Elevating Quality, Empowering Your Vision
Redefining aerospace and defense: Continuous quality improvement as the enabler for innovation
Total Quality Management for Operational Excellence
In today's rapidly evolving aerospace and defense sector, total quality management (TQM) has become pivotal for achieving operational superiority and meeting the increasing demands for quality and efficiency. The key to success lies not only within the internal processes of manufacturers but significantly within the capabilities of their supply chain. Recognizing that no manufacturer produces 100% of its components in-house, the reliance on a supply chain to provide necessary parts or sub-assemblies becomes critical. The final product's performance, costs, delay, and quality are immensely influenced by every link within the supply chain meeting its objectives in these crucial areas.
Leveraging the Power of the 3DEXPERIENCE® Platform
Dassault Systèmes addresses these challenges head-on with its total quality management approach, leveraging the power of the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform. This strategy empowers organizations to transcend traditional quality management practices by integrating advanced analytics, lifecycle management and manufacturing excellence. Such integration not only fosters innovation and enhances sustainability but also streamlines operation to maintain a competitive edge. Notably, non-conformance in the supply chain, accounting for approximately 6% of program costs, underscores the urgent need for a transformative approach. Enhancing collaboration and adopting model-based methodologies are essential steps towards transitioning from a sequential supply chain to a value network.
In response to the expected production ramp-up over the next three years, heightening levels of quality becomes a non-negotiable imperative. This responsibility rests with all stakeholders, including engineering, manufacturing, and the supply chain, urging a paradigm shift from sequentially driven quality processes to a more integrated and proactive model. Key strategies include embedding quality constraints at the design stage, using the digital mock-up (DMU) as the central point or universal language, and instantiating advanced product quality planning (APQP) automation within the supply chain.
TQM Applications
Discover Dassault Systèmes’ Total Quality Management Approach
Adopt a Platform Approach
Dassault Systèmes portfolio provides a comprehensive methodology to enhance lifecycle collaboration, innovate design, streamline production and gain insights from data.
Boost Product Quality and Operational Efficiency
Achieve “right first time” and reduce cycle time by up to 80% thanks to collaborative solutions and data-driven decision making.
Embrace Advanced Technology
Enhance TQM with artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and virtual twins for predictive analytics and manufacturing precision.
Strengthen Collaboration
Align employees, suppliers and partners around a shared vision for excellence in a collaborative ecosystem.
Optimize Value
The cost of quality represents between 4.3% and 8.6% of a company's total sales. TQM enables optimal return on investment by improving cost, productivity and customer satisfaction.
Enable Industry Growth
Embrace sustainability, digital transformation and customer-centric solutions to stay competitive and scale up.
Leveraging the ENOVIA, CATIA, DELMIA and NETVIBES portfolios, Dassault Systèmes' unique value proposition develops data-driven quality for operational excellence. This is achieved through the deployment of several Industry Solution Experiences tailored for the aerospace and defense industry portfolio. By connecting virtual and real-world data, Dassault Systèmes brings quality to unprecedented standards, ensuring that the aerospace and defense sector can meet its ambitious objectives for quality, efficiency and sustainability in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Elevate Quality
The useful guide to total quality management in aerospace and defense.
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Frequently Asked Questions
TQM in the aerospace and defense sector represents a comprehensive strategy aimed at improving the quality of products, boosting operational efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction through ongoing improvements. It is fully integrated within a quality management system (QMS), ensuring quality assurance and control are embedded in every stage of the product lifecycle, from design through manufacturing to maintenance. This synergy significantly lowers production costs and refines the production process.
The 3DEXPERIENCE platform by Dassault Systèmes underpins TQM by offering a comprehensive Quality Management System (QMS). It integrates ENOVIA for lifecycle management, CATIA for design, DELMIA for manufacturing and NETVIBES for analytics, streamlining quality assurance and control processes. This integrated QMS fosters continuous improvement across product development and operations, effectively managing production costs and refining the production process.
Dassault Systèmes' approach to TQM is anchored in a robust QMS comprising synchronized data management, defect prevention, actionable insights from data-driven management and model-based safety design. These components are crucial for effective quality assurance and control, directly impacting production costs and processes.
Proactive quality management and control are central to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform's QMS, incorporating TQM processes into engineering workflows within organizations. By utilizing 3D modeling and simulation, it offers unparalleled visibility into quality assurance and improvement opportunities from the outset, thereby optimizing production costs and processes.
In the context of TQM and QMS, ENOVIA, CATIA, DELMIA and NETVIBES play pivotal roles. ENOVIA ensures quality assurance through design data and procedure management; CATIA facilitates risk identification via model-based FMEA; DELMIA enhances digital manufacturing and operations for quality control; and NETVIBES delivers analytics for monitoring quality KPIs and predicting trends, all contributing to the reduction of production costs and optimization of the production process.
Dassault Systèmes leverages APQP and the production part approval process (PPAP) to manage collaboration, data exchange and reviews with suppliers digitally. This model-based approach is critical for success and provides competitive advantage to the suppliers by ensuring high-quality standards and transparency across the supply chain, addressing quality assurance, control challenges and optimizing production costs and processes.
For effective risk identification and mitigation within TQM practices, Dassault Systèmes recommends leveraging the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s QMS capabilities. This includes utilizing FMEA tools and first article inspections for proactive quality assurance and control, ultimately leading to more efficient production costs and processes.
Yes, implementing TQM requires a significant cultural transformation towards quality, continuous improvement and an aim towards customer satisfaction. Dassault Systèmes supports this transition with technology, recommended business processes and best practices, all aimed at fostering a quality-focused organizational culture. This cultural shift is vital for enhancing quality assurance, control and managing production costs and processes efficiently.