Super CMS

In late 2015, Airbus were faced with an urgent need to increase production of the A350 aircraft without sacrificing quality. An A350 is comprised of five million parts, and built by hundreds of teams, spread across four countries and more than eight plants.

The data that drives production — production schedules, shift schedules, parts deliveries, work orders, quality issues, and more — was also distributed across teams and countries. Airbus required visibility into this data, in order to answer questions like:

• How often does a defect occur?
• What are the consequences of those defects, in terms of rework and time delays down the line?
• Which maintenance and repair tasks have already been completed?
• Which tasks are still open? Why haven’t they been completed and how can we close them?

In 2015, Foundry integrated data from schedules, crew shifts, parts, deliveries, and defects to create a single user interface to guide planning and assist trouble-shooting for every member of the A350 production team. This allowed the team to proactively take measures to prevent defects, and react quickly to unforeseen changes on the production line, such as supplier delays. The increased insight into the overall process and better collaboration across teams ultimately accelerated delivery of A350s by 33%, allowing Airbus to meet its target.

In 2016, the data asset was harnessed to power adjacent workflows across scheduling, supply chain and finance. In 2017, Palantir and Airbus expanded to create Skywise, the platform that connects the aviation industry’s in-flight, engineering, and operations data in a secure ecosystem. Skywise handles multiple integrations, synchronous transactions, and petabytes of data volume.

Skywise helps airlines to improve reliability, decrease costs and digitally transform their own operations. The platform also enables suppliers align supply and demand with Airbus, optimize production, and reduce late deliveries.