Apollo ERP X for the Aerospace Manufacturing Industry

NTS Apollo is proud to serve the aerospace manufacturing industry through its world-class leading ERP software platform, Apollo ERP X. Manufacturing in the Aerospace industry has its own unique set of problems and issues that have to be handled with ease and 100% accuracy and precision at all times. This is why companies like Extra Aerobatic Airplanes and Aquilla Aviation have trusted Apollo ERP X to provide the robust software to handle complex manufacturing environments which can include deep-level BOM nesting and the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of individual parts. 

Aerospace manufacturing is often, due to stringent regulations, an extremely controlled environment and also involves a greater than normal variety of suppliers, manufacturing methods, certification steps, part traceability and complex paperwork. 

The Unique Challenges for the Aerospace Manufacturing Industry

Aerospace manufacturers are increasingly using a Project or Contract model for the majority of their manufacturing activities. This means that they need an ERP system that can be configured to run this way. Multiple contracts & multiple projects that can all be centralized across a broader enterprise view with the required built-in business intelligence and dashboards to allow decision makers and floor-level employees to make the right forecasts and decisions about their business.

Through decades of continuous improvement, the Apollo ERP X software platform has evolved to help Aerospace manufacturers of all sizes deal with the following challenges:

• Complex paperwork requirements including the ability to attach certifications to parts, machines and raw materials at will.
• Ability to manage complex contract requirements including fixed cost, cost plus materials and can be for design, prototypes, limited production, full scale production or a combination of these types.
•  Extremely low margin of error as compared to other industries.
• The need to run a system that will comply with FAA, DoD, JAA, and APICS regulations.
• The requirements for complex multi-level Bill of Materials, often nested on multiple times.
•  Traceability of parts, raw materials and the requirement for every item to have a complete lifetime history.
•  Complex change management during the manufacturing workflow that allows for blocking work cycle management.
•  Unpredictability of material availability
• Integration with AutoCAD
•  Understanding customer demand
•  Need to reduce overcapacity and associated costs
•  Lower production setup times
•  Improve work cycle times
• Low capacity utilization
• Automatic and up-to-date currency conversion
• Complex unit conversion including various dimensional and volumetric measurements that require final unit calculations
•  Variability in methods and tolerances of expansive materials
• Production schedules that must meet those of customer needs
• Optimizing capacity
• Paperwork related to importing and exporting of materials in different currencies and languages.
• Customer specific BOMs with rapid calculation
• Group capacity planning for machines that are customer specific
•  Machine and Group Machine planning
• Lot and Batch tracking
• EDI (electronic data interchange) for customers and suppliers
• External work cycles (managing 3rd party manufacturing as part of the overall manufacturing process and production planning)
• Quality Control
•  Identifying material and equipment conflicts
• Balancing work cycles on production lines to minimize idle time, reduce setup time and use operators and secondary equipment efficiently
•  The ability to react quickly to machine downtime and dynamically change entire production and machine schedules
• Compliance with local, state and country laws around environmental laws and regulations
• Supplier evaluation – automate the process of evaluating suppliers based on their performance and ability to deliver quality parts on time.
• Shop floor control
• Complete supply-chain management

How Apollo ERP X Software Meets and Exceeds the Demands of the Plastics Manufacturing Industry

The Apollo ERP X platform can handle all of these Aerospace manufacturing specific challenges, while competing platforms, even those that specialize in ERP software for the Aerospace manufacturing industry often miss one or more multi-faceted module in order to provide a complete software solution in one package.  

Additionally, Apollo ERP X includes a wide variety of integrated modules to help you run your manufacturing business. This include modules for CRM, Inventory / Warehouse Management, Purchasing, Quality Assurance, Logistics, Project Management, Service, Business Intelligence and a dedicated Mobile application for maximum portability and efficiency within your manufacturing environment.

While Apollo does not have a stand-alone accounting module included, we provide a software bridge to most standard accounting packages that allows for the seamless exchange of crucial financial data between Apollo ERP X and your current accounting software solution.

Our approach to ERP software is unique. We understand that each of our clients, even within a specific industry like Aerospace manufacturing is still different, with a unique set of workflows. That’s why through the course of getting to know your particular manufacturing environment we perform a deep and thorough needs analysis with your team. In some circumstances our ERP specialists discover that your specific manufacturing workflow requires specialized functionality. In this case our team of developers can recommend and provide the necessary customizations to the Apollo ERP X platform to accommodate your specific needs.

The Return on Investment with Apollo ERP X

At the end of the day, an investment in any ERP software platform should see an almost immediate quantifiable result. This ROI is readily seen in areas such as revenue growth, improved productivity, decreased machine and operator idle times as well as improved product quality, production flexibility, and profitability.  As your manufacturing priorities constantly change based on customer demand and input, Apollo ERP X is flexible enough to keep up with complex operations such as:

• Viewing the direct impact of your changes on material, labor and on-time delivery, machine, and secondary equipment constraints
• Moving jobs from one to one or multiple machines

The Benefits of Apollo ERP X as your Aerospace Manufacturing Management Software

With Apollo ERP X as your solution, your aerospace manufacturing and processing business should expect to see gains in a wide variety of critical areas including:

• A clear and concise view of your Bills of Material, which include a listing of all parts and assemblies, that go into the manufactured products. 
• Engineering change management including a mechanism for maintaining both pre- and after- change BoM’s with configuration management functions to enable version tracing to the inventory module. 
• Contract revision management
• Lot number and serial number controls
• Material and part tolerance control management
• Purchasing controls
• Master production scheduling and MRP - the ability to control the MRP system by individual contract.
• Material and part contract ownership management
• The ability to bid on products & parts yet to be fully defined. Apollo ERP X can internally estimate the size and shape of products and make changes to the manufacturing template if a client requirement changes. 
• Tiered procurement of goods - the ability to manage a complex supply chain. 

A Selection of our Aerospace Manufacturing Clients

Book a free consultation with one of our ERP Specialists today to find out why Apollo ERP X is the right solution for your Aerospace manufacturing business.