Managing Automation- July 2008

[ J U LY 2 0 0 8 ] Transformation Integration TechWatch Industries [ INDUSTRIES ] Without a Trace BY JEFF MOAD Business model changes and increasing regulatory scrutiny are putting pressure on aerospace suppliers to improve and automate the processes by which they share part and subsystem lifecycle information with OEMs. here was a time not long ago when manufacturing aerospace parts was a fairly straightforward business. OEMs such as Boeing and Airbus would design all of the major subsystems in an aircraft and then provide suppliers with the specifications of the parts they wanted built. Suppliers would comply, often packaging paper documents containing testing and other information along with the requested parts. For many aerospace suppliers, however, that simple “build-to-print” business model is a thing of the past. Today, OEMs are turning over more responsibility for designing, assembling, and even maintaining subsystems to suppliers in the interest of reducing lead times and sharing program risk and cost. At the same time, OEMs are demanding that suppliers provide more — and more up-todate — information about things like what specific parts are in a given subsystem, when the parts were produced, by whom, under what conditions, and what quality tests were performed on them. Suppliers that can provide detailed part pedigree information seamlessly and digitally stand a better chance of holding onto customers — and gaining new ones. “OEMs need to know where we are at in terms of our performance and our processes,” says Tim Heer, ERP implementation manager at Leach International, a maker of aerospace electrical parts and subsystems. The company is undertaking a major system upgrade project in order to provide better part traceability information to OEM customers, such as Lockheed Martin, Bombardier, and Boeing. “If a customer knows you’re best-inclass, you are seen as a preferred supplier, and that gives you the option of moving work from lower-performing suppliers to you.” Like Leach, many aerospace suppliers — even small and mid-sized ones — are revamping processes and deploying a wide range of technologies that can help OEMs trace and understand the per formance of the par ts in their ma July 34 2008 Photo illustration: Philip Gallof

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation- July 2008

Managing Automation- July 2008 Contents Take 1 HP's Acquisition of EDS May Face Integration, Global Delivery Challenges Rimini Plans to Woo SAP Support Users Rockwell Steps Up Its Activities in Software Microsoft Targets the Process of Innovation Supply Chain Standouts Honored by AMR Notes Who Are Today's Influential Thinkers? The Robot Revolution Is the Price Right? Without a Trace Harvesting the Suggestion Box Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

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