Jane Edwards
A Deloitte article says aerospace and defense companies should focus on four key areas to achieve digital transformation and one of those is implementing agile production and predictive quality controls in response to customers' evolving demands.
A&D companies should also create new business models, advance collaboration with the supply chain and protect data and intellectual property from cyber vulnerabilities, according to the article published Tuesday.
The article cited the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, or Fourth Industrial Revolution platforms designed to create a digital manufacturing enterprise, within the A&D industry and the challenges faced by A&D executives in implementing digital transformation efforts.
Some of those challenges include the lack of technology know-how, pace of technological change and difficulty in designing new business models and products.
A&D companies should use Industry 4.0 platforms to build up customer engagement, develop new products and services and create intelligence assets, according to the article.
The report also listed some of the Industry 4.0 technologies and their current and emerging applications in the A&D industry.
Those technologies are additive manufacturing, analytics, robotics and cognitive automation, artificial intelligence, blockchain, internet of things and digital reality.
Robin Lineberger, head of Deloitte's A&D industry practice, and Tim Hanley, a senior partner at Deloitte’s U.S. arm, co-wrote the article with Aijaz Hussain, A&D and chemicals and specialty materials sector research; Vincent Rutgers, a partner with Deloitte Consulting Netherlands; and Brenna Sniderman, senior manager and subject matter specialist at Deloitte Services’ Center for Integrated Research.
