47 AI Ideas, 4 Working Solutions in Aerospace

Aircraft wiring is precise, highly regulated work, and much of it still relies on manual, document-heavy processes. For tier-1 aerospace suppliers, AI offers a way to speed up supply chain, engineering and procurement work, but only if use cases are chosen on evidence and deployed in production.

At a tier-1 aerospace supplier specialising in aircraft wiring, purchase orders were typed into the ERP by hand, forecasts lived in spreadsheets and supplier requirements were read page by page. Leadership asked for AI in core Supply Chain, Engineering and Procurement processes, backed by an ROI-based roadmap.

The supplier needed to:

• Identify where AI could add value in its core Supply Chain, Engineering and Procurement processes.
• Select use cases on the basis of an ROI-backed roadmap.
• Move from ideas to working solutions running on its own platform.

Sia ran a five-phase approach with a leadership decision at every gate:

• Assessment: 47 use cases longlisted, 27 taken through a 'pressure cooker' and 11 selected, with business deep-dives, a value case and an ROI-backed roadmap.
• MVPs: an implementation proposal and kick-off for four AI cases, with MVPs built and tested on a cloud data platform and user acceptance testing with the three business owners.
• Pilot: a pilot on the supplier's own platform in two waves: an exception cockpit, automated ingestion, industrialized forecasting and migration to the supplier's own cloud environment.

The supplier gained four working AI solutions in its core processes:

• 93% test accuracy at MVP review.
• A roll-out planned across all its aircraft programs.

By combining a value-driven selection process with hands-on delivery, Sia helps industrial companies move AI from ideas to production in their core processes.