Aerospace
Supply-chain platform: mill-scale materials for every subcontractor
- Client
- A major aerospace manufacturer (name withheld)
- Sector
- Aerospace
- Scale
- £10bn+ revenue
A major aerospace manufacturer buys raw materials from the mills in huge volumes, but the mills won't deal with the smaller subcontractors who actually build much of the aircraft. We were brought in to deliver the platform that manages that material flow, so the manufacturer can buy at scale and get the materials down a whole hierarchy of subcontractors that could never source them on the same terms alone.
Technologies
- ASP.NET Web API
- MuleSoft
- SQL Server
- Mobile SSO
- LDAP
- ETL
- SAFe
The challenge
The client, a major aerospace manufacturer, buys raw materials such as metals from the mills in enormous quantities, which gets it the volume and pricing that only a large manufacturer can command. The catch is that most of the aircraft is actually built by subcontractors, and the mills won't deal with smaller subcontractors directly. Those subcontractors need the same materials but can't buy them on anything like the same terms on their own. The manufacturer needed a way to buy at scale and then get that material to the right subcontractors, across a supply chain where subcontractors often have subcontractors of their own.
Our approach
We were brought in to deliver the platform that manages this material flow, making the architectural decisions and building it.
- A platform for the whole supply chain, not just one tier. We built the system to model the full hierarchy of subcontractors, so material demand can be tracked and managed all the way down the chain, not only between the manufacturer and its immediate suppliers.
- Secure access for the people who need it. We added single sign-on, including from mobile, tied to the manufacturer's existing staff directory, so the right people could get in securely and the platform met the standards of a large, regulated engineering organisation.
- Built to the standard the work demanded. We introduced solid engineering practices and testing to the team and mentored the client's junior developers, so the platform was dependable and the team was stronger for having built it.
The result
The manufacturer can manage material demand across its entire subcontractor network from one place: buying at a scale only a large manufacturer can, and getting those materials to the subcontractors who build the aircraft but could never source them on the same terms alone. We delivered a platform that supports these critical supply-chain processes, and left the client's team with stronger engineering standards to keep building on.
