The aerospace industry’s growing demand for skilled people is accelerating investment in a different kind of capacity: digital capability.As aircraft production rates increase and maintenance activity expands, manufacturers need more engineers, inspectors, metrologists and quality professionals. At the same time, experienced specialists are carrying decades of knowledge about components, processes and engineering decisions. For Derby-based AddQual, artificial intelligence and automation offer manufacturers an opportunity to make that expertise available across a much wider operation. The company believes technologies such as its MiDAS digital platform can help manufacturers capture knowledge, automate repeatable processes and give skilled people more time to concentrate on high-value engineering.
“Skills will remain fundamental to aerospace manufacturing, and that makes it even more important that we maximise the impact of the people we have,” said Ben Anderson, Managing Director of AddQual. “AI and automation allow us to put better information in front of engineers, remove repetitive administration and make knowledge more accessible. That means an experienced person can potentially influence far more activity across an organisation.”
One of the biggest opportunities lies in the vast amount of knowledge already held within aerospace businesses. An experienced quality engineer or inspector can often recognise patterns within measurement results because they have seen similar components and manufacturing conditions many times before. Digitally capturing that information creates an opportunity to build organisational knowledge that can support future decisions. MiDAS is being developed by AddQual around this principle, connecting measurement, inspection and manufacturing information within a digital environment. Rather than individual datasets sitting at separate stages of a process, information can form part of a continuous digital record. Anderson believes this becomes particularly valuable as experienced engineers support the development of the next generation.
“Some of the most valuable intellectual capital in manufacturing sits in the experience of the people on the shopfloor and in engineering teams,” he said.“The opportunity with digital technology is to capture more of that knowledge through the decisions, data and processes they create. You begin building a resource that can support other engineers and help newer employees develop their understanding much faster.”
Automation also has an important role in how manufacturers deploy specialist skills. Highly qualified engineers can spend significant amounts of time preparing reports, organising inspection information, transferring data between systems and completing repeatable quality processes. Automating appropriate elements of that workflow creates additional engineering capacity without changing the fundamental importance of human expertise. For AddQual, this is where AI becomes particularly powerful. AI-supported systems can help analyse large quantities of measurement information, identify patterns and direct attention towards areas requiring engineering review. The engineer remains responsible for the decision, while technology helps prepare the evidence required to make it.“
AI becomes valuable when it gives skilled people more time to use their skills,” Anderson said.“If an engineer can spend more of their day solving engineering problems and less time finding, formatting or moving information, that is a productivity gain. Multiply that across a manufacturing business and the potential becomes considerable.”
This approach also changes the economics of growth. Traditionally, increasing production capacity often requires a corresponding increase in resources throughout inspection, quality and engineering.Automated inspection processes, connected measurement data, digital traceability and AI-assisted analysis can allow existing expertise to support higher levels of activity.For companies operating within aerospace MRO, the opportunity is equally significant. As repair volumes grow, engineers need to assess component condition, interpret inspection results and support repair and qualification decisions efficiently. MiDAS can provide the digital infrastructure through which that information is captured, organised and made available .It also creates foundations for technologies including digital twins and increasingly intelligent engineering tools, where previous measurement and repair information can contribute to future decision-making.The skills challenge therefore extends beyond recruitment.
Manufacturers also have an opportunity to make aerospace engineering more digitally enabled for the people entering the industry. A new generation of engineers will increasingly work alongside connected measurement systems, automated inspection technologies, digital twins and AI-supported analysis.Anderson believes combining those technologies with established engineering knowledge will be central to maintaining the competitiveness of UK aerospace manufacturing.
“We have tremendous engineering expertise in the UK,” he said. “Digitalisation gives us the opportunity to scale it.“
The objective is to create an environment where someone entering aerospace can access better information, learn from previous decisions and become productive more quickly, while experienced engineers have the tools to concentrate their expertise where it creates the greatest value. As aerospace manufacturers pursue higher production rates and MRO providers work to increase throughput, recruitment will remain an important part of the equation. By capturing knowledge, connecting data and removing repetitive work, platforms such as MiDAS can help manufacturers make every engineering hour more productive.For an industry where specialist knowledge takes years to develop, that could become one of digital manufacturing’s most valuable contributions.
