A&D innovative study challenges

Is the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry being sufficiently innovative? Either way, how does one measure innovation. Aviation Week and KPMG partnered to launch a project to ascertain the health of the industry’s innovation capability, and how it can drive customer decision-making and compete with others for talent. Rather than develop a very subjective ranking system, the project assessed the strength of innovation in industry, where the most important investments in research and development (R&D) are being made and the rate of investment. Overall, the industry is healthy, but is it meeting customer needs and being sufficiently innovative. The U.S. industry posted revenues of $929.5B in 2018, up 4 percent. Exports totaling $170.5B contributed $89.5B to the U.S. trade surplus. The research showed there is no shortage of product/ process advances being developed. But is it being innovative-sufficient? There are signs customer aren’t fully satisfied with the pace of development of new products/processes. Commercial airlines are pressured to reduce carbon emissions faster than the established 1-1.5 percent yearly average. The Air Force has set up an office to create a new design process that enables advanced aircraft to be developed within five-year cycles. External pressures and internal moves may be signs industry needs to do more and quickly. “For more than 50 years, higher, farther and faster has been the mantra of R&D in aviation and defense,” the authors say. “But this mantra of higher, farther and faster does not reflect the new focus of innovation - a shift to include processes as well as products and the melding of the digital and physical worlds. The new emerging mantra could be: Better, quicker, cheaper and smarter.” (Aviation Week 10/24/19) https://aviationweek.com/future-aerospace/aviation-weekkpmg-innovation-study-highlights-challenges-facing-ad?utm_rid=CPEN1000002255725&utm_campaign=21917&utm_medium=email&elq2=cc4557ef01de420a9c55f37754aa69b2