Check 6 with Accenture

Hear why the majority of industry executives surveyed in Accenture’s latest Commercial Aerospace Insight Report remain cautiously optimistic about the market’s growth potential in the near and midterm.

On the eve of the first Farnborough in four years, two leaders from Accenture zero in on key themes at this year’s air show.

Your aerospace or defense business is about to enter a whole new world: the metaverse. A mix of the physical and digital realms, the metaverse is an unmapped—but not unknown—territory that looms beyond Industry 4.0. OEMs and Tier 1s already are entering the domain with cloud computing, virtual reality and quantum computing. Where they go, so go suppliers.

Like with safety in a previous generation, commercial aviation is going through another existential moment. This time it is about environmental concerns, with sustainability as the overarching goal. What lies ahead are opportunities to pick low-hanging fruit but also the need to make controversial culture changes. How does commercial aviation get here?

Results of the latest Accenture Commercial Aerospace Insight Report, first released to Aviation Week, point to a new low in supplier confidence after the double-whammy of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Boeing 737 MAX shutdown. When can the industrial base expect to see business growing again? What keeps executives up at night now? Listen as Senior Business Editor Michael Bruno talks with John Schmidt, Accenture global A&D lead, and Jeff Wheless, global A&D research lead.

It is 2 a.m., do you know where your digital twin is? Once buzzwords, the aerospace and defense industrial base is embracing the digital thread in manufacturing at an increasing pace. Managers see a future where digital twin approaches go from just product design to the whole supply system. Coupled with other technological leaps, such as working from anywhere on any device, digitization promises many benefits but also challenges. Costs, cyber risks and human capital challenges loom. Aviation Week talks with Accenture advisors on the outlook.

Industry leaders say it is question of when – not if – markets will surpass pre-pandemic business levels. But make no mistake, A&D has been forever changed by the effects of the outbreak, and there is no better place to see that makeover than in the digital revolution sweeping industry. Accenture’s TechVision 2021 found 89% of executives say employees face the largest and fastest change in history. Listen as Accenture leaders and Aviation Week dive into what it means for A&D.

One year on, how is industry responding and what do A&D leaders think will happen in the coming months and years? In this edition of Check 6 with Accenture, Senior Business Editor Michael Bruno explores these topics with John Schmidt, Accenture’s global A&D lead, and Jeff Wheless, global A&D research leader.