As the old adage goes ‘knowledge is power’ and this idea can be applied to manufacturing as much as it can to any other area of life.
As the aerospace market becomes ever more global and supply chains increasingly multi-tiered and complex, the sheer amount of data, compliance requirements and networking amongst organisations becomes an almost impossible task to manage; particularly if you are a small SME with limited resources to devote this aspect of the industry.
Over the last 25 years, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems have evolved to help manage business operations, but are they fit for the modern era of improved digital networks, the Cloud, Smart Factories, and Industry 4.0?
Tom Dawes, founder and chief executive of Valuechain, started the business in 2010 because he felt his own experiences of being a manufacturer in the aerospace supply chain had needed more insight and information to deal with whatever might be thrown at him, whether it was contract decision by OEMs, certification requirements or technology and industry trends.
“I describe myself as a recovering manufacturer because I had difficulties with my first business,” he begins. “That experience helps me engage with a lot of manufacturing companies. I understand the problems and issues that they need to solve. The lesson I learned was that a lack of customer data, market intelligence, and utilisation of systems to help me make informed decisions about how to run my business had been the cause of my problems. I was a supply chain integrator, with poor visibility of my customers, suppliers and all the industry data that was available. I needed something that could turn that into useful intelligence.”
It can not only help manage the day-to-day operations of a company, but also simplify adherence to industry standards such as AS9100 and Nadcap, create better communication with business partners, both up and down the supply chain, and manage and analyse information from Primes, OEMs and global and national trade bodies.
Valuechain is based on what Dawes describes as the “DNA” approach. DNA can mean Data, Networks and Analysis. The ‘Data’ comes from the people, plant, process, parts and products of a company, the ‘Network’ is the operational stages, transactions etc. that a business carries out, and the ‘Analysis’ is the big data analytics that can be gathered from the industry to help make informed decisions.
The DNA approach also relates to how Valuechain meets each customer’s requirements.
Dawes says: “DNA is about building blocks of aerospace excellency; you need all the blocks to be sustainable and successful. Additionally, there is no one-size-fits-all solution; each company’s ‘DNA’ is different, a small machining company is very different from an electronics manufacturing company or a prime.”
Valuechain offers three main areas where it helps clients: Production Control, Business Improvement and Supply Chain Excellence.
“Administration for even a small aerospace supplier can be very complex with stringent first article inspection reports, certificates of conformity, contract reviews etc. It’s not just about getting product quality, it’s also about process quality and documentation quality,” Dawes argues. “You can have perfectly machined parts but if your paperwork isn’t up to scratch you will fail.
“Streamlining paperwork and making it efficient allows manufacturers to focus on their core competency which is actually making components.”
Valuechain’s business improvement software options are offered through a series of apps to establish business intelligence and simplify complex business processes. These include mobile auditing software, data visualisation and advanced reporting which connects disparate data sources, such as spreadsheets, and electronic issue capture, and analysis software, to generate product lifecycle intelligence for manufacturers.
Creating clusters
Dawes is perhaps most passionate about Valuechain’s Supply Chain Excellence developments. He believes its iQluster platform opens up many new areas of market intelligence that can benefit companies.
Recent developments in digital networks have the ability to facilitate much better communication in real time amongst all tiers of the supply chain to help what he describes as “win-win” scenarios for businesses.
Valuechain describes iQluster as a supply chain collaboration and intelligence platform that streamlines intercompany communication and securely captures multi-tier supply chain intelligence so that organisations can increase network competitiveness.
Dawes says: “It’s about empowering the supply chain so they have more intelligence and technology, to run things more efficiently, which ultimately supports OEMs better too.
“For successful collaboration, you need strategic alignment between companies, which creates a win-win situation for all parties. You need cultural alignments, where you have similar kinds of behaviours and trust built up between partners; you need operational alignments where you have streamlined business processes and transactions, and codes of practice about how you work. The final element is a technology platform that gets the right data to the right people, so they can share it securely.”
In an industry where intellectual property (IP) is closely guarded and sharing data amongst the supply chain can be seen as a risk, iQluster offers users the ability to share, gather and analyse information at differing levels of access and from numerous sources with assured security. It can help navigate ‘what if’ scenarios: what happens if a supplier goes bust, has a factory fire or an OEM decides it needs to double production? Weaknesses can be identified and risk mitigated.
Secure data
The basis of the platform is built on Blockchain technology which means any communication amongst participants can be done securely (Blockchain is the basis of the ‘Bitcoin’ online currency).
Dawes, emphasises that real-time data is the key to iQluster delivering the best results. Companies can choose how much data they want to share, from simply promoting their capabilities to more sensitive data such as order book information, material or capacity supply analysis.
And he believes Valuechain can help create a better balance of leverage amongst the tiers of the supply chain.
“A lot of our team come from an SME background, so I would say that our approach to the supply chain is from the bottom up. If OEMs and primes demand more and more from their supply chains without given anything back, it just exacerbates inefficiencies and a lack of trust. We are creating something that means companies are not working in isolation but can work together, dovetailing and complementing into the top down strategies from the primes.”
And Valuechain’s innovative approach is ongoing. It is currently looking at how artificial intelligence can be applied to decision making in the supply chain to produce quicker and better outcomes.
Dawes concludes: It is the multi-tier, real-time visibility which is exciting about what we are developing and it is the way manufacturing is going to progress. In future, we will look back at our current supply chains and wonder how we managed to work in such isolated silos. We can end up working blind in so many ways.”
Valuechain will be exhibiting at this year’s Paris Airshow in hall 2B, stand F172.
