Business need
SKF Aerospace is in the process of transforming into a single, competitive division within the SKF Group. To better meet the demands of today's highly competitive aerospace and defense industry, SKF is aligning its business along segment and solution lines, rather than on product lines. SKF Aerospace needed to align its IT infrastructure, processes and applications with these larger strategic goals. The company knew that to compete more effectively, it would have to improve its customer focus and supply chain efficiency and support these areas with transparent and common IT solutions, compliant with the company's strategic IT vision.
The company's main goals in undertaking a transformation of its IT infrastructure and processes were to support the creation of SKF Aerospace as a single, comprehensive business unit, to achieve profitable growth and reduce costs, to improve customer focus and to improve supply chain efficiency. With a clear vision of where it needed to go, SKF Aerospace sought a business partner with expertise in the aerospace and defense industry to help it build the roadmap for its IT transformation. The company sought to develop the business case for implementing new IT infrastructure and processes, including recommendations for major IT application installations and integration across the Aerospace Division's business units.
Solution
IBM Business Consulting Services
IBM Business Consulting Services teamed with SKF Aerospace to deliver the company's IT strategy plan, including the business case for required investments. The strategy was developed based on the Division's strategic business plan and the requirements from the business units within the Division. The team used IBM's Component Business Modeling approach to evaluate the Division's IT processes, us ing IBM's extensive process model for the aerospace and defense industry. The resulting roadmap aligns the company's IT strategy with its larger business goals, and addresses the Division's business requirements and issues. The actual implementation of recommended IT solutions will be completed during 2005 and 2006, delivering a solid return on investment (ROI) once the implementations are completed.
IBM Business Consulting Services recommended the following strategic IT investments and implementations: Implement a common enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The common ERP system is the key to SKF Aerospace's cost reductions and profitable growth. Implement a common product lifecycle management (PLM) and product data management (PDM) platform to support the data and information from the computer aided design (CAD) and PLM systems used by key customers. In addition, SKF Aerospace has decided to implement a data warehouse, which was one of a number of suggested "quick wins."
Results
The IT strategy recommendations include common processes to support and enable shared service and centralized functions—supporting the vision of One SKF Aerospace by enabling SKF to develop synergies from being a single, comprehensive division. With a more efficient supply chain, purchasing and distribution logistics are expected to improve considerably.
SKF Aerospace expects increased production efficiency by an increase in labor utilization; improved supply management through purchase price reduction; significant IT management cost reduction through consolidation into one IT platform, which also enables easier integration with business partners; reduced application development time; and more efficient finance and administration through integrated processes.
Customer information
SKF Aerospace
SKF Aerospace is responsible for sales, product development and production of bearings, seals and components for aircraft engines, gearboxes and airframes, subsystems for fly-by-wire solutions and also for offering various services including the repair of bearings.
