A complicated situation

Since the COVID-19 crisis, the aerospace industry has been heavily affected due to the significant drop in the number of air travelers and the closure of many airports. This led to a sharp drop in demand for commercial aircraft and air services, which had a negative impact on the companies in the sector.

Other problems the aerospace industry has faced since the COVID-19 crisis include:

• The need to put in place health and safety measures to protect travelers and industry workers against transmission of the virus.

  
  
  

• The difficulty of maintaining supply chains due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic.

  
  
  

• The pressure to reduce costs and improve efficiency in response to the drop in demand.

  
  
  

• The increased competition with other means of transport, such as road and rail, which can offer safer and less expensive options for travelers.

Moreover, the aerospace industry must face long-term challenges such as the transition to more environmentally friendly aircraft and the management of technological and regulatory changes.

Considered one of the most advanced in the world, the aerospace industry nonetheless seems to have trouble seizing new potential. One of the reasons for this lag lies in the craft nature of manufacturing in this sector. Aircraft are imposing and complex machines, and numerous sophisticated operations are needed to produce them; often in short cycles.

A few figures

In France, according to Gifas, the sector's revenue fell by 30% and its orders by 50% in 2020. The workforce was reduced by 8,000 people, and a recovery was not expected before 2023. The hour is critical. But the 4th industrial revolution could be its saving springboard. 

New opportunities

Through its paradigm shift, this revolution can save the aerospace industry. By implementing the Internet of Things, it connects all the elements of the production chain, and the factory itself. This allows customized production even in large series, making it possible to follow specifications defined by each customer without having to change the entire structure of the production chain.

Driven by the automotive and consumer-electronics sectors, this revolution is particularly well suited to the planning needs of the aerospace industry, favored by technological discoveries such as Big Data, advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

The challenges of planning

At the market level, industrial planning in the aerospace sector is a key element to ensure growth and competitiveness. It involves taking into account different challenges, such as demand management, resource management, quality management, and logistics management. It is also a way for aerospace companies to manage risks and uncertainties, as well as to anticipate investment and skills needs. Finally, industrial planning in the aerospace sector can also contribute to the implementation of sustainable-development and environmental-protection strategies.

At the company level, planning has the heavy responsibility of using all the means made available as efficiently as possible. Resources, labor, machines, time, forecasts, volumes — so many variables that are as complex as they are decisive, whose potential can only be expressed through a synchronized and millimeter-precise dance. Planning is its choreographer and the industrial planner its conductor, its ballet giving the company the competitiveness on which its future depends.

In order to develop a competitive advantage, the company must be able to offer either a product of equal quality to its competitors at a lower price, or a product of superior quality through its technical characteristics, its performance, or its level of customization, justifying a price higher than that of the market. The improvement of industrial-planning processes must thus act on two main levers: costs and quality.

Cost control

• Mass production, economies of scale

To launch a product, a company will incur different costs: the design of the product (research, prototyping, product testing, surveys...), investments in capital goods, staff training costs, or marketing-communication expenses. These costs can then be amortized over a large production volume to avoid weighing on the final sale price.

The company thus achieves economies of scale because the increase in the quantity produced or distributed makes it possible to reduce the unit production cost.

• Series production, flexibility, and customization

In reaction to mass production, new market trends developed, oriented toward greater customization of production, or even pushed individualization.

Companies have the opportunity to develop new industrial-planning processes making it possible to combine both the economy-of-scale advantages of a mass model while retaining a certain flexibility to adapt them to the heterogeneous demands of consumers.

From the design stage, the company thus determines a product as a set of standard modules that will be added to the base product according to the customer's demand. This makes it possible to plan each module in large volumes even though the final product will be differentiated.

• Postponement, efficiency

Postponement (delayed differentiation) is a production technique making it possible to push the customization of products downstream in the production cycle. Its purpose is to reconcile production imperatives with commercial constraints.

Product differentiation is therefore only brought in at the end of the manufacturing process, making the latter easier to plan and limiting the complexity that individualization can bring.

Product quality

The level of quality expected at the end of production is determined by the company. Its control goes through compliance with standards and the analysis of manufacturing processes, structured by a set of procedures. This level of quality can then be attested by obtaining a label or a certification.

Failure to respect quality is a major risk for the company, ranging from damage to brand image to jeopardizing the organization. 

The American aerospace giant Boeing experienced this problem when a manufacturing defect observed on its 737 max model grounded the aircraft for more than a year, led to a production halt and order cancellations. A mistake that cost them more than 20 billion dollars.

Industrial planning: what are its advantages and how to increase its efficiency?

Explicit benefits

Efficient and refined production planning can drastically change the way a company makes its activity profitable. Here is the list of its main benefits: 

• Reduction of labor costs by eliminating wasted time and improving the flow of the process.

  
  
  

• Better allocation of people according to their skills.

  
  
  

• Reduction of inventory costs by decreasing the need for safety stock and excessive work-in-progress stock.

  
  
  

• Optimization of equipment use and increase in capacity.

  
  
  

• Decrease in machine stoppages due to product shortage.

  
  
  

• Reduction of production delay.

  
  
  

• Improvement of the punctuality of product and service deliveries.

  
  
  

Planning optimization

There are different production-planning approaches and techniques used in the aerospace industry. Production planning in this industry is complex and must take into account many factors, such as customer delivery times, capacity constraints, production costs, quality and safety requirements, and changes in market demand.

The optimization of production planning is orchestrated around three major steps: 

• S&OP planning : the company establishes a consensus between the sales objectives, the financial objectives, and the internal realization capacities.

• Load-capacity management: the company adapts its production objectives and its teams according to real demand and the availability of its workforce (absences, training...).

• Scheduling: the company defines its production schedule on the bottleneck workstations, visualizes the production work-in-progress in the workshop, and quickly identifies the over-fed or under-fed workstations.

To optimize the planning of their production, companies in the aerospace industry can use tools such as linear mathematical programming or software for production simulation and supply-chain optimization. These tools can help companies forecast raw-material and labor needs, plan production activities, and optimize the use of resources to meet customer demands while respecting the company's constraints.

To conclude, production planning in the aerospace industry is a complex task that requires close coordination between the company's different stakeholders and requires adopting and effectively using the new tools available. These will make it possible not only to optimize numerous processes but also to give resources more time to dedicate to higher-value-added tasks, to their continuous training, and to the integration of the sector's new challenges.