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Opinion: Operating Systems Will Drive Aerospace Performance In 2025

GE Propulsion Test Platform aircraft
Credit: GE Aerospace

Last year will be remembered as a lost year in aerospace and defense manufacturing. The supply and demand misalignment that I wrote about last fall was exacerbated by the machinists’ strike at Boeing and continues to affect supply chains profoundly (AW&ST Oct. 14-27, 2024, p. 10).

Companies across all supply chain levels were unprepared for the industrial disruptions, working capital constraints, increased raw material lead times, higher levels of inventory, talent loss and operational inefficiencies driven by erratic customer demand signals.

Company leaders will reflect on the past and previous years about how they could have operated more efficiently and been better prepared for the disruptions that the pandemic, Boeing 737 MAX production pause and inflationary conditions brought into their manufacturing systems.

As a result, companies are looking for better and more sound systematic ways of managing business, creating stability and increasing productivity through volatile times. A sound operating system is key to managing environments with high volatility. It enables connectivity and performance, from enterprise strategy to the shop floor, and creates a methodology and processes to manage such madness.

Several aerospace companies have cracked the code on a successful operating system. After its early 2024 spinoff, GE Aerospace is emerging with an operating system called Flight Deck that continues to garner industry attention (AW&ST March 25-April 7, 2024, p. 32). Flight Deck embraces GE’s safety, quality, delivery and cost process to drive clarity of metrics, accountability and the gemba lean process. It emphasizes safety and quality over delivery and cost—which is easy to say but hard to do.

Flight Deck comprises 10 fundamentals: five at the individual level and five at the enterprise level. The three areas of focus for Flight Deck are the people, the business unit and the enterprise. Respect for people is the core. Problem-solving at the individual level, representing the most powerful way to change and improve a culture, is arguably the most important aspect.

GE Aerospace is using the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) process to reach standard condition quickly after a problem arises. Management teams converge daily at the point of issue to problem-solve. This identifies and helps unlock constraints and is a big motivator for team members when they see that their daily problems are being addressed in real time.

GE Aerospace also achieves respect for people by having new leaders spend a dedicated period of immersion with the team and the business units around the operating system. The immersion program helps operational leaders learn to lead as Flight Deck practitioners and coaches at GE Aerospace. They are sent through a series of experiences, learning and application of the operating system tools.

Critically, the method builds in time to observe “what good looks like” in the organization and culture. Crucially, these leaders are freed from doing their regular jobs during this time so they can fully immerse themselves and connect with the team. Engaging leaders with the team and ingraining the operating system principles is an extraordinary step to implement the fundamentals from the shop floor to the boardroom and help ensure that leaders’ decision-making is centered on both people and the customer.

The business unit and whole-company enterprise follow in priority after the focus on the individual and team. Value stream management is another core approach through the gemba process, whereby management of key performance indicators (KPI) is based on PDCA. The enterprise then focuses on hoshin kanri (also called “policy deployment”) with KPI results coming from the business units. Flight Deck is intended to solve problems at the value stream management and plant levels.

All of this takes patience and the will to practice it correctly. Operating systems implemented quickly and forced upon companies are not successful. Implementation should be phased, establishing respect for people first, then creating team buy-in and ensuring the business has the tools for a lean transformation. For a business focused on both short- and long-term initiatives, a robust operating system is a strong enabler.

Alex Krutz is managing director at Patriot Industrial Partners, an aerospace and defense advisory firm that focuses on manufacturing strategy and supply chain optimization.