Aerospace & Defense Automation & Manufacturing

Meet Demand, Contain Costs and Stay Secure with Digital Solutions and Aerospace Manufacturing Software

Achieve Smarter, Faster Aerospace Production with Aircraft Automation

According to a recent study by Oliver Wyman the worldwide commercial aviation fleet will expand 33% to over 36,000 aircraft by 2033. The coming decades will see advancements in aerospace manufacturing operations that double the world’s commercial air fleet. It is also anticipated that the new generation of spacecraft being designed and built by SpaceX and Blue Origin will be even faster and carry more payloads with reuseable launch systems.

To succeed in the aerospace & defense industry in the near future will require focusing on keeping up with demand and maintaining the safety and security of your operations.

It will call for a highly efficient, digital-first strategy that opens new possibilities in aerospace production. One that:

Employs resilient and dynamic cybersecurity solutions to help protect people, productivity, and intellectual property.

Uses data and digital technologies to connect critical equipment assets on the factory floor to monitor health, productivity, and compliance in real-time.

Leverages modern safety technologies to minimize worker risks and boost your productivity such as enhanced real-time equipment monitoring, improved worker situational awareness through wearable tech, or IoT sensors and displays for predictive/preventative maintenance actions.

Whether you’re an aerospace manufacturer or supplier, our aerospace & defense automation and digital solutions and services can help you achieve smarter, more efficient, and more securely connected production.

One step closer to the Digital Aerospace Factory of the Future

Digital Technologies

Digital solutions can simplify and accelerate how your production personnel work.

Operators access real-time analytics to deploy assets better, identify quality issues faster, and even predict future failures. With a digital twin of your product, system, or process, engineers can simulate production changes before implementing them. Additionally, technicians can quickly spot asset maintenance needs and receive virtual guidance through digital work instructions on the correct and safe repair process required.

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Automation and Control

By integrating control and information systems into one plant-wide infrastructure, we can help you develop a common framework to simplify installation, operation, and maintenance. Deliver real-time, actionable information to people when, where, and how they need it. And improve overall system efficiency, maintainability, and flexibility.

Through Rockwell partnerships with companies like FANUC, a leading maker of CNCs and robots, we also give you access to integrated manufacturing solutions that can help you simplify system engineering and improve productivity.

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Cybersecurity

Helping to protect mission-critical systems and data can be challenging in the face of ever-evolving cyber threats.

Aligned with best security practices, our control solutions can help you better secure your aerospace manufacturing operations. We design our solutions to global security standards and offer essential features like access control and tamper detection. Additionally, our security services can help you monitor, detect, respond to, and recover from threats.

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Safety

Rockwell Automation safety technology can help you keep workers safe and improve productivity.

Gain visibility into safety-related downtime to accelerate the data collection process and enhance safety with capabilities like remote access. You can also integrate motion control and safety onto one network to unlock features like safe speed monitoring, so operators can perform specific tasks safely without fully stopping a machine.

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Traceability

Keeping a record of what’s added to your final assemblies helps you stay on top of Airworthiness Alerts (AD), Unapproved Part Notifications (UPN), and other issues. Our production software can trace parts and materials backward and forward to identify and address quality issues promptly and limit the scope of potential recalls.

Lossing track of parts and materials being dispatched to the shop floor? Leverage dynamic and static RFID tags with an integrated scanner and display system that track and traces parts throughout your facility.

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Aerospace Smart Connected Factory

Many Aerospace manufacturers are plagued with siloed data sources and outdated processes and machines. Business units run pilot after pilot without a clear understanding of the desired outcomes.

Rockwell Automation specializes in delivering unified aerospace manufacturing solutions and services that speed time to market, reduce waste, and risk, but also allow you to scale and adapt as your product line evolves. Our aerospace manufacturing consulting expertise and integrated technology suite help unlock unique opportunities, monetize your current investments, and meet today’s needs while building for the future. 

