Last week, at the 43rd ESA antenna workshop, Jeremy Perrin, CEO of Connektica, participated in a roundtable with Nicolas CAPET (CEO, Anywaves), and Fabien Ferrero (Founder, Orb Instruments).
Moderated by Elena Saenz, they discussed how to scale space components manufacturing. Especially , Design for Manufacturing & AIT, Digitalization and Automation. Below are the key takeaways.
1๏ธโฃ ๐๐ญ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐๐ฌ๐ข๐ ๐ง
– Accept โslightly lower peak performanceโ if it unlocks faster, more consistent AIT at scale.
– Build with assembly/debug in mind (Poka-Yoke mindset)
– Borrow rules from automotive/aviation.
2๏ธโฃ ๐๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ-๐ก๐๐ฏ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐
With New Space, you need
– To run root-cause across 10sโ100s of units โ You canโt spend hours hunting through paper, emails, and spreadsheets.
– Engineers focused on insights and fixes โ You canโt afford them babysitting test setups or being tied to the shop floor.
– You need cost + reliability at speed โ You canโt get there with manual processes and disconnected systems.
3๏ธโฃ ๐๐๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฒ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ
– Start early: during prototyping/qualification to capture all the engineering know-how so that the 1st batch are produced faster and more reliably
– Phased approach: Digitize โ pinpoint bottlenecks โ automate โ integrate production software together (MES – PLM – ERP)
To learn more about scaling space manufacturing and Connektica, download our complementary eBook, Aerospace Production Scaling – Evaluation Checklist and contact our experts if you have any questions.
