Risk-management technology is beginning to help manufacturers cope with the supply-chain upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Thomas Derry, CEO of the Institute for Supply Management: “We are a lot better at managing risk than even 10 years ago.”
Teenaged Jamie Yelle daydreamed as he pushed a broom across the floor of his father’s machine shop. As he cleared a path through aluminum chips, filings, and scraps of metal around the machinery, he imagined what the company would look like if he were at the helm.
To grow in today’s manufacturing world, shops need to consolidate operations, automate, increase efficiency, capture and analyze data and more, in order to fully leverage opportunities in thriving industries, such as aerospace.
It is not surprising that the aerospace and defense industry exists at a higher plane of manufacturing. The components and end products being assembled must endure intense forces and pressures, are expected to perform without failure, and even the slightest mistake comes with extreme safety risks.
Tacoma, Washington-based Tool Gauge manufactures precision metal and plastic components and assemblies for the aerospace industry.
Christoph Fedler, project director for equipment management at Rolls-Royce Germany, was facing a challenge: He needed to increase the available capacity of the prime discipline at the Oberursel facility, namely micrometer-precise grinding of curvic couplings.
To speed production and increase worker safety in the aerospace industry, major manufacturers are willing to pay a higher price for quality equipment.
Three partners contributed their diverse manufacturing and machining experience—and their last initials—to found SPR Machine in 2002.
Aerospace OEMs and their supply chains are evolving plans to manage the economic impact caused by the health-related shutdown last spring.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) wants the industry to secure the country’s leadership in hypersonic weaponry. The request is no small feat.