For Aerospace and Defense (A&D) companies, high levels of communication and collaboration are required across the value chain to deliver quality products and processes. However, due to a long history of disconnected and shortsighted IT investments, capabilities that could enable these requirements are often the foremost roadblocks to achieving them. As the intricacies of A&D are only becoming more difficult to manage, this challenge resonates particularly with today’s quality executives and senior leaders. Market leaders understand this and are building tightly integrated quality solutions that deliver competitive advantages difficult to compete with.

Integrated quality is a business process and software strategy that harmonizes traditionally disparate data sources and systems. It moves away from managing quality in silos, bringing together product, process, and performance data from Enterprise Quality Management Software (EQMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM), and other enterprise applications. This integrated approach infuses quality into aspects of a product’s lifecycle, from design, sourcing, manufacturing, and shipping through service, all while connecting functional teams from those stages.

This paper provides a framework for A&D executives and senior leaders aiming to take an integrated approach to quality management. Specifically, it dives into the following areas:

• An Overview of the Aerospace and Defense Industry
• Benchmark Data: Top Quality Management Objectives and Challenges
• Building an Integrated Quality Solution
• Understanding Closed-Loop Quality in A&D
• The Impact of Closed-Loop Quality Processes in Quality KPIs
• Actionable Recommendations