World leading suppliers of aircraft passenger seating, Safran seats GB has harnessed its resources and expertise in advancing its manufacturing processes through Welsh Government innovation support.
With a key focus to constantly seek new solutions to adapt to the market, support airlines strategies and enhance passenger experience, the innovation support has enabled Safran Seats GB to integrate digital solutions to enhance its operations. The project provided an advanced skill set and insight needed for the company’s vision to stand out whilst meeting its customers’ needs.
Why the need for Innovation Support?
Evaluating its current processes post COVID-19 pandemic, Safran GB’s team of experts were drawn to issues surrounding machine down time within its manufacturing unit. With freedom granted following the removal of travel restrictions the aerospace experienced a wave of unprecedented demands for after-market services.
Quickly, the company were forced to increase output and decrease its product lead times – hence the team quickly made the decision to gain advice from external resources.
Welsh Government’s innovation support and funding to implement Industry 4.0 solutions helped Safran GB to achieve its goal by identifying the right technology to boost its bottom line.
How did the Innovation support help?
Throughout the project, experts helped the businesses:
- Understand their current position and future plans,
- Establish what was stopping them from achieving these plans,
- Recommended digital technology appropriate for their business.
Dafydd Davies is Vice President of Operations for Safran Seats GB and is responsible for securing the company’s industrial strategy enabling the business to perform in line with its medium-term plan, whilst guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
Working with the SMART Digital Accelerator team to access a wealth of knowledge and experience right on our doorstep in Wales has been amazing for Safran GB. We now have resources and a skill set in place that we never would have through of. Other companies should look into it if they feel improvements could be made. This is a golden opportunity not to miss.
Dafydd Davies, Vice President of Operations, Safran Seats
When partnering with the team of experts, it was identified that the company lacked internal skill set to accelerate digital utilisation. A variety of upskilling, training and knowledge took place via onsite training schools throughout the 25-day programme which comprised the deployment of a cloud-based solution and the use of digital twins. The team were incredibly keen to demonstrate that “the rate of learning, needs to be twice the rate of physical change”.
As a result of the project, the team were able to increase their OEE performance of capital equipment by 29% and streamline their processes to reduce product lead time by 37%. Demonstrating its capabilities has meant Safran Seats GB have now been able to invest comfortably in state-of-the-art capital equipment to further improve its competitive edge.
Benefitting from the SMART Digital Accelerator Program, Safran Seats GB successfully reduced machining costs by 37% and achieved a remarkable 32% increase in On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) performance. The 25-day intervention period proved invaluable alignment on the problem statement, utilisation of digital twins for concept validation, and gaining insights into Industry 4.0 through cloud-based solutions. The program’s demonstrated benefits prompted Safran to extend its commitment, with an additional investment exceeding £5 million in Manufacturing 4.0 at its Cwmbran estates.
Dafydd Davies, Vice President of Operations, Safran Seats
Since completing the programme alongside the team of experts, in December 2023 Safran GB was rewarded a £1.6million grant from Welsh Government to support further growth requirements within the company helping to achieve its medium-term plan.
Find out more about how SMART Flexible Innovation Support (FIS) can support your organisation.