Manufacturing Trends and Technology in the Aerospace and Defense Industry

Overview

2020 was a rough year for the commercial aircraft industry, with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on travel and the global airline industry. Airlines are the lifeblood of the aviation market. When airlines succeed and prosper, the rest of the commercial market prospers. Conversely, when airlines struggle, the entire market struggles from aircraft OEMs and the global supply chain that supports them, to service, maintenance, and MRO. The nearly complete shutdown of air travel during 2020 was devastating to the travel business and caused severe curtailments of production for aircraft OEMs, where a record backlog of orders went to practically nothing overnight as airlines shut down and stopped taking any new aircraft deliveries.

This dilemma not only affected US aircraft manufacturer, Boeing, but its primary competitor, Airbus, in the global commercial aircraft duopoly. The situation was very serious for both, as each faced its own liquidity crisis as aircraft deliveries dried up and their respective production lines were significantly curtailed. Moreover, the extended global supply chain for both aircraft manufacturers was likewise seriously affected, and some suppliers went out of business altogether.

Today, the crisis has alleviated, with travel restrictions easing, and many carriers resuming several pre-pandemic routes. But it will take time to crank up manufacturing production lines and get the labor force back in place. Additionally, the carriers will have to start taking deliveries of new aircraft to provide revenue for Boeing and Airbus, and we can expect this to be tentative at first as the carriers recover their losses, assess their own revenue streams, and get back up to speed.

What will help the aircraft manufacturing OEMs get their production lines humming again will be the adoption of new manufacturing technologies that have emerged from Industrial IoT, Manufacturing 4.0, and the wave of ongoing digital transformation across the entire design/build/operate/ maintain product lifecycle of airframe manufacturing.

Next generation intelligent automation along with the implementation of cognitive manufacturing powered by AI, advanced analytics, and digital twin implementation will optimize production processes, cut costs, and help A&D manufacturers reach pre-pandemic delivery rates faster and more efficiently. The emergence of material science is also spawning a range of new materials, along with additive manufacturing, and human/robot collaboration that will significantly change the face of aircraft manufacturing.

A&D Industry Leverages Emerging Technologies to Deal with Manufacturing Challenges

The A&D industry has a history of early adoption of disruptive technologies to advance both product development and manufacturing processes. There are currently several key technologies that the industry is using to meet new manufacturing challenges and deal with the pre-pandemic order backlog of aircraft. These technologies include additive manufacturing, advanced composite manufacturing methods, implementation of the digital twin, cognitive manufacturing and advanced analytics, robot/worker collaboration, and AI/ML, all of which are permeating many areas of the production process.

Both Boeing and Airbus continued to build at very high rates into the pandemic-induced downturn and the Boeing 737 Max grounding. Supply chain suppliers were also still producing at peak or close to peak rates. Conversely, 30 to 40 percent of the global carriers’ fleets remain on the ground. The result is that OEMs have a considerable number of aircraft that remain undelivered and parked on the tarmacs.

While airlines are beginning to open many of their routes and resume service as the public begins to fly again, the number of travelers remain well below pre-pandemic rates. Things will begin to improve in 2022 when the flying public is expected to resume travel and the carriers work back to full fleet capacity. But the reality is that for the short term the carriers will not be accepting very many new aircraft orders into their already underutilized fleets. In the meantime, aircraft OEMs need to leverage manufacturing technologies that significantly improve production efficiency, smarter automation, new materials, and better utilization of the workforce.

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Keywords: Aerospace and Defense Industry (A&D), Emerging Technologies, Industrial IoT, Digital Twin, Generative Design, Additive Manufacturing, Next Generation Materials, Collaborative Robotics, Intelligent Edge, AI/ML, ARC Advisory Group.