Hot Links: Aerospace and Defense Supply Chain Optimization

The Aerospace and Defense (A&D) industry walks a tightrope, balancing the unique complexities of the global service supply chain while seeking to optimize equipment availability, deliver more efficient service, and lower the total cost of ownership of its complex assets.

Managing service parts poses unique challenges within A&D, including the high cost of maintenance and logistics, and costly penalties associated with SLA non-compliance. To address the challenges specific to their industry, A&D contractors and OEMs have embraced several approaches, including adopting commercial service parts management solutions. Among many benefits, these solutions allowed for:

• Increased equipment uptime and part availability
• Reduced inventory investment
• Lowered procurement, repair, and expediting costs

In four complementary (and complimentary!) White Papers, PTC outlines how service parts management solutions can be used to solve some of the most pressing supply chain issues in A&D:

1. PTC Service Parts Management Capabilities for Aerospace & Defense outlines how the complexity and high value of the equipment being serviced places unique requirements on the provisioning of spare parts inventory. Any service parts management solution must take into consideration a variety of different demand streams for spare parts - those that must be forecasted (for example unscheduled removals and failure repair) as well as a number of scheduled demand and maintenance events. 
2. Military Supply Chains: Five Principles for Managing Uncertainty covers five fundamental principles for operational excellence in the military supply chain. The DoD has made many improvements to military logistics over the last decade and a half. Organizations have been realigned to consolidate similar functions. Processes have been improved, transaction level information systems have been upgraded, and competition has been introduced by outsourcing activities to commercial providers. Yet, despite 15 years of progress, many challenges persist and truly effective supply chain management has not been attained. The White Paper recommends adopting Lean philosophies, creating a supply chain information infrastructure, and more. 
3. PTC Solution Capabilities for Commercial Aviation addresses the complexity and high value of equipment that is being maintained in commercial aviation and the need for high levels of fleet availability. The requirement to balance and maximize customer service while minimizing inventory levels across a multi-echelon distribution network often involving many thousands of service parts and a constantly evolving install base and configurations, is, of course, a complex task. Commercial aviation needs are outlined and addressed via PTC’s many service parts management capabilities.
4. Emerging Requirements for Optimization of Military Asset Management details how the entire spectrum of the military asset management practices is being profoundly affected by changes in organizational doctrine, information technology, real-time asset visibility, and decision support capabilities. Procurement, repair, spares allocation, and logistics practices will all be impacted significantly. Correspondingly, the White Paper discusses four interrelated trends in the evolution of materiel management that will have far-reaching implications and challenges for asset management: dynamic collaboration, resource sharing, asset visibility, and demand blurring. 

Visit our new Aerospace and Defense page here and learn more from a PTC expert here.