Typhoon spares system going live on Baan SSA

Air Systems, the part of BAE Systems building the front and rear fuselages of the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft now entering production, is to ramp up to spares provison on its Baan ERP, now dubbed ERP LN v6.1 under SSA ownership. SSA has developed a new application set for the system specifically to match the AECMA (Aircraft European Contractors Manufacturers Association) standard for spares materials management, procurement and order adminstration, and provided the extension under a five-year deal worth £2 million. The deal was signed last January and the system is scheduled to go live in January 2005, building on Air System’s existing Baan ERP implementation, which has been in place since 1996 – predating SSA competitor IFS’ joint venture deal with BAE Systems. Currently, the operational Typhoon assemblies are moving into full production at Salmesbury and Wharton, but this implementation is aimed at ensuring the UK, German, Spanish and Italian air forces have full national spares availability in advance of delivery. In fact, spares provision will be through Eurofighter GmbH, with the SSA system managing enquiries, handling estimating and quoting and providing for automatic back-to-back transactions in real time to the original kit suppliers’ systems in the countries of origin. “We’re using legacy systems at the moment,” says Graham Malley, Typhoon capability manager at BAE Systems, “and anticipate a significant reduction in costs by switching to new, fully automated solutions. “The application offers improved functionality that significantly reduces the costs associated with managing the spares and repairs supply chain. It enables management of the order book within a single system, simplifying our existing business processes. The product also offers the opportunity for increased integration to existing ERP solutions.” Julian Popple, for AECMA, adds: “The SSA Global team has acquired an unusually thorough understanding of S2000M [AECMA specification], and have applied their knowledge to make a highly practical tool which offers an unprecedented level of automation allied to a very fine control of detail.” Edward Price, director of SSA’s global accounts in EMEA for aerospace and defence, makes the point that, with the system in place and proven, there will be further opportunities for SSA Baan with, for example, the European Tiger helicopter.