Recent research from consultancy firm Cambashi shows that aerospace manufacturing is still doing well despite the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is partly due to the defence sector, which has been relatively unaffected, and partly because of the space industry, which is a thriving sub-set,” explained Alan Griffiths, Lead Analyst at Cambashi. “Both areas have advanced products with complex supply chains that require sophisticated design, engineering and manufacturing software.”
Software plays a major role in the aerospace industry as it is essential to design, simulation, production, supply chain and maintenance activities.
“Although the aerospace software market growth in most countries dipped in 2020 due to COVID-19 effects, we forecast it to recover to pre-pandemic levels or higher in 2022 and then continue growing with a CAGR of nearly 13% from 2021 to 2025,” said Griffiths.
The range of engineering software used in aerospace manufacturing includes:
• CAD for design
• CAM for manufacturing planning
• PLM to manage the product lifecycle
• ERP to manage the production/planning and financial processes
• SCM (Supply Chain Management) to manage the supply chain, and
• Service Management software to manage service and maintenance
• Industrial IoT software for connected applications.
“Engineering software applications typically outperform the underlying economy of the industries they serve,” said Griffiths. “When looking at the ratio of technical software spend to Value Added, there has been a steady increase over the past 10 years in the aerospace industry. This shows the importance of engineering and technical software in driving advancements and efficiency gains in the industry.”
