor activities, assign and track work orders, and manage bills of material and engineering change requests.
3. Project management
Apart from providing a manufacturing processes overview, ERP allows aerospace and aviation companies to keep track of project execution. A company’s managers get all the necessary functionality for project planning and progress tracking, budgeting and forecasting, as well as human resource planning and allocation. All in all, the project management capabilities of aerospace ERP help aerospace and aviation companies get a 360-degree view of their multiple projects and ensure they stay on schedule and within budget.
4. Quality management
The cost of error in aircraft manufacturing is too high to neglect the importance of strict production quality control. In addition, quality management within aerospace ERP systems is particularly important due to stringent regulations. The quality management and control module in ERP usually includes features for tracking the quality of materials and components throughout the supply chain, inspection planning, non-conformance tracking and reporting, and vendor performance monitoring to help companies detect issues impacting product quality throughout the manufacturing process.
5. Compliance management
Aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies must comply with many strict regulations, such as ITAR, FAA, CMMS, and AS 9100, as well as global trade and cybersecurity requirements. As a central enterprise solution, ERP software provides aircraft manufacturing companies with features for maintaining audit trails, tracking compliance requirements, and generating compliance reports, thus helping them streamline compliance with all the relevant regulations.
Benefits of ERP for aerospace and defense companies
Apart from direct advantages, like improved procurement management, supply chain visibility, and better quality control, ERP software brings several long-term benefits to aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies.
1. Cross-departmental synergy
ERP for aerospace and aviation companies integrates key business processes and operations, like supply chain, manufacturing, finance management, and customer relations. By uniting data from all core processes in one place, companies minimize data silos and facilitate collaboration between the organization’s departments.
2. Data-driven decision-making
ERP for aerospace and aviation provides immediate access to comprehensive data related to core manufacturing and financial processes. What’s more, many ERP systems are equipped with advanced analytics capabilities that can predict trends and outcomes based on historical data. Relying on these features, aerospace and aviation companies can efficiently use data to gain valuable insights and make actionable decisions. However, software project failure can occur if the ERP system is not properly implemented or integrated with existing systems.
3. Adaptability to change
Nowadays, companies across all industries have to operate in a dynamic business environment, and aerospace and aviation companies are no exception. Modern aerospace ERP systems are designed to be scalable, and, as companies expand to new projects or markets, the scalability of an ERP system ensures that their core processes continue to function smoothly, supporting growth and changes without disruption.
4. More sustainable manufacturing
ERP for aerospace and aviation helps companies optimize manufacturing processes by providing better control over the supply chain, shop floor operations, and replenishment of materials. This allows companies to save resources and energy, thus reducing waste and making manufacturing more sustainable.
5. Better risk mitigation
ERP software standardizes core business processes and streamlines financial reporting, thus helping aerospace and aviation manufacturing companies keep audit trails of their activities, comply with strict standards and regulations, and minimize the risk of penalties. Moreover, ERP systems can integrate risk management tools to help identify, assess, and mitigate risks, like supply chain disruptions or quality control failures, before more serious consequences occur.
Summing up
As you can see, ERP for aerospace and aviation can cover multiple business and manufacturing processes in manufacturing companies for the aerospace and aviation industry, helping them gain better visibility and control over the organization’s production workflows, remain flexible in a changing global environment, comply with industry regulations, and timely mitigate risks. However, for an ERP system to be as efficient as described above, aerospace and aviation companies need to carefully choose ERP vendor and finetune the solution to their requirements and demands.
