With the present economic uncertainty, companies across all sectors in North America are increasingly being faced with a challenge to reduce their overall costs. Companies in the aerospace and defense sector, in particular, are striving to differentiate themselves in order to compete more efficiently in an environment characterized by decreasing defense spending. In such a scenario, a primary concern for these companies is to improve their engineering productivity. This white paper focuses on the Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Enhancement, an award that is presented every year to a company that has demonstrated excellence when it comes to implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers. There is also a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The Sente Group has been chosen as the worthy recipient of the 2013 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award in the North American Test Asset Management market for Aerospace & Defense. Focusing on serving the needs of the aerospace and defense sector, Sente offers a range of solutions to help organizations manage their test assets and resources more efficiently and cost-effectively. Find out about more key factors that are contributing to Sente’s success below!
Read More →Infographic: Fact-Based Negotiation to Get the Best Price on Purchased Components
Conducting fact-based negotiations is an effective cost reduction strategy when sourcing components. The infographic below explains how to leverage a product cost management (PCM) platform to conduct more effective fact-based negotiations. Check out the full infographic below! aPriori’s product costing software generates detailed cost estimates and connects all members of your product team to relevant views of cost data – from sales to supplier, from concept to customer. Hear more from aPriori by joining the discussion at the American Aerospace & Defense Summit on December 6-7 in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Read More →Video: Costing Machined Parts
Anyone who has spent time costing manufactured products knows that costing of machined parts is the benchmark by which all cost estimating software is measured. aPriori excels in this challenge, generating detailed cost estimates to help bring innovative, cost-optimized products to market faster. Check out this short 3-minute video to Learn More!
Read More →Product Cost Management: What does your Software do for you?
Computer-aided design (CAD) is an industrial art that results in lower product development costs and greatly shortened design cycles. In today’s post we take a closer look aPriori‘s software capabilities to gain a fuller understanding of how 3D CAD Modeling can help developers: Launch new products at or below target cost Avoid overpaying for outsourced parts Maximize cost savings of re-design work Increase the accuracy and speed of RFQ responses aPriori software and services generate hard-dollar product cost savings for discrete manufacturing organizations. Using aPriori’s real-time product cost assessments, employees in sourcing, manufacturing and design engineering make more-informed decisions that drive costs out of products pre- and post-production. Check out the video below to learn How aPriori’s product cost management software can rapidly generate detailed cost estimates using any 3D solid CAD model as the primary input. Costs can be generated for a wide array of manufacturing processes, such as: Sheetmetal Fabrication, Plastic Injection Molding, Casting, Machining, Forging, Powdered Metal, Gear Making, etc. Find out more from aPriori by joining the discussion at the American Aerospace & Defense Summit on December 6-7, 2016, in Scottsdale, AZ!
Read More →Video: Christopher Murphy’s Experience At The American Biomanufacturing Summit
At the American Biomanufacturing Summit last May we had the opportunity to sit down with one of our key speakers, Christopher Murphy, VP, Operations at Genzyme to hear his thoughts on participating as a speaker and on the summit as a whole. The American Biomanufacturing Summit is returning to the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in San Diego on May 10th – 11th, 2016. To find out more about the two day summit taking place next month, visit: www.biomanamerica.com
Read More →End-to-End Supply Chain Synchronization: The importance of Predictive Analytics & Lean Pull
A major focus within this blog has been looking at methods to drive efficiency and enable operational excellence in manufacturing. One aspect we haven’t yet explored is end-to-end supply chain synchronization. Synchronizing the supply network with final customer demand is a key factor in driving operational excellence. By using actual customer demand across the supply network manufacturers can enable better service and conversion costs with less inventory. Shertrack LLC has released a fascinating case study that highlights the key elements in achieving end-to-end supply chain synchronization. To find out more about demand-driven predictive manufacturing and the benefits of synchronizing your supply chain, visit: http://shertrack.com/
Read More →Mitigating Manufacturing Costs: How General Motors Saved $21 Million
There are a number of options that manufacturers can explore when looking to reduce their manufacturing costs; material management, supplier negotiation, workforce optimization, process overhaul, inventory carry over and energy consumption are all factors that can be considered. Energy spend, however, accounts for a large portion of manufacturing costs and provides a unique opportunity for cost reduction. To effectively manage energy spend, manufacturers must first acquire insights into the three cost drivers of energy consumption and identify areas for effective change. How energy is purchased, how energy is used and when energy is used will greatly affect the overall cost of energy consumption. One company that has effectively reduced their long term manufacturing costs through energy consumption management is General Motors. With operations in 25 countries, GM is one of the world’s oldest and largest manufacturers of vehicles and vehicle parts. Through their partnership with EnerNOC and the implementation of Energy Intelligence Software, General Motors has managed to save over $21 Million dollars in energy spend. The General Motors case study provides some interesting insights into the long term efficacy of implementing Energy Intelligence Software as well as the steps that are taken to achieve these savings. For details, check out the General Motors Case Study.
