BMT Aerospace wins 'Factory of the Future' award!
BMT Aerospace International may call itself a Factory of the Future for the next three years. The company received this award during the fifth edition of the Factory of the Future Awards in Kortrijk. With this award BMT Aerospace emphasizes its ambition to be an agile and future-proof company that delivers products with a higher added value. Since 2015, technology federation Agoria and the collective center for the technology industry Sirris have been presenting the annual Factory of the Future Awards. Factories of the Future invest in digitization, in smart processes and products and in world-class production, but they also deal with energy and materials in a well-considered way and pay attention to the involvement, creativity and autonomy of their employees. "This award is an acknowledgement for the passion of our people," says Koen Devolder, Site General Manager of BMT Aerospace International. "As early as 2016, we expressed our ambition to become a Factory of the Future by setting up an integrated optimization strategy. This has clearly paid off. In our optimization plan, we have not only focused on technology and digitization, but also on partnerships with other companies, our employees and on ecology.”
Seven crucial transformations
To become a Factory of the Future, BMT Aerospace International needed to complete seven transformation trajectories.- World Class Manufacturing Technologies: deploying state-of-the-art production devices
- End-to-end Engineering: product development and corresponding services depending on the complete value chain, by means of virtual models and simulations
- Digital Factory: digitization of operational processes, connected with the internet
- Human Centered Production: employee involvement in the future development of their company
- Production Network: the organization is embedded in an optimal eco-system of suppliers and partners
- Eco Production: a sustainable production system considering each phase of a product's life cycle, from acquiring the materials, production and usage, to disposing of the waste. Production systems are also able to close the materials cycle and energy consumption is drastically reduced.
- Smart Production Systems: to be able to respond to rapidly changing market demand
- Cooperation with machine constructors for the development of special metallurgical machines (World Class Manufacturing Technologies)
- Development of open communication, training and small self-managing teams (Human Centered Production)
- Co-design of parts together with the customer and rapid prototyping for a faster time to market (End-to-end Engineering)
Continuous improvement
"For us, the Factory of the Future Award is a catalyst for an improvement process that never stops," says Koen Devolder. "That's why we have already laid out our roadmap for 2020 and beyond. Only in this way we can cope with an ever-changing market.” The Factory of the Future Awards were presented on 6 February 2019. BMT Aerospace International will retain the Factory of the Future label for three years. The company will present its innovative approach at the Factory of the Future Roadshow on Tuesday 7 May 2019. About BMT Aerospace BMT Aerospace International supplies high-tech precision components for the aviation sector. The company operates in three locations: USA, Romania and Belgium. The Belgian branch is located in Oostkamp, employs around 120 people and has been a leading manufacturer of gears, transmission and actuation systems for the drive mechanism of the slats (attack wing) and flaps for various commercial aircraft programs for more than 25 years worldwide.
