Anywaves, a leading manufacturer of space antennas, streamlines growth with Connektica
Headquarters
Toulouse, France
Headcount
50+ employees
Industry
Space
Website
Anywaves
Faced with explosive growth, space antenna manufacturer Anywaves needed to scale production from dozens to thousands of units annually without compromising the rigorous quality standards required for aerospace component testing. By implementing Connektica’s automated testing software and manufacturing execution system (MES), Anywaves reduced testing time from 8 hours to 15 minutes per antenna while improving quality control and enabling multi-site production capabilities.
Key results
- Cut from 30 minutes to 5 minutes the time to create an EN9100 compliance report
- Can perform 4 to 5 times more measurements
- Reduced the time to test an antenna from 8 hours to 15 minutes
- Can track the duration of each step to identify bottlenecks & prioritize investments
- Gained a scalable platform, allowing them to increase antenna production from 10s to 100s units annually
- Streamlined assembly, integration, and testing processes, eliminating manual operation
“Anywaves has to be competitive on a global playing field. With Connektica, we have reduced the time to test a space antenna from 8 hours to just 15 minutes."
Nicolas Capet – CEO – Anywaves
Challenges
“As a space antenna maker, we need to deliver highly reliable antennas, which means that each of our products needs to be properly controlled and tested before delivery”, says Dr. Nicolas Capet, CEO of Anywaves.
Before Connektica, Anywaves had well-defined processes, but everything was done manually. They had to take raw data from measurements and use Excel to create graphics. Compliance reports were made in Word by copy-pasting content and manually entering data. Assembling an antenna would take 8 hours, and creating one report, 30 minutes on average.
As they moved from small-scale production to large volumes, he knew that they needed to change their production processes or the company wouldn’t survive. The main challenge was maintaining the same quality/reliability as volumes increased.
Solution
Choosing Connektica: automation, cyber security, and data portability
Dr. Nicolas Capet selected Connektica because, at the time, “saving time and minimizing errors during test reports creation was essential” to meet their growing production demands. Too much time was spent by AIT (Assembly, Integration, and Test) technicians on compliance report creation, instead of “setting up tests, checking data, and controlling the performance outputs”. Connektica was tackling the exact problem he needed to solve.
Additionally, when evaluating Connektica Anywaves also assessed:
- Data portability: Anywaves’ customers require that all traceability data remain accessible for a long time. Being able to export their data, in case they stopped using Connektica, was a must-have.
- Compliance and cyber-security: Anywaves “cares a lot about their data and their customers’ data”, he says, so their manufacturing software needs to “guarantee early warnings and protect data in case of cyber attacks or data corruption”.
Implementation
Anywaves deployed Connektica in three phases.
- Automate Radio Frequency (RF) measurements: the pre-built drivers and API allowed Anywaves to quickly automate testing.
- Automate compliance report generation: Connektica provides standard EN9100 compliance reports, but Anywaves wanted to customize them according to their brand guidelines and specific customer requirements.
- The final step was automating their assembly and integration steps in Connektica so that the entire assembly, integration, and testing process is run in Connektica ensuring complete traceability and faster execution.
Benefits
Scaling Production
In two years, Anywaves moved from producing tens of antennas annually to thousands. “We would not have been able to do that without Connektica’s MES software,” says Dr. Nicolas Capet, CEO of Anywaves.
As Anywaves increased production, they needed to onboard new staff, which could have led to issues due to knowledge gaps. Nicolas notes that the tool was “very helpful to onboard new AIT technicians while keeping the same level of reliability and quality during our production”.
Another strategic benefit is the ability to monitor the time spent on each step of the assembly, integration, and testing process. Allowing Anywaves to know where to invest in automation or adjust their procedures to streamline processes.
With Connektica, Dr. Nicolas Capet says they can “efficiently duplicate production lines in different locations based on customer demands and products”. As data is centralized in the manufacturing execution system, they can see in real-time what happens across sites and compare performance.
Time saved and faster production cycles
Stephane Roy, AIT Technician, reports that EN9100 compliance report creation now takes 5 minutes, compared to 30 minutes per report before Connektica, saving Anywaves hundreds of hours annually.
Nicolas adds, “With Connektica, we have reduced the time to test an antenna from 8 hours to just 15 minutes”.
Improved traceability and quality
With the time saved, Anywaves was able to increase testing coverage and now performs “4 to 5 times more measurements,” says Stephane Roy. Dr. Nicolas Capet concludes, “We have state-of-the-art traceability during assembly of the antennas.”
Future Plans
The future is bright for Anywaves. After inaugurating their 1st factory in 2025, near Toulouse, France, they plan to expand their product portfolio.
They will develop more complex antennas, multiplying by 10 to 100 the number of components assembled and the associated tests. They will also need to coordinate more suppliers and operations across production sites.
To manage this increased complexity, Anywaves will deploy more Connektica features to detect production issues (e.g., delays, defects) early with their teams, suppliers, and outsourcing partners, and automate AIT operations.
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