The French aerospace industry is a global showcase of excellence. But behind every aircraft delivered lies a demanding daily reality:
- uncompromising quality and traceability standards,
- very small production batches and often specific tooling,
- long setup times, frequent changeovers,
- expert teams, but still insufficiently equipped to highlight their know-how.
Improving industrial performance cannot be done at the expense of rigor. Quite the opposite: performance relies on fine traceability, reliable data, and real-time visibility on the shop floor.
And this is precisely where KEYPROD comes in.
Aerospace: Performance Under Constraints
The recent report by the Direction générale des Entreprises (DGE) highlights the challenges faced by French aerospace subcontractors in ramping up production:
🎯 Zero-defect objective and total traceability of every part produced.
🔧 Critical, high-precision machines, often old but irreplaceable.
🔩 Small series and complex setups weighing on productivity.
👷 Experienced teams whose actions are often undervalued.
🚨 Growing pressure from OEMs, who demand both productivity and tangible proof of control.
Yet, as the DGE points out, many decisions are still made without reliable data: stoppages are poorly categorized, indicators calculated manually and after the fact, and audits are prepared in a rush.
The Consequences of Lacking Real-Time Monitoring
Without a dedicated digital tool:
- Machine downtimes go unnoticed or poorly qualified.
- Setup times skyrocket, with no clear justification.
- OEE is estimated, never truly measured.
- Methods, production, and quality departments work in silos.
- Operator know-how is not capitalized.
When a client audit comes, companies must “reconstruct the story” instead of showing objective data.
KEYPROD: A Tool Designed for Shop-Floor Realities
The aerospace industry doesn’t need a generic solution—it needs a discreet, reliable, and robust tool. KEYPROD meets these requirements:
✅ Real-time OEE monitoring, even on older machines
- Non-intrusive sensors, no wiring.
- Simple visualization of availability, performance, and quality.
- Tracking machine by machine, batch by batch.
✅ Detailed traceability of stoppages and downtime
- Customizable categorization (setup, inspection, material issues, etc.).
- Justifications integrated into collected data.
- Usable history for audits or analyses.
✅ Recognition of shop-floor actions
- Interface visible in the workshop.
- Data shared across production, quality, and maintenance.
- Recognition of operators’ best practices.
✅ Seamless integration into your ecosystem
- Simple data exports.
- No need to overhaul your organization.
Case Study: Anticipating Non-Quality and Gaining Reactivity
A French aerospace subcontractor recently deployed KEYPROD across several machining centers. The measured benefits go far beyond simple production tracking:
-
Remote team monitoring: even without managers onsite, workshop operations are piloted in real time.
-
Detection of quality drifts: during an incident (broken milling tool), KEYPROD showed that machines kept running while producing scrap. This allowed precise quantification of non-quality and paves the way for automatic alerts to anticipate it.
-
Quantifying machine losses: objective monitoring revealed downtime on Hestika machines and highlighted the lack of responsiveness from the integrator.
-
Faster weekend response: an on-call system with real-time notifications (CU stoppage) allows a technician to intervene immediately, avoiding hours of idle time.
-
Night shift optimization: overnight production was tracked and optimized, with an operator incentive system based on performance. Result: OEE exceeded 100% on certain series, and teams strengthened their engagement thanks to transparent KPI sharing.
“Before KEYPROD, we had no visibility over what was happening at night or on weekends. Today, we know exactly where time is lost and can act immediately. It changed the relationship between production and management: everyone now speaks the same language—the language of data.”
Production Manager, aerospace SME
A National Context That Reinforces the Need for Performance Tools
The DGE report reminds us that the French aerospace sector:
-
generated €77.7 billion in 2024, up +10% vs 2023,
-
employs 222,000 people, with 25,000 recruitments planned for 2025,
-
faces cash flow tensions, labor shortages, and rising competitiveness pressures.
In this context, modernizing industrial tools and equipping teams is vital to succeed in ramping up production without compromising quality.
In aerospace, details make all the difference. To remain competitive without ever compromising quality or traceability, manufacturers must rely on reliable, real-time data. This is exactly what KEYPROD delivers: a solution that boosts reactivity, clarifies losses, drives excellence with concrete data, and ensures audits are handled with confidence. By finally giving machines a voice, KEYPROD turns everyday complexity into a true lever of performance.
👉 Do you work in aerospace? What if you let your machines speak?
🚀 Try KEYPROD for free and start making decisions based on facts, not assumptions.
