what aerospace manufacturers really need from their software

In aerospace, precision is everything. There is no room for “alignment”, hammer to fit or guesswork. Parts require zero tolerance for failure and the pressure is on. I’m a closet F-1 race fan and the speed, car structure and proximity of other drivers forces a similar approach to perfection.

Tolerances in the manufacturing of F-1 cars can be far less than the width of a human hair in parts like the pistons, machined chassis, the engine block and the brake discs. These cars experience G-forces and internal temperatures that rival many airplanes, which surprised me when I was doing the research for this story. A jet engine on a commercial plane has internal combustion temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius; race cars are at 1,000. While that’s a 50% increase in the airplane, the size of the airplane parts in relation to the F-1 cars are at a 10,000 – 20,000 X and that makes the difference massively significant. (I also respect those drivers even more than I did before writing this.)

Precision in aerospace manufacturing (and F1 cars) are for the safety of the operators and the passengers on the aircraft. And when there’s no room for error, there’s also no room for “I think”.

I think that job is on schedule.

I think we have the right parts.

I think the operator’s certified to do the work.

I think quality control checked that.

I think it’s correct.

I think gets expensive. It will also get you into trouble.

visibility into your production operations

If you’re working in aerospace, you are also dealing with regulatory and customer compliance that is not optional. You cannot partially meet it. You must meet it all the way. And that requires you to be certain of the work you’re doing. Certain that it’s on time, built right, double-checked and verified. And it’s not enough for you to think you are. You must be able to prove it.

Regulatory reporting is just one more step in the process for you. And for us, that starts before you even take the job. You want to know that your:

• engineering is correct,
• job packet is accurate,
• team knows exactly what they need to measure and when,
• tooling is properly calibrated and
• records must be provable.

The first step for aerospace manufacturers is to be able to see everything that’s going on. Single-touch access to any job in its current state. Communication paths to the people doing the work. Non-conforming work management that allows you to record what was planned, what really happened, how you rectified it, who did the work and what additional quality checks you recorded.

Workflows should be automated where possible and you should not have to search for anything – it should be readily available to you without leaving your desk (airplane seat, home, meeting). True visibility is not a pretty picture. It is an accurate one. This means that it shifts regularly to report on current status and gives you the ability to “dig in” where you need to – maybe even adjust things where you do not like the current path or status.

control over every aspect of your team’s work

We want your team to move work through your process(es) as it truly happens and record all the changes along the way. This should be something that you have access to and can influence, rather than watch. True control puts the power in your hands to make changes only where you need to, allowing the work to flow naturally otherwise, even where it’s not all going according to plan.

Let’s go through an example that illustrates the power of a digital tool for your shop in instances where manufacturing is not going as expected. This manufacturer was in the defense space, building exceptionally detailed and complex assemblies for flight. Every single piece had measurements, quality checks and serialization requirements. Nothing went out the door untested.

The team had an approval failure on a delivery to the military and had to “walk the manufacturing back” to the point of production where it happened. It was an incredibly time-consuming and expensive process, but the government has zero tolerance for missing approvals. If this has ever happened to you, or if you even just worry about it happening because you’re not sure your team collects every single data point you need (and you certainly don’t have time to babysit that), you want to automate that process.

• The right system should provide unique credentials to every member of your team and it should record – independently – what each of them is doing, is not doing and should be doing without them “clocking on” to a system check. It should just know and record what’s happening.
• Every single action that your team takes should be automatically time and date stamped to ensure that you are capturing all work. Even the rework and approval paths should be attributed to the person who is performing them.
• Every workflow should have a built-in path for approval in the case that something goes wrong and you want to record that.

The right system should give you the visibility and the right balance of control (not everywhere, but everywhere you need it) and flexibility (not by their choice but by yours) so you can meet your customers’ requirements, the industry’s requirements and your own internal standards all without leaving your desk. Need more information or curious to talk about how that’s possible? We’ve been helping aerospace manufacturers meet the rigors of ISO, AS9100, genealogical and other compliance records for 30 years. Ask to talk to a member of our team for help.

You might also like: The Best Manufacturing Software Systems for Aerospace Manufacturers in 2026

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