Aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturers today face converging pressures: labor shortages, fragmented supply chains, growing volumes of compliance data, and increased operational complexity. Despite generating vast amounts of data, many organizations still lack the infrastructure to transform that data into actionable insights.
Meanwhile, knowledge critical to safe and efficient operations remains locked in the experience of veteran engineers and technicians. As these experts retire, organizations are left scrambling to preserve institutional memory. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically, domain-aware AI, has a meaningful role to play.
This blog examines how Solumina AI integrates into A&D environments to address these challenges, not as a futuristic fantasy, but as an operational solution that delivers value today.
The Case for Domain-Specific AI in A&D
Generic AI platforms often fall short in regulated, high-stakes industries, such as aerospace. The risks of error, non-compliance, or lack of traceability are too high. What’s needed is a targeted approach—AI that understands A&D manufacturing processes, integrates with existing systems, and aligns with compliance expectations.
We structured Solumina AI around this principle. Rather than introducing a single tool, it offers a platform of four AI-driven modules designed to work within existing MES, MRO, and quality workflows.
Four AI Applications for Modern A&D Manufacturing
1. Preserving Expertise with Solumina Digital SME
As experienced personnel exit the workforce, manufacturers risk losing deep procedural knowledge. Solumina Digital Subject Matter Expert (SME) helps mitigate this. For example, consider a junior technician who identifies an issue but is unsure how to create a discrepancy. Instead of paging an engineer or searching through documents, they can ask Digital SME. The AI instantly reviews relevant Solumina documentation for standard procedures and best practices, all tied back to traceable records. It responds to the technician with context-sensitive explanations and step-by-step instructions. This supports faster troubleshooting and reinforces standardized practices.
By embedding this functionality into daily operations, A&D teams reduce delays, training gaps, and knowledge loss.
2. Turning Shopfloor Data into Insight with Solumina Intelligence
Most A&D manufacturers generate vast amounts of data – from quality checks to production metrics – but often struggle to analyze it in real time. Solumina Intelligence bridges that gap by allowing users to ask operational questions in plain language on the fly and receive AI-powered insights based on live or historical data within Solumina.
With instant responses delivered as natural language explanations, data tables, or even dashboards, Solumina Intelligence empowers plant managers, supervisors, and frontline workers to easily answer questions like, “How many parts have revision B?” or “How many operations are currently in queue?” This enables teams to instantly answer operational questions, spot trends, and make smarter decisions – without needing a background in analytics.
3. Actionable Intelligence Delivered with Solumina PulseAI
Leaders in an A&D manufacturing environment depend on key metric reporting to guide critical decisions. Yet generating these reports is often time-consuming, requires specialized skills, and results in static deliverables that lack deeper context.
Solumina PulseAI changes that by delivering scheduled, tailored briefings on production throughput, quality deviations, rework trends, and more – without the need for manual data pulls. Leaders receive actionable, text-based summaries and can interact with Solumina PulseAI to uncover further insights. For example, a plant manager noticing a spike in scrap rates can ask which work centers or shifts are driving the issue, enabling real-time course correction and improved operational performance.
4. Automating Document Digitization with Solumina ScanAI
Documentation remains a bottleneck for many A&D manufacturers. Paper-based work instructions, handwritten notes, and scanned SOPs slow operations and complicate audits.
Solumina ScanAI applies AI-powered optical character recognition (OCR) to digitize documents, intelligently parse their content, and push the captured data into Solumina. This transforms siloed, unstructured content into searchable, actionable information that is embedded in Solumina’s MES or MRO workflows – enabling users to instantly start leveraging the data while maintaining digital continuity.
In one implementation, teams used Solumina ScanAI to digitize legacy work instructions, allowing them to be referenced on the shop floor and included in digital audit trails automatically. This approach reduces compliance risk and frees up skilled labor from administrative tasks.
Real World Application of Solumina AI
To illustrate these solutions working together, consider this scenario:
• Digitizing legacy documents: A production team is preparing to build a component using paper-based work instructions. With ScanAI, their document control team scans and integrates the documents into Solumina, transforming them into trackable digital work instructions.
• Assisting newer technicians: During assembly, a junior technician encounters an unexpected tolerance issue. Instead of escalating, they use Digital SME, which provides detailed guidance by pulling from context-specific procedures and best practices – enabling expert-level execution.
• On-the-fly operational insights: A supervisor monitoring the floor asks Solumina Intelligence, “How many assemblies are behind schedule on Line 3?” and immediately receives real-time metrics to help adjust staffing and production priorities.
• Automated Insights for Leadership: Meanwhile, plant leadership receives a scheduled PulseAI report highlighting a spike in rework trends. They follow up with PulseAI to identify the shifts and stations contributing most to the issue and implement corrective actions before further disruptions occur.
By augmenting human expertise with AI solutions tailored to the shop floor, A&D manufacturers can enhance agility, mitigate operational risk, and build resilience in the face of increasing complexity.
After all, the goal is to empower and support A&D manufacturing experts with tailored solutions that foster a more responsive and intelligent production environment.
If you’re ready to see Solumina AI in action, contact us or schedule a demo today.
