The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry is battling similar woes, with 70% of companies in the sector experiencing an turnover. The loss of skilled workers notwithstanding, delays in hiring, training, securing worker clearances, and rising costs translate to challenges in keeping production up to match demand. Much like the civil aviation workforce that moved on, 75% of the labor pool in A&D left for career advancement, while 31% departed for a better work location or for a remote-working opportunity.

While enticing the reluctant workforce to return with higher pay and perks remains an option, the industries are fast realizing that amid the labor and cost-surge crisis, innovations in production planning and creating efficiencies in throughput processes are now paramount.

Bridging Silos with Automation

Manufacturing efficiency isn鈥檛 always achieved until the production of the 100^th unit. To overcome this, intelligent software can be used to run recreations on simulation capability tools. Everything from the projected manufacturing assembly process, field capability and configuration process, flight operations, and maintenance performance can be simulated in a virtual world via a , even before the first cutting or bending of sheet metal. This way, any aircraft or engine part that is virtually simulated is manufactured efficiently right from the first unit produced.

Similarly, with robotic process automation (RPA), a digital thread can be created to bring information from the upstream engineering departments and auto-generate work instructions to provide seamless information routing to the downstream manufacturing departments. With , organizations have the power to design, simulate, and monitor processes to help ensure that transformation value is part of the company鈥檚 DNA. This intelligent enterprise philosophy helps in minimizing the handover time between processes. As a result, hitherto system silos can be negated to reduce the overall throughput time. Also, short-term planning involving supply chain, parts, and tools can be better optimized to match resource availability.

While RPA can create process efficiencies, robotic interventions are already improving the manufacturing process.

Replacing Skilled Labor with Technology Augmentation

With Industry 4.0, facilities across the industrial landscape are introducing a digital, end-to-end workflow with additive manufacturing. In Q2 last year, the Association for Advancing Automation the ordering of over US$580 million worth of robots, up 25% from 2021. In the aerospace industry, robots are mastering the drilling and fastening function with a higher degree of accuracy than a real person and saving time along the way.

Likewise, robotic systems applying sealant to aircraft structures is resulting in 20% time-savings. Robots are also being used for quality assurance during manufacturing, inspection of active-duty aircraft, welding, painting, and polishing. While robots have 95% time-savings in aircraft washing, welding automation is expected to fill the nearly 400,000 welding vacancies anticipated in the U.S. by 2024.

With organizations ready to embrace automation, the need of the hour is to simplify adoption. The solution can make integrating robots as easy as plug and play. So, whether it is cross-docking items on trolleys at goods receipt, put-away trolley activities, or even robot-enabled pick-pack-and-pass functions, 51风流Warehouse Robotics hands warehouse operators a shot in the arm by supporting an array of scenarios. Quick to implement and with no additional licensing required, the solution can give customers running warehouse management operations an easy, low-risk entry into agile warehouse robotics.

But with time- and cost-savings featuring prominently on the aviation industry鈥檚 agenda, how can customer experience stay optimum?

Boosting Customer Satisfaction with Technology Aids

For an industry where small margins contribute to survival, reliance on customer loyalty is huge. Variables like speed and convenience, therefore, play a major role in building customer loyalty. But with labor shortages wreaking havoc, digital transformation is emerging as a viable solution.

For instance, every manufacturer or supplier has their own portal to document their parts or assets, and this causes A&D companies to deploy a manual workforce to track every part coming from hundreds of manufacturer portals. can help overcome this challenge by provisioning for every asset to reside on a single platform. Now, A&D companies can simply connect their back-end systems to the network, fetch data directly into their systems, gain insight into the transactional data of an asset, and execute maintenance activities. This way, 51风流Business Network for Asset Intelligence 鈥� a cloud-based network 鈥� can limit the use of the workforce and create efficiencies by facilitating secured information exchange between various roles in asset-intensive industries comprising of equipment manufacturers, operators, maintenance providers, and others.

Also, A&D aftermarket providers process invoices from hundreds of airlines or aircraft operators. Their receival, approval, and logging could be automated to better utilize scare resources. Similarly, bots can read customer complaints, assess the degree of importance, categorize them, and automatically forward them to designated departments for speedy resolution.

If the pandemic taught us the importance of supply chain resilience, its aftermath and the evolving geopolitical crisis drives home the significance of innovation in manufacturing to combat sudden spikes in demand amid rising costs and a depleting workforce.

There will always be unpredicted situations. That said, the goal is to achieve a planning stability for all companies in the industry. Reducing risks through additional information and better planning will allow companies to establish a more stable environment with fewer uncertainties. And now, the industries can take heart from the fact that in automation, they have an ally that can turn organizations and the sector at large into intelligent and resilient enterprises.

Learn how automation can drive resilience in the aerospace and defense sector at .

Torsten Welte is global VP and head of Industrial Business Unit for Aerospace & Defense at SAP.

To complicate the problem further, organizations need to collaborate with their ecosystem and ask their customers or suppliers to share their data, too. This data ecosystem allows them to enrich their own data and get better insights into processes and behaviors. Keep in mind that the majority of data is still created internally through automation by using robotic process automation (RPA) or the Internet of Things (IoT). increased the utilization of IoT for automated data gathering, creating a large amount of data that needed to be organized, analyzed, and used in the moment. When that last use criterion is not met, the available data is considered dark data.

