Industry Overview
The Aerospace and Defense industry includes the following types of manufacturers:
- OEM Manufacturing
- Parts Manufacturing
- Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) Providers
There are approximately 10,000 companies that design and build products for the Aerospace and Defense Industry, each with their own unique requirements for their information systems.
Aerospace and Defense ERP software must be able to accommodate the highly engineered, made-to-order products of this industry sector. This industry is very engineering-intensive. Manufacturers are challenged to conform to exacting standards, and provide documentation to support fabrication and assembly.
Federal mandates, safety requirements, and product specifications must be tracked and documented. Typical mandates involve Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) audits of the financial and operational components of the production process. Lot and serial number traceability is a key part of the supply chain management software that is required of these types of companies.
This segment is comprised of companies who are parts manufacturers and others that are making large machines or equipment. These are large and complex projects that require a certain project manufacturing capability that functions as a super work order.
Ultimately, this should bring together purchase orders, manufacturing orders, and tasks. The tasks should have the added functionality of scheduling non-production personal, e.g., engineering or field installation teams.
As with all highly engineered products, configuration management is used to track engineering changes. Aerospace ERP software should also offer:
- Comprehensive lot and serial number control
- Cost tracking, including labor
- Material and overhead
- Other operational details
Critical Requirements of Aerospace ERP
Aerospace and Defense companies should evaluate the following critical requirements:
- Customer Relationship Management
- Quoting & Estimating
- Order Processing
- Product Configurator
- Product Data Management (PDM)
- Product Lifecycle Management Software (PLM)
- Document Management
- Lot Traceability
- Serialization
- Engineering Change Management
- Forecasting/Demand Planning
- Multi-Plant
- Materials Management
- Project Accounting
- Project Manufacturing
- Engineer-to-Order
- Lean Manufacturing
- Supply Chain Management
- Advanced Manufacturing Planning
- Quality
- Warehouse Management Software (WMS)
- Plant Equipment
- Repair/Rebuild
- Cost Accounting
- Accounting
