Digital: the new frontier for aerospace
When we think of the digital transformation that is underway in the industry today, the opportunities for manufacturers are game-changing. As today’s smart technologies continue to reinvent business models, companies, and even entire industries, it’s evident that the aerospace industry can greatly benefit from the advantages of a dynamic business transformation.
One of the key considerations for aerospace companies as they look to this transformation is how to identify and capitalize on opportunities to either increase margins through finding new efficiencies in processes such as long, costly development lifecycles, or to look at new business models that allow them to expand into higher margin strategies and services.
The new frontier for many aerospace companies is digital. It becomes a question of how adept these companies can be at transforming information they currently gather or could acquire from their aircraft, engines or other systems and then converting that data into insights—combined with their industry expertise—to make it actionable. That is what makes a digital strategy so valuable for those in the aerospace industry: they can differentiate through digital services as opposed to relying on pure innovation in engineering or science.
Transforming design innovation, product improvements, future strategies through deep insights
One of the biggest areas where data analytics pays off is in fuel management; even a small improvement in fuel utilization can often save tens of millions of dollars for an operator. That may not necessarily require making a physical change to the product, such as modifying one of the aircraft systems for example. Instead, it’s about providing insights, based on data, that can aid in increasing the efficiency of the aircraft. One such insight maybe a comparison of flight plan versus the actual flown path, resulting in a more efficient plan or additional guidance for pilots to consider. Furthermore, the data doesn’t have to be singular. It can be multi-dimensional, and using this flight plan example once more, it can include weather information, performance data, and maintenance alerts. Technologies such as Microsoft Azure Machine Learning can analyze historical and real-time data in order to provide a predicted outcome. This information can be used for preventative purposes or proactively to gain efficiencies.
But that is only one part of the equation. Manufacturers can use data insights to improve the design of the physical product by increasing its reliability, quality or performance. It can even assist with design planning by providing information to support decisions or choices, which in turn can reduce the overall development cycle, or at a minimum, to increase the confidence around the right features to build into the product refresh. This is a topic that is on most people’s minds in the aerospace industry: how to utilize information in a way that is productive for customers when the product is in service. That’s why an analytics service is needed. It can guide the future state of a product and also aid in its efficient, reliable or safe operation for many years.
Data analytics can also increase customer loyalty and longevity of a product because its operation can be optimized over time. There’s an interesting value chain here, not just with the improvements in product design, or what you learn from the information, or even how you use the information to increase the confidence in decision making around product lead times or product evolution. It’s about how you use the information to improve the ongoing operation and performance of a product. This builds increased loyalty with customers because they can get better value from the product, mostly likely over a longer period of time, in a predictable manner. Data analytics, combined with a manufacturer’s understanding of how a product or component performs and operates, can provide incredible improvements for an operator.
Transforming the factory
The digitization of almost all work practices can lead to innovative new approaches and utilization of processes that can accomplish new outcomes. One such process that is making inroads in the aerospace industry is 3D printing, which is sometimes known as additive layer manufacturing, or just simply additive manufacturing. This brings you next-to-no waste, a very small carbon footprint, incredibly light and strong materials, as well as non-traditional design opportunities. Unlike traditional manufacturing tooling, 3D printing does not have as many constraints or restrictions other than output size. Now you can design products in a more fluid way and make them more efficient. In fact, it paves the way for a new class of design known as generative design. This new method can create a part from real-world parameters such as strength or loading targets, and then can generate an optimal part using an advanced algorithmic approach. Similarly, parts designed by traditional methods can also be refined and optimized using a similar algorithm and generate a number of solutions for consideration. The resulting parts may only be manufactured efficiently using 3D printing. The benefit for the aerospace industry is a significant decrease in weight and a measurable increase in strength.
I happen to think 3D printing is an enormous opportunity for all companies to take advantage of. Microsoft has had a hand in the development of industry formats for 3D printing as well as the control and management of 3D printing through Windows. We are building an ecosystem of printer providers that can connect and work seamlessly with Windows, which means that more people can take advantage of it. Our goal is make 3D printing as synonymous as 2D printing, so that today’s designers and engineers can experience it on their desktop or in their office, so that designs are optimized when they are ready for manufacturing.
Moving to an all-digital factory is a very practical thing for an aerospace company to accomplish. The paperless factory is still not a vision that has been fulfilled, and if it was, it’s still not efficient in its manner. One of the ways to modernize that process is through secure channels in order to maintain control over the information. Microsoft devices can help to surface information wherever it needs to be, whether that’s on the assembly line, in the quality inspection room or at a supplier’s site. And if you support that process through the cloud, then access to information is ubiquitous and centralized. The barriers that exist with information being spread around in different silos is, in part, resolved. However, no one can ever accomplish a complete transformation overnight; it has to be done business unit by business unit. And Microsoft offers a platform that helps aerospace companies get there faster.
Today, not everything can be 3D-printed yet and we are still limited by the materials. There are new materials that are coming online as part of the 3D printing evolution. The more materials that are available, the more applications can be enabled inside an aircraft with 3D printing. We are working and growing with the market, but it’s better to start now than to be a laggard.
Moving to a digital-first mind-set
When you bring it all together, you can see that adopting a digital strategy enables a wide range of opportunities for aerospace companies. There is a lot to be learned from the operational information that you can get from your product that will allow you to design things in new and efficient ways. Digital technology combined with new and better data sources creates abilities that were unimaginable only a few years ago. The opportunity is to move from a low-margin world of trying to monetize a costly component like an engine or aircraft to a high-margin world where you can monetize a digital service.
If you’d like to learn more, I encourage you to download our new white paper where we explore how these kind of digital technologies are creating across-the-board opportunities for aerospace companies. We’ll show you how you can get started with your digital business transformation today.
LinkedIn: Simon Floyd
Twitter: @FloydInnovation
