The aerospace industry relies on meticulous maintenance and inspection processes to ensure flight safety and meet regulatory compliance. Take an inside look at how Honeywell Voice enables voice-directed efficiencies with step-by-step instructions to help technicians maintain process rigor and automate record keeping in the aerospace industry.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global airfreight markets, showing a modest 1.6 percent rise in volumes in March compared to a year ago, measured in freight tonne kilometers.
Boosted by an increase in sales, Monrovia,Calif.-based drone maker AeroVironment Inc. exceeded analyst estimates and reported $8.1m in fiscal fourth-quarter profit, a turnaround from the same period a year earlier.
Over the past several decades, processes to design and build cars, airplanes and products used in various other industries have typically followed a linear, sequential path. This process typically started with product research, ideation and concept development, followed by design and development, prototype and validation, leading to production, launch, operation and, eventually, product retirement.
Airfreight markets in March were up 5.9 percent compared to a year ago and capacity grew 3.4 percent, according to the International Air Transport Association. While this marks a significant improvement in volumes compared to March 2013, much of the growth took place in the final quarter of 2013 (over and above the usual year-end volume growth). Since the beginning of the year, air cargo volumes have been basically flat. This plateau in volumes is consistent with the recent pause in improvements to business confidence and world trade.
Project-based operations that improved on-time and on-budget performance by 10 percent or more were nine times as likely to also improve dramatically on key financial metrics such as net profit margin and cost of compliance. Nearly every project-based manufacturer feels it is important for their company to improve on end-to-end project management, but less than half of the companies in project manufacturing, aerospace and defense (A&D) and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sectors with project-based operations make wide use of any recognized category of commercial software system. This includes limited use of enterprise resources planning and quality management (QMS) systems.
With protracted federal budget cuts at the Pentagon and NASA on the horizon, aerospace companies across the nation are choosing to combine forces as they vie for fewer dollars and brace for the tough times ahead.
