Business

Paid Content : This paid content was written and produced by RV Studios of Red Ventures' marketing unit in collaboration with the sponsor and is not part of ZDNET's Editorial Content.

Fly with Confidence

Read how Spirit AeroSystems broke away from time consuming spreadsheets and how they've increased efficiency in the business.

Today aircraft safety holds paramount significance. One of the world’s largest commercial, military, and business jet corporations, Spirit AeroSystems, manufactures composite and metallic aircraft fuselages, propulsion systems, and wing structures. Since birth, the company has filled nearly 300 invention disclosures and holds over 85 patents and patents pending.

But when Spirit split from Boeing in 2005, Spirit’s customer base grew substantially, resulting in a $41 billion backlog of orders to fill. At the time, the data pulled form Spirit’s SAP ERP Central Component was too vast and unmanageable for their business warehouse. By the time a report was ready for consumption, it was already out of date. Mechanics and supervisors at Spirit begged for the company to remove the need to for spreadsheets.

For Spirit AeroSystems, the answer was simple. To address the data logjam, Spirit chose SAP HANA. After implementing SAP HANA, reports that had previously taken 37 hours, now took a miraculous 14 seconds. With SAP HANA, the company has a single source of truth, taking the burden off of employees for manual reporting.

Other benefits included:

Ability to view 5 weeks historical data at once to forecast for the future, shortening production process by days
Reduced employee overtime by 40% due to real time insight into actual costs
Increased production capacity, expected 25% reduction in production flow times, and 30% reduction in assembly inventory levels

Keeping flyers safe in the air is critical, and with optimized business processes, Spirit AeroSystems ensures that each manufactured part is created thoroughly, yet efficiently. This means less time waiting at airports, less planes held back for maintenance, and happier, more confident flyers.