solutions for your industry aerospace & defense

Transforming Supply Chain Management in Aerospace & Defense

The Aerospace & Defense (A&D) industry continues to go through a transformation in the midst of significant demand volatility and faster order delivery expectations. The industry is experiencing a transition to a greater amount of supplier content, which is decreasing the level of control and increasing the need for supply chain management coordination between OEMs and suppliers. This trend is occurring not only in the civilian market, but also in the defense market where many of the contracts are being delivered by international consortia. Spiraling energy prices, combined with high metal prices, are continuing to place considerable input cost pressures on companies. The streamlining of manufacturing and business processes in order to decrease unit cost of production is therefore becoming increasingly important in maintaining profitability, reducing inventories and enhancing competitiveness within the industry.

And, while A&D manufacturers deal with these supply chain management challenges, they are also facing increasing global competition. To compete for new business in the global market, companies must be able to utilize their inventory and engineering resources efficiently, deliver greater value and be more responsive to their customers' needs than ever before. The companies that can quickly sense changes in the market and supply chain, and can collaborate within and across their supply network to develop profitable response to change, will be poised to lead their respective markets.

Coordinated Action Across a Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain

Kinaxis™ RapidResponse™ starts by delivering supply chain visibility across your multi-tier, multi-enterprise supply chain. By delivering this visibility to all the appropriate staff within your supply chain organization, you regain an understanding of the manufacturing commitments and inventory positions throughout the supply network.

This is an essential pre-requisite to being able to develop supply chain plans and coordinate the right compromise when things don't go according to plan. RapidResponse proactively brings these situations to light, identifying not only unplanned events, but flagging those that could do harm to your business for immediate action by your front-line responders.

RapidResponse then delivers your team the tools to analyze the impact of these events on your customers, your inventory and all of your key performance indicators (KPI) and to detail and select the appropriate course of action that maximizes your performance to these metrics.

RapidResponse includes specific functionality required by A&D companies. From inventory pooling, to model unit effectivity, to line-of-balance reporting that provides a summary risk perspective on the status of the delivery schedule for targeted units, allowing management to focus resources or make critical scheduling decisions.

RapidResponse is a proven solution to today's pressing supply chain management challenges at many of the world's leading A&D manufacturers.

Success Stories

• Reduced excess inventory at one site by $600,000 in first month of use
  — defense and aerospace systems supplier
• $52 million inventory reduction in first 6 months of use. Response to demand changes took over 5 days and were inaccurate — now takes less than 24 hours to do it right
  — a diversified technology and manufacturing leader serving aerospace industry