Read More →Not All Parts Are Created Equal: Choosing the right CNC Machining Company for the Aerospace Industry
Precision machining techniques are needed to produce aerospace components that are instrumental throughout an aircraft. These components are often ‘life-critical’, intricate parts that need to meet very precise specifications with high tolerance thresholds. “Quality is a given, because these parts are going in jet engines and landing gear, all across an airplane. It’s what we call ‘life-critical’. There is no room for failure.” explains Scot Barton, VP Sales at Pointe Precision. Given the vital nature of the components, selecting the right CNC Machining partner is a critical aspect of an aerospace manufacturers’ process. When selecting a CNC Machining partner there are a couple of key factors to consider: Technological Capabilities When it comes to machining high quality precision parts, the first and most important aspect is the in-house equipment that your potential partner is utilizing. The ideal machining partner will have: A full complement of high-quality machines with the ability to process large volumes quickly and seamlessly. Multi-tasking capabilities to allow machining in a single operation as opposed to only offering multi-fixture operations. This machining capability will allow for greater reliability in the generation of aerospace parts. Multi-tasking capabilities also allow for improved internal flexibility as operators move from machine to machine, going where the work is. Sam Crueger, Engineering Manager at Pointe Precision explains that “the quality is (also) better when a part can be completed on a single machine.” ‘One-Stop-Shop’ offerings: Ensuring that all of your CNC Machining …
Read More →How Plasma Enables Enhanced Efficiency and Decreases Costs in Aerospace Manufacturing.
Aerospace and defense manufacturers are constantly seeking ways to improve product durability and reliability while reducing costs. Incorporating composite materials into aerospace production has presented manufacturers with unique cleaning and adhesion challenges in processes such as joining, printing, coating, sealing and painting. Surface treatment and surface modification have therefore arisen as a critical factor to aerospace manufacturers, especially during the production of aircraft components such as wings or fuselages. Plasma treatment is ideal for a number of these processes as it helps to join dissimilar materials including difficult to adhere to plastics and lightweight substrates, protect against corrosion, prevent leaks, resist flaking. Plasmatreat is the global leader in proven automated plasma technologies for manufacturing. Plasmatreat has received a distinguished TRL 9 rating by industry customers classifying it as a reliable strong manufacturing solution. Improved bonding and adhesion for component, lightweight parts The bonding and adhesion of aerospace parts is critical for an industry where safety and durability are paramount. Lightweight, dissimilar materials such as carbon fiber (CFRP), aluminum, sheet molding compound (SMC) and high performance polymers are used in both body and component design. Joining these dissimilar materials can only be achieved when the surfaces are clean and prepped for bonding/adhesion. The cleaning and functionalization of material surfaces is necessary to achieve strong permanent bonds leading to high quality production output, yielding a safe and reliable product. Traditionally, prepping for bonding includes surface roughing such as sanding, welding or metal …
Read More →Video: Key Cost Management Challenges for the Aerospace Industry
In an earlier post we addressed the benefits of Should Costing for the aerospace industry. In today’s post I wanted to share the following video that builds on that knowledge and discusses the challenges the industry is facing in adopting this method. As previously discussed, Should Costing is a systematic process that enables cost reduction from the conceptualization stage through the product life-cycle. This is particularly relevant to the aerospace industry as maintaining competitiveness is highly dependent on an organization’s ability to reduce product costs and delivery cycle times. The industry as a whole continues to face challenges in managing product costs from the inception stage through the very long life-cycle of its products. In this video Philippe Sottocassa, Global Vertical Head, Aerospace & Defense, Geometric Ltd. discusses these challenges as well as the status of adoption in the aerospace industry. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKfAsXVb5lE&w=560&h=315]
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