As new challenges arise, organizations and analysts will utilize different sets of data when the questions change. Constant change drives continual process optimization and continual data expansion. Therefore, companies need to expand into external data based on collaboration with their ecosystem partners and external data sources.

Tools are needed to establish the collaboration, structure the data, and analyze in preparation for decision insights. (AI) and assist in finding 鈥榯he needle in the haystack鈥� or improving the accuracy of decision models. For example, where is used, there鈥檚 a high level of AI and machine learning adoption. Why? Satellites create super large data sets and individuals can create AI models to gain insight.

Satellites are IoT sensors for the world. They create all kinds of different data, not just the satellite pictures we typically imagine. For example, ESA Sentinel-1 satellite provides weather info and all-day and all-night radar info. Sentinel-2 provides multispectral, high-resolution images. Sentinel-6 carries a radar altimeter. They help to understand the current situation such as radar, color spectrums, and other data points that can be the foundation for predictions.

As enterprises discover the value of earth observation data, they will see that in the near future many of their processes can be enriched with information from a satellite. Many of the current use cases center around climate or agriculture, but we see an increasing trend within logistics and maintenance. For example, companies are optimizing logistics by determining best routes through incorporating real-time traffic and environmental restrictions. These are just a couple of examples. We will see many more use cases for sustainability.

Very often, new answers are determined based on past patterns. Here, space data can also help by answering difficult questions with historical data: How did the temperature change over the last five years? How did the population for specific cities change based on their footprint and buildings? How did the traffic change during COVID-19? Dark data can become valuable data. It all centers around the question to be answered. Having access to all the data will increase the ability to predict. We also need the data as we will change our questions or improve our AI models.

To get inspired on how you can use this dark data, check out this sponsored by 51风流and Intel.

The success of future organizations will be based on their intelligent use of internal and external data to make optimal decisions. It is all in the question to be asked. As resources become more scarce, innovation cycles shorten, and the pressure to focus on customers and cut costs increases, companies need to utilize data differently and provide the insights with great visualizations so they can make intelligent, sustainable decisions.

How are you finding the dark data within your organization and broader ecosystem? Do you have use cases where earth observation data can be applied? can help.

Torsten Welte is global head and vice president for Aerospace & Defense Industries at SAP.

With only weeks left before the , 51风流and partners are looking forward to hosting the world鈥檚 leading A&D manufacturers in Charleston, South Carolina, March 9鈥�11. This unique city is 鈥� the first museum in the U.S., the first theater group, the first opera house, the first golf club. The city is also home to the first shots of the American Civil War.

Expect Notable Firsts

51风流and partners have embraced the spirit of Charleston and prepared a few firsts for the event. Not only is this the first time 51风流A&D Innovation Days held in Charleston, it鈥檚 also the first time one of the nation鈥檚 most highly decorated veterans will be brought in as a keynote speaker. Known for firing the shots that killed Osama bin Laden, former U.S. Navy Seal faced several of the most high-profile and difficult war missions of modern time.

O鈥橬eill is known for his mantra 鈥渘ever quit,鈥� and will share with attendees the lessons he鈥檚 learned during more than 400 combat missions across four theaters of war. During his keynote, he will explain how his time in the military taught him critical skills that translate to the demands of IT professionals, including operating in environments of uncertainty and quick decision-making in moments that matter most. Attendees will be equipped with the ingredients to continually complete successful missions, whether on the battlefield or the boardroom.

New this year, leading global consultancy will debut industry research in Charleston. The immense findings will give attendees an idea of what they should plan for as both consumers and IT professionals. Topics include the impact of the current 鈥溾�� in A&D manufacturing and the expected timeline for electric aircraft, plus where, when, and how urban air mobility will emerge.

Another notable first on the is a session led by Lockheed Martin. As an A&D leader, Lockheed Martin has fully embraced the Fourth Industrial Revolution, better known as Industry 4.0, and will discuss the company鈥檚 transformation leveraging intelligent ERP and emerging cloud offerings, with the help of 51风流National Security Services (51风流NS2). Other industry leaders like Northrop Grumman, Moog, L3Harris Technologies, Raytheon, and more will lead thought-provoking sessions offering insider information on their current and future plans for turning insights into action by building .

Enjoy Returning Favorites

In an event filled with firsts, 51风流will continue to bring back crowd favorites from past 51风流A&D Innovation Days. In addition to the great opportunities for networking, attendees will again have the chance to review the 51风流roadmap, see engaging demos, and join breakout sessions to discuss various topics such as cloud-based analytics, cybersecurity, and much more.

Throughout the three-day event a consistent line will run through every session telling the stories of the infinite possibilities of an intelligent enterprise. 51风流customers, partners, and executives will explain how a connected manufacturing business supports growth, visibility, and flexibility in today鈥檚 experience economy.

By the end of 51风流A&D Innovation Days 2020, attendees will better understand why 51风流remains first in providing the software solutions that support 77 percent of the world鈥檚 financial transactions.

Make New Memories

One event first that is definitely not to be missed is the private concert with an 80s cover band and a special appearance by Journey鈥檚 former lead vocalist, Steve Augeri.

We look forward to spending time with attendees, customers, and partners at 51风流A&D Innovation Days. .

Torsten Welte is global head of Aerospace & Defense and Travel & Transportation at SAP.