Fasten your seat belts and get ready for the future-proof materials supply chain
Fasten your seat belts and get ready for the future-proof materials supply chain
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re expecting turbulence ahead so please return to your seats and fasten your safety belts.”
This is a message that even the most experienced of airline passengers dread. It’s a waiting game, and as you wait, you become tense, perhaps even scared. You have no idea how bad the turbulence will be—it could be a few mild jolts to the aircraft, or it could result in violent shaking and sudden and rapid changes in altitude. But it is a fact of flying.
It's reasonable to draw parallels between passengers on an aircraft anticipating a bumpy ride and what it’s like working in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry, where turbulence is also a fact of life. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to accurately predict when it will strike, and when it does, how severe it will be. It’s an ever-present threat. For those of us who work in the supply side of the industry, the words aerospace and VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) go hand-in-hand.
Mention aerospace and VUCA is not far behind
Even before the pandemic there had been clear signals that the A&D supply chain was fragile and lacking resilience. Supply chain vulnerabilities have been exposed by everything from geo-political events, regulatory changes (especially those dealing with sustainability), natural disasters, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. To survive and thrive in this business requires more than buckling up, holding on tight, and hoping you make it through the next random VUCA event. The pandemic was a long-overdue wakeup call for the transformations that are vital throughout the industry to provide a degree of future proofing against all the other VUCA events that will happen.
Materials as a service: A strategy for the future that’s here today
This is precisely what we have been doing at thyssenkrupp Aerospace. The industry needs a robust, resilient and sustainable supply chain so we have been undergoing a strategic transformation that will enable our customers to focus on their core business while we take away some of the pain points along the supply chain. We call this strategic shift Materials as a Service (MaaS).
Sustainability and efficiency are two of the main drivers in the industry and our customers are increasingly focusing on these key areas. Our overarching vision is therefore to create a world in which resources are used in the best possible way – for joint successes and a sustainable future.
To make this vision a reality, we’ve made it our mission to shape the future of the materials supply chain. In general, the A&D supply chain lacks transparency and this has been, historically, the root of so many problems. It’s a case of you can’t manage what you can’t see. But by making smarter connections we’ll improve visibility along the length of the supply chain and strengthen our position as a leading supply chain management services provider.
This is where our strategy comes into play. The most effective way to meet the changing demands of our customers in materials supply is by using digital tools and our supply chain competence. In this way, we turn services into our new material, hence Materials as a Service.
The future is digital
In comparison to other major industries, the A&D industry has been slow to adopt digital technologies but this is in fact the key to making the supply chain more resilient, transparent, efficient and sustainable. Our strategy is therefore to develop and enhance our digital, supply chain and logistics capabilities and merge these with our longstanding experience and knowledge of materials, warehousing and processing. We are also truly global, and with the agility that digital tools give us, we’re able to support our customers from Seattle to Sydney. These characteristics gives us a unique position in the market and create a real differentiator. Our MaaS strategy is exactly what is needed to change the supply chain. The combination of our materials experience and our digital and services future is what makes the difference. It helps us to intelligently link our materials distribution business and supply chain services, enabling us to meet the changing needs of our customers and to give them the resilient and sustainable supply chain that is necessary to future-proof the industry.
Our customers will benefit from this, as we will.
A new blog for a new beginning
Along with our new strategy, this blog marks a new beginning. It is part of what we anticipate will be a more effective communications strategy for thyssenkrupp Aerospace that will also play a role in improving transparency in the industry, or at the very least our corner of the industry. It coincides with the launch of our new website which is a window on how we will tackle the need for a resilient and sustainable materials supply chain for the A&D industry.
Captain’s orders
If you’re one of the millions of passengers who fly every year and worry about turbulence, all we can suggest is that you do as the captain says—return to your seat, fasten your seat belt, grip the arm rest as tight as you can and hope that your world stops shaking as soon as possible.
But we can do more for the A&D industry than we can for nervous airline passengers. There’s no way to remove the inevitability of the turbulence that will continue to affect the A&D industry. With our strategy, we aim to mitigate and manage future VUCA events so they don’t shake the industry as violently as recent events have. Our customers can rest assured that with our ability to adapt and change, they can rely on us to help them safely navigate the skies ahead.
