General Atomics Leverages Manufacturing Solutions From SAP To Drive Industry 4.0

SAP SE and General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) on October 28 announced the successful implementation of the SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing solution for production engineering and operations for the U.S. defense and diversified technologies company's Electromagnetic Systems Group.

GA-EMS launched an initiative aimed at digitally transforming its manufacturing processes to expand capabilities to meet the growing demand for the design and manufacture of its specialized and highly complex components and systems. This required an end-to-end enterprise operations system that could bring its engineering and manufacturing teams together with its business systems to improve communication, collaboration and quality in a paperless manufacturing environment.

"Industry 4.0 and the digitalization and automation it brings have shown significant productivity improvements across all industries," said Franz Hero, SAP head of digital supply chain development. "This is particularly true in complex manufacturing environments such as GA-EMS, where the need for collaboration between production and engineering, and the move to digitalization of manufacturing operations across the enterprise, are essential."

Extending SAP S/4HANA to support digital collaboration and processes bridged the gap between production engineering and operations manufacturing. Providing detailed production process modeling capabilities and in-depth instructions for production operators helps ensure that processes are executed properly.

"We created a step-by-step plan to transform our manufacturing processes to improve how we operate, reduce costs and ensure timely delivery of the highest-quality, most reliable products to our customers," GA-EMS President Scott Forney said. "SAP's support of Industry 4.0 has significantly improved quality and efficiency by providing greater visibility throughout the manufacturing and production processes when engineering changes occur. This gives us the flexibility to pivot faster when changes are required, utilize the right resources where they are needed most, and provide a higher degree of traceability as products progress across the floor."

GA-EMS' Manufacturing Center of Excellence is dedicated to the manufacturing, assembly and testing of critical, cutting-edge technologies. The company delivers a broad range of systems and components supporting the aerospace, defense and space industries, including electromagnetic aircraft launch and recovery systems for the U.S. Navy's Ford-class carriers, satellites and space systems, multimission railgun weapon systems, high energy lasers, hypervelocity projectiles and power conversion systems.

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https://news.sap.com/2020/10/ga-ems-manufacturing-solutions-sap/