Industry: Aerospace
ERP: Cost Point
Key Results:
- 44% improvement in supplier delivery scores
- Reduced purchase orders outside lead time
- Improved procurement visibility and forecasting
- Streamlined reporting for daily shortages and past dues
About Qarbon Aerospace
Qarbon Aerospace is a premier manufacturer of cutting-edge composite components and assemblies at all levels of complexity, with products installed on the industry’s most advanced commercial and military aircraft. As a US-based company with a global footprint of more than 1,650,000 ft² of state-of-the-art facilities, Qarbon Aerospace has the capabilities and resources to solve the market’s toughest challenges with Quality Assured.
The Challenge
Like many manufacturing companies, Qarbon Aerospace faced several inventory management challenges. These included stock discrepancies, demand forecasting inaccuracies, supply chain disruptions, shipment delays, and misaligned priorities. The greatest obstacle, however, was the inability to gather necessary data and analytics on time. This lag made it difficult for management to make informed supply chain decisions that could impact their customers.
Previous efforts such as inventory reduction projects, machine outsourcing, and program readiness reviews were made to resolve these issues. However, these efforts were largely managed outside their ERP instance using Excel reports and non-standardized templates. These manual processes resulted in delayed reporting, human errors, and a lack of accountability due to unclear responsibilities, ultimately leading to limited success.
The team at Qarbon Aerospace chose to implement LeanDNA as their intelligent supply chain execution solution. LeanDNA’s robust capabilities in supply chain optimization provides the tools needed to establish more structured processes and create a resilient supply chain.
“Although other SaaS products are available in the aerospace industry, the customer service and LeanDNA’s willingness to listen to their customers to find areas of improvement sets them apart.” -Christylynn Weilert, Delivery Assurance at Qarbon Aerospace
Results Across the Organization
As various internal teams begin to adopt and use LeanDNA more effectively, Qarbon Aerospace has seen significant improvements across the organization. In just six months they saw a significant increase in supplier reliability. In fact, supplier delivery scores improved by 44%.
According to Brian Boyd, Sr. Supply Chain Manager, Red Oak, “The total number of purchase requirements to purchase order placement outside lead time has continued to decrease.”
Rhonda Knight, a buyer at Qarbon’s Milledgeville site, highlights the platform's impact on daily operations: “The biggest change I’ve seen is the visibility to review shortages and past-due purchase requirements daily. It saves me a lot of time by keeping my reports organized and easily accessible.”
Delivery Assurance expert Wess Hart added, “The use of LeanDNA helps to streamline identification of problem parts and future deliveries where the manufacturing status doesn’t support on-time delivery.”
The enhanced visibility has empowered teams to target problem areas more effectively, improving their ability to plan and forecast future demand.
What’s Next
Looking ahead, Qarbon Aerospace has set ambitious goals. The company is working to build standardized dashboards to enhance team accountability and streamline communication between departments. Additionally, Qarbon plans to onboard vendors to Supplier Connect to improve communication and drive on-time delivery performance to 95%.
To achieve these goals, Qarbon is focusing on developing internal LeanDNA subject matter experts (SMEs) and customizing training courses to better align with role-specific responsibilities. The company also plans to provide training to suppliers, ensuring everyone is aligned with Qarbon’s standards and expectations.
According to the Qarbon team, adopting modern SaaS tools like LeanDNA allows businesses to become more proactive by diversifying their supplier base, minimizing human errors, and improving inventory tracking and traceability.
“Effective use of the system can provide historic data that can be analyzed to help identify market trends, provide potential sales opportunities, and offer scalable inventory management solutions that can grow with the business.” -Christylynn Weilert, Delivery Assurance at Qarbon Aerospace
With LeanDNA, Qarbon Aerospace has successfully improved and strengthened its inventory management processes and built a more resilient supply chain. The company's experience showcases the value of leveraging intelligent supply chain solutions to drive efficiency, minimize risks, and achieve better overall performance.
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