Did you know there is a backlog of 17,000 aeroplanes waiting to be built? Aerospace and defence order books are also full. You’d think that looks like a position of strength for industry, but you’d be wrong.
In reality, backlogs only create value once products are delivered. Until then, you only have theoretical revenue. Meanwhile, many companies find they cannot convert demand into output quickly enough. Production capacity is at full strength, supply chains are fragile and skilled labour is harder than ever to secure. How can the industry solve this problem?
Product lifecycle management can play a central role in in helping aerospace and defence manufacturers ramp production without losing control. In this article, we’ll share how.
The problem with backlogs
High backlogs signal confidence from customers. After all, they’re willing to wait to buy your product. But they also expose weaknesses in execution. When production cannot meet demand, financial and operational risks arise quickly.
Delayed delivery slows cash flow, restricting the investments you can make in innovation, tooling and other capacity-adding initiatives. It also exposes companies to costly contract penalties, common in the aerospace and defence sectors.
Let’s not forget the reputational damage as well. These industries depend on reliability and trust. Delays or quality issues can damage long-term relationships. Customers remember who can deliver at scale and who cannot.
Several pressures compound the problem:
- Supply chain disruption that delays parts and materials
- Workforce shortages that limit production levels
- Legacy systems that cannot scale fast enough to meet demand
As a result, backlogs look more like a strategic liability than a sign of success.
Workflow issues
Many aerospace and defence companies still rely on disconnected systems across engineering, manufacturing and supply chain teams. This means there’s no data flow between teams, so processes cannot synchronise correctly.
This creates friction at every stage. It means engineering teams work in isolation from manufacturing specialists, while supply chain teams operate with incomplete product definitions. If you need to ramp up production to meet demand, it’s impossible to do it quickly.
Engineering changes are a notable risk during a ramp-up. Without a central system, changes trigger manual rework and increase the chances of errors elsewhere. The differences between engineering and manufacturing teams' bills of materials make matters even more complex. This misalignment can stall production and cause quality issues.
The lack of process synchronisation makes matters worse. Tasks that could run in parallel instead wait on handovers, slowing decision-making and creating bottlenecks. How can you increase production when these anchors are pulling you back?
However, firms that take a modern, digital approach to production gain an advantage by responding more quickly to shifts in demand. The key is product lifecycle management.
PLM: ramp-up made easy
PLM solves these problems by providing a single, authoritative source of product data across the product’s lifecycle. Engineering, manufacturing and supply chain teams work from the same information, with changes visible for all to see.
With this shared knowledge, teams can work in parallel rather than in sequence. Engineering changes are managed consistently with a digital paper trail, reducing disruption further downstream.
PLM also supports alignment between engineering and manufacturing teams' bills of materials (eBOMs and mBOMs), reducing manual translation between design and production.
Next, you have integrations. When PLM connects with ERP and MES systems, it creates a digital thread from design to production and beyond. Data flows in real time, delivering transparency and enabling you to respond faster to market changes.
The impact is tangible and measurable:
- Faster decision-making across teams
- Fewer errors resulting from engineering changes
- More coordination with suppliers
- Improved ability to scale output without sacrificing quality
Looking to the future
With demand remaining high, backlogs in aerospace and defence organisations are unlikely to ease quickly. However, the companies that succeed will be the ones that can convert orders into finished products reliably and at scale.
Legacy systems are a huge barrier to this ambition. Fragmented data flows mean you can’t ramp up quickly enough, exposing companies to financial and reputational damage. PLM gives you the structure to coordinate teams, manage change and improve workflows. For manufacturers under pressure to meet demand, PLM shouldn’t be a nice-to-have. Instead, it’s an essential foundation to turn demand into delivery.
To find out more about PTC Windchill PLM software, visit www.concurrent-engineering.co.uk/windchill.