By 2030, the global market for aerospace parts is projected to reach $1.36 trillion, making it an industry that cannot be ignored. The data highlights that the aerospace parts manufacturing industry is growing, and will require a higher allocation of maintenance costs across the board — and very soon.
The process of maintaining aerospace parts manufacturing equipment depends on skilled professionals, high-tech machinery and effective coordination. Companies often cannot manage all three components, resulting in manufacturing delays.
Fortunately, getting organized and automating operations can help simplify these processes, leading companies to improve uptime and minimize disruptions. The maintenance of machinery used for aerospace manufacturing can be made much more accessible with some upfront planning.
This guide provides detailed insight into how your business can use routine inspections, automation software, equipment labeling to ensure optimal operations and utilize data to measure the effectiveness of maintenance practices.
Four ways to organize aerospace parts manufacturing equipment maintenance
One of the essentials is having a good plan that keeps your maintenance operation running smoothly. Here are four ways to help organize and streamline your maintenance activities:
1. Conduct routine inspections
All machinery, including both the production line and non-production support equipment, play a critical role in factory operations. Therefore, manufacturing equipment requires routine inspection and maintenance to ensure its optimal function.
Daily inspections by operators of equipment and machinery can identify and correct potential problems — before they cause costly downtime.
In addition, routine maintenance helps prolong the equipment's life; the procedure can also identify potential hazards which might cause injuries.
2. Use appropriate labeling
Properly labeling your equipment can also play an essential role in streamlining operations. By clearly labeling machines with their make, model, and serial number, your maintenance team can quickly track down the information they need to complete repairs. Doing so saves time and ensures that all projects are completed promptly. With new software technologies, these labels now contain QR codes so machine information can be accessed via mobile devices right at the machine.
Additionally, labeling your equipment can help you keep track of warranty information and service records.
3. Utilize data to measure the effectiveness of maintenance practices
You can identify areas that need improvement by tracking data related to your maintenance activities. This information can help you fine-tune your processes and make your operations more efficient. For example, the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) metric provides data on the effectiveness of your maintenance processes, taking into account equipment availability, performance, and quality.
Data tracking provides experts with information about equipment failure, setup and adjustments, machine idleness, performance issues, process defects, and quality loss. As a result, maintenance processes can be streamlined, optimized, and their effectiveness can be analyzed over time.
4. Use automation software
If you're a business owner, there's a good chance you've considered implementing AI technology, at least in some capacity. After all, AI can cut costs and yield better results. Research shows that 56% of all respondents have reported adopting AI technologies, aiming to reduce costly budget mistakes.
The aerospace manufacturing industry can also use AI-powered Enterprise Asset Management software programs to automate and fast-track processes. With EAM software, your facility can more efficiently plan, execute, and track tasks and activities about a specific asset. This can reduce downtime, improve asset performance, and cut down on shortages.
How to automate parts monitoring
Implement a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)
Businesses can implement a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to track inventory and spending. A capable CMMS can execute inventory processes more accurately. A direct consequence is that all items are accounted for, and there is less waste due to overstocking or underbuying. As a result, companies can cut costs and make data-driven decisions regarding maintenance processes.
CMMS implementation offers numerous features, such as resource and labor management, asset registry, work order management, preventive maintenance, materials and inventory management, along with reporting, analysis, and auditing. Due to the big number of available features, parts maintenance processes can be streamlined.
For instance: by generating automated reports, businesses can keep track of their spending on maintenance processes, and analyze all information on performance trends. Similarly, companies can automate asset registry, work order management, and inventory management to ensure accuracy in operations.
If you are still determining the budget, beginning with a simple and affordable system is the best option. There are various types of software on the market, so choose one that meets your specific requirements.
Ensure that the chosen CMMS can integrate with your current software applications, forming cohesive operations across all organization levels.
Execute processes for inventory accuracy
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) and automation are being used more and more, as a way to keep tabs on all the components of your process machinery.
This makes automating the monitoring processes more critical than ever, making all inventory data available whenever needed. By doing so, businesses dealing with aerospace parts maintenance can streamline inventory management, ensure order fulfillment, and cut costs using stock control features. Moreover, businesses can use inventory management software to make data-driven decisions for effective future planning.
Initiate training programs
Training programs ensure that your staff is adequately trained in using the CMMS and executing the processes for inventory accuracy. In addition, having well-informed staff allows you to take full advantage of the features and functionality of your CMMS. This can lead to further improvements in efficiency — and help you cut costs.
The benefits of implementing automation
Accurate and real-time data
Without accurate data, it would be impossible to know which equipment requires maintenance and which machines need to be upgraded.
Various software can help businesses track their inventory levels and set alerts for reordering. Such software solutions make sure that your parts manufacturing and maintenance equipment data is always accurate and up-to-date.
With automation you can get this information in real-time, meaning you can always be in control of your assets. That way, the company’s maintenance processes can run smoothly without causing any delays.
Increased efficiency
In any maintenance process, machine downtime can be costly. When a machine breaks down, it must be fixed as quickly as possible to ensure the processes are not prolonged.
The quickest way to fix a broken machine is to replace a damaged or worn-out part. However, this can often be difficult if the correct details are not readily available.
Automating the system can ensure that all the information about the errors is recorded, so equipment maintenance can be executed proficiently — reducing downtime and improving efficiency.
Facilitate expansion
The aerospace parts manufacturing industry is projected to reach $1391.16 bn by 2030. Taking this into account, manufacturers will likely expand their operations and inventory to meet the rising demands.
However, to do this they will require their maintenance process to be more organized and timely — for all the automated parts manufacturing equipment. What this means is that, by using automation, spare parts maintenance and manufacturing companies can expand their operations, save time and money on costly repairs, and scale their operations to meet the market’s demand.
Wrapping up
In aerospace parts manufacturing equipment maintenance, the introduction of automated monitoring can reduce the time needed for maintenance tasks. This, in turn, can lead to increased productivity and fewer disruptions in manufacturing and maintenance operations.
Combined with an effective maintenance plan, automation can help manufacturers keep their operations running smoothly and efficiently.
For over 30 years, Eric Whitley has been a noteworthy leader in the Manufacturing space. In addition to the many publications and articles Eric has written on various manufacturing topics, you may know him from his efforts leading the Total Productive Maintenance effort at Autoliv ASP or from his involvement in the Management Certification programs at The Ohio State University, where he served as an adjunct faculty member.
After an extensive career as a reliability and business improvement consultant, Eric joined L2L, where he currently serves as the Director of Smart Manufacturing. His role in this position is to help clients learn and implement L2L’s pragmatic and simple approach to corporate digital transformation.
Eric lives with his wife of 35 years in Northern Utah. When Eric is not working, he can usually be found on the water with a fishing rod in his hands.
