© 2021 Auburn University
© 2021 Auburn University
Developing Digital Capabilities in a Defense, Aerospace, and Energy Supplier
This company is a large contract manufacturer with the capability to produce a variety of parts from small to very large, with some up to 100,000 pounds and 65 ft in length. The industries it serves include aerospace, defense, and energy with capabilities in machining, welding, program management and more. Senior leadership is heavily engaged in customer programs and operations, working closely with more than 300 employees to make decisions about new or improved technologies and processes.
CHALLENGES
While faced with many challenges common to most manufacturers, following are some of the higher priority issues that impact the company’s drive toward developing digital capabilities.
The convergence of several issues has made finding a qualified workforce a significant challenge for the company. First is simply finding people who want to work in a manufacturing environment. It seems that the people influencing job choices for young people, like parents and school counselors, don’t understand the growing landscape of manufacturing opportunities and steer them to college or other fields and industries.
Another issue is the change in culture. Older generations were more accepting of working longer hours when needed, while younger generations prefer a work/life balance that is less focused on work. This further reduces the workforce available to handle new orders.
These and other workforce issues are limiting the company’s ability to grow, despite having the capacity that currently sits idle. To help overcome these issues, the company has been exploring and implementing digital capabilities that would enable its employees to perform more work with less effort.
In addition to an increase in the overall pace of business, the company has had to deal with slow customer responsiveness. It is common for the company to respond to a request for a quote that includes a delivery deadline but then experiences a delay in the release of the actual purchase order while the customer finalizes its design. Since the delivery date is typically not adjusted to accommodate that lag time, the company must assign extra resources to ensure on-time delivery. This situation requires that the company either keep resources free to handle these situations or leverage digital capabilities to perform the work in less time.
The use of supplier portals by most major customers can be both a blessing and a curse. One of the drawbacks is that each customer’s portal is different with varying degrees of complexity, requiring greater effort to learn and connect to those portals. Compounding that issue are the different policies and processes used by each customer, which make it harder for one program manager to help or step in for another.
An additional communications challenge is that many customers still send technical data by email and even paper. This not only hampers the company’s ability to effectively collaborate with customers, but it also introduces a greater risk of producing parts to the wrong version. To help overcome this challenge, the company has written a custom program to track drawing and document revisions to help reduce that risk.
MOTIVATION
Frustration was one of the early motivators that drove innovation adoption. Work orders and schedules were changing throughout the day, causing delays and cost overruns. Team members (engineers, programmers, team leaders, welders, and machinists) saw how advancements in technology could help make their jobs easier and were anxious to implement solutions that could help them be more efficient.
The workforce issues of today are a major driver of implementing digital capabilities. Finding technologies and processes that help the company perform more work with less effort was one way to increase revenues without increasing the workforce.
Customer requirements also prioritize some of the decisions on which digital capabilities are needed and when. The aerospace and defense industries involve complex engineering-centric requirements and communications. Large customers have been “going digital” for a while and dictating that their suppliers do the same to increase communications and collaboration efficiencies.
RESULTS
This privately held company has been implementing digital capabilities incrementally for the past 23 years. Senior leadership was quick to recognize the strategic and financial benefits without the need for detailed return on investment calculations. Some of the results realized by the firm include the following.
Reduced costsThe ability to do more work with less effort has made a significant contribution to reducing overall costs. Decreases in rework and rejects have played a part as well.
Faster time to marketIn addition to helping the company streamline internal processes, digital capabilities have helped customers get their products to market faster.
Increased job satisfactionCoupling advanced technologies that reduce effort with a focus on employee engagement has helped this company develop a dedicated workforce that has little turnover.
Greater competitive advantageIn addition to substantial technical capabilities, the company leverages its digital communications and collaboration capabilities as a significant differentiator.
Improved qualityThe company’s weld quality system tracks materials, equipment, and operator skills to deliver greater quality, as evidenced by many successful customer and industry audits.
SOLUTIONS
The company has embraced technology and process innovations for decades, which helps accelerate the adoption of new initiatives. The employees are involved in the design and implementation of new technologies and processes, helping ensure that everyone is on board.
To address many of the workforce challenges, the company began its own paid apprentice program for both welding and machining. Its training center uses the same machines, controls and welding equipment that are found on the shop floor to help accelerate the transition process. The program is about three months long, with each day broken into a half-day in the training facility followed by a half-day of shadowing an operator on the floor. At the end of the course, students are asked to make a part that emphasizes most of the features that they would find on parts made on the shop floor.
While initially starting with whiteboards at the workstations to convey job status, the company realized very quickly the shortcomings of this analog approach. It began capturing as much data as it could, ranging from the time it takes to create machining programs to performing quality inspections.
By placing video screens at the workstations, the company was able to visually show operators their job priorities by tracking the availability of material, equipment, and people. Performance data was also included to help convey progress and timing. The operators appreciate the value of improved coordination and streamlining of their work.
The company has more than 40 CNC machines with a common controller on each. It also maintains several standards certifications. The standardized equipment and structured processes significantly reduce maintenance costs and time. They also enable operators to easily switch positions or even swap out parts, helping relieve some of the workforce issues.
Even before the organization used collaborative technologies, it instilled collaboration as part of its core values. Face-to-face meetings and program reviews have helped ensure a steady customer dialog to improve manufacturability and producibility.
Operators were often crossing paths and traveling considerable distances with empty forklifts. The company developed an application connected to its ERP system that alerts forklift drivers of product locations and provides instructions for pick-up and delivery. The result optimized delivery, reducing time, costs and safety risks while minimizing the opportunity for product damage.
The next big digital capability the company is pursuing is machine monitoring to help improve overall equipment effectiveness. It currently has six machines set up for some testing and to explore the results. The company is looking to learn from this experience and determine how best to use the data before rolling it out company-wide.