We support you through your transformational journey with modularity and interoperability technology that will future proof your operations.

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Aerospace Manufacturing: What You Need to Know

What is Aerospace Manufacturing?

Aerospace manufacturing is the process of designing, developing, and producing commercial and military aircraft and spacecraft, and the many components and systems that make them up.

The aerospace manufacturing industry is responsible for designing and creating aircraft that serve a wide variety of essential uses, from private airplanes to space shuttles. It’s why aerospace manufacturing industry processes prioritize safety and security to ensure the utmost reliability of their products.

The aerospace manufacturing process employs a combination of highly specialized skills, including advanced technological expertise, engineering, and precision manufacturing. Ultimately, aerospace manufacturers are responsible for researching, developing, designing, engineering, prototyping, testing, and producing aircraft and spacecraft.

Challenges in Aerospace Manufacturing

Given the highly specialized nature of aerospace manufacturing, manufacturers face a wide range of issues that can prevent them from reaching production forecasts while ensuring safety and security. Common challenges include:

Regulatory Requirements – Aerospace manufacturers navigate a complex regulatory landscape to deliver products that meet stringent safety and performance standards.

Supply Chain Management – Aerospace manufacturing companies often work with many different suppliers. Careful supply chain management is imperative to acquiring the necessary materials and components.

Quality and Reliability Standards – Ensuring the safety of aircraft operators, passengers, and crews is paramount in aerospace manufacturing. Following strict quality control standards and testing methods ensures that manufactured products are of the highest quality.

Cost Management – Aerospace manufacturing is a cost-intensive industry. Companies need to find ways to enhance their processes without ever sacrificing the safety, quality, and reliability of their products. Instead, adopting advanced technologies, like aircraft automation, can help to manage production costs.

Low Volume, high configuration, and complexity – This is a real nuance to Aerospace manufacturers versus other industries. Low volume mix, and high complexity in product configurations not only challenges Aerospace production operations but equally their supply chain.

Many aerospace manufacturing companies are adopting smart digital solutions, such as aerospace automation technology, to help overcome these challenges.

What is Aerospace Automation?

Aerospace automation is the use of advanced manufacturing technology to enhance processes such as welding, material handling, and bonding. Aerospace manufacturers can incorporate automation across a wide range of processes to increase efficiency and safety.

Aerospace automation also means that its operations are connected, intelligent as a maturing digital enterprise. The systems, processes and people do not work in silos and are all connected and integrated together through digital tools and solutions. This could include the use of robotics, AI, machine learning, conveyance, or automated guide vehicles in aerospace manufacturing processes.

Rockwell also sees a path from the high automated manufacturing operation to a semi-autonomous/autonomous state. To learn more about this contract your local Rockwell Sales Executive.

Benefits of Aerospace Automation

Aerospace manufacturers who turn to automation typically benefit through streamlining their processes, which can result in:

Reduced Costs
Improved Quality of Products
A Simplified Regulatory Landscape
Increased Production Efficiency

Automation in Aerospace: Technology and Experience Come Together

Expanding, updating, or digitally overhauling your aerospace manufacturing operations calls for more than technology. It requires a partner that understands the unique demands and challenges of aerospace production.

Rockwell Automation combines technical and domain expertise with decades of experience to help aerospace manufacturers and suppliers improve productivity, reduce material waste, and speed products to market.

Learn how we’ve helped companies like yours overcome aerospace production challenges and gain a competitive edge.

Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex Improves Reliability with Batch System

An aircraft maintenance depot had an unreliable, proprietary system that caused costly damage to critical parts.

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Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Industrial Boilers

At Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Texas, facility, three large industrial boilers in their Central Boiler Plant were recently upgraded to emit extremely low concentrations of NOX by employing “Ultra-Low NOX” burner technologies.

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Service-Based Augmented Reality for Aerospace

Leverage Rockwell Automation and PTC to enter a new level of service and maintenance.

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We offer industry expertise to help design, implement and support your automation investment.