Aerospace, Defense & Ship Building

Product and program development in the aerospace industry requires collaboration among partners, suppliers, customers and multi-disciplined teams around the world. The products and programs themselves are often very complex and there are challenging dynamics related to multi-year development cycles.

Key Challenges

• Long, inefficient product and program development cycles
• Product Development complexity
• Increased financial scrutiny
• Lack in full lifecycle support
• Increased environmental focus
• Emerging international competition
• Rapidly deploy and integrate new technologies into platforms, products and programs that involve multiple suppliers, partners and customers throughout the process
• Security challenges when sharing data across the globe with hosted functional suppliers, contractors, partners and customers
• Compliance with strict government and industry requirements, and regulatory mandate

Ways to Overcome Challenges

• Create a centralized product data model that tracks and integrates software, hardware, electronics and mechanical parts, improving visibility across long planning cycles while eliminating waste and rework
• Establish traceability between programs and product documentation, from the original concept to services and repairs, reducing lifecycle management costs
• Build a secure infrastructure plan which accounts for ITAR, EAR and other important government regulations
• Integrate customers, suppliers and partners early in your product and program development process to improve collaboration and minimize errors
• Integrate customers into your Program and Contract Management processes

How We Can Help

• Establish common frameworks and efficient methods that can improve the predictability and effectiveness of aircraft design and manufacturing
• Define process controls and implement program management frameworks to ensure that you meet cost, time and quality targets
• Develop knowledge management databases to improve the visibility and traceability of product plans, from the proposal phase through customer service and repair
• Implement program management and product development processes that seamlessly integrate customers and suppliers into your PLM systems and processes
• Create security identification, verification and validation processes to meet ITAR and EAR restrictions when sharing information with your supply chain