Turning maturity into change that sticks.
Aero Excellence is bringing greater consistency to the way industrial maturity is understood across aerospace and defence. As more organisations prepare for assessment or consider how to reach a higher level, it creates an opportunity to look beyond readiness alone.
An assessment provides a valuable picture of current capability and a clearer direction for improvement. The next challenge is turning that insight into action while continuing to meet demanding operational and customer commitments.
Organisations will begin from different places. Some will be establishing a baseline for the first time. Others will already have good practices in place and want to make them more consistent. Those further ahead may be looking to embed excellence across functions, sites and supply chains.
With that in mind, we consider seven questions that can help A&D leaders turn maturity insight into meaningful progress and change that sticks.
1. Do we have a clear view of where we are today?
The quality of any improvement journey depends on the quality of its starting point. Some organisations already have connected systems, reliable data and a strong view of performance. Others may need to bring information together from different functions and establish greater consistency in how performance is measured.
Either way, the numbers are only part of the picture. They show what’s happening, while the people involved in the work can often explain why. A useful baseline brings both together. It captures strengths as well as gaps and distinguishes between practices that are firmly established and those that depend on workarounds or individual experience.
That creates a stronger foundation for assessment and for the improvements that follow.
2. Are the right people part of the conversation?
Improvement is difficult to sustain if it’s designed by a small group and handed to everyone else. Operational and environmental performance are shaped by decisions across planning, procurement, production, supplier management, asset reliability, investment and workforce capability. The people working in these areas will see different parts of the same picture. Bringing them together can reveal connections that might otherwise be missed. It also gives those responsible for delivering change an opportunity to shape it from the outset.
This doesn’t mean involving everybody in every decision. It means including the people who understand the issue, can influence the outcome and will ultimately need to make the change work.
3. Which improvements will make the greatest difference?
An assessment or review may identify several areas for improvement. The next step is deciding where to focus first.
Three questions can help:
- Which gaps have the greatest effect on performance, risk or customer delivery?
- Which actions will make it easier to address other issues?
- What can the organisation realistically deliver well?
Several findings may have the same underlying cause. Poor production performance, for example, could be linked to equipment reliability, weak planning or missing supplier information. Addressing that cause may improve several outcomes at once.
This isn’t about ignoring the remaining actions. It is about putting the work in a sensible order, so people know what needs to happen now, what comes next and why.
4. Are we treating problems as connected?
An issue often becomes visible in one part of the organisation even though its cause sits somewhere else.
A supplier problem may begin with changing forecasts or late engineering decisions. Excess inventory may be linked to planning assumptions or commercial incentives. Environmental targets may be difficult to achieve because they aren’t reflected in sourcing or investment decisions. Treating each symptom as a separate action can create plenty of activity without resolving the underlying problem.
People, processes, systems and measures need to support the same outcome. Before starting an improvement, it’s worth asking what else needs to change for it to succeed, and what could pull performance back in the opposite direction.
5. Can we improve while continuing to deliver?
Aerospace and defence organisations can’t pause production or programme delivery while they improve. The work has to happen alongside customer commitments, deadlines and growing pressure on capacity. That can make improvement feel like an additional demand on teams that are already stretched.
A practical starting point is to focus on recurring problems that create extra work. Reducing breakdowns, improving planning or resolving a persistent supplier issue can release time while also improving performance.
Improvement should also become part of the way delivery is managed. Existing meetings, performance reviews and team routines can be used to track progress and address causes, rather than creating a separate layer of activity.
The clearest sign of progress is that everyday delivery becomes more reliable and teams spend less time recovering from avoidable problems.
6. What will it take to move from good to very good to excellent?
The formal criteria for Bronze, Silver and Gold are set out through the Aero Excellence Maturity Grid. From an improvement perspective, each step presents a different challenge.
Moving towards a good level of maturity is often about establishing strong foundations: clear ownership, effective processes, useful measures and a practical approach to improvement.
Progressing from Bronze to Silver is more about consistency and connection. Strong practices work across teams rather than in isolated areas. Information supports better decisions, and performance becomes less dependent on particular individuals.
At the time of writing, no organisation has yet achieved an Aero Excellence Gold award. That reflects how demanding the final step is. One of the biggest practical challenges is securing consistently high On Time In Full (OTIF) performance across the organisation’s own suppliers.
For organisations aiming for Gold, strong performance within one site is only part of the picture. Progress also requires greater visibility across the supply chain, reliable planning and sustained work with suppliers to address the causes of late or incomplete delivery.
Moving from good to very good is often about consistency within the organisation. Moving from very good to excellent also depends on extending that consistency across the supplier base.
7. How can we improve performance across the supply chain?
High OTIF performance at one level of the supply chain depends on reliable performance at the levels below it. Monitoring supplier results is important, but improving them may also require clearer forecasts, earlier decisions, better visibility of constraints and practical support for suppliers dealing with recurring problems. Primes and OEMs depend on the capability and resilience of organisations across several tiers of the supply chain.
Public-sector organisations also shape the environment through procurement, programme decisions and industrial priorities.
A shared understanding of maturity can support better conversations across this ecosystem. It can help customers focus supplier development, allow suppliers to explain where support or certainty is needed and give public-sector leaders a clearer view of industrial readiness.
The opportunity is to use that shared understanding to strengthen capability and delivery across the supply chain, rather than looking at each organisation in isolation.
Turning assessment insight into change that sticks
ourCentric helps aerospace and defence organisations move from understanding maturity to improving it. Companies within the group are members of ADS, the trade association that manages Aero Excellence in the UK. The group also contributes to its Business Services Network.
We support organisations at different stages. For those preparing for an initial assessment, this can include establishing a clear baseline, bringing the right people together and identifying where to focus. For those building on Bronze or Silver, it can mean putting improvement priorities into practice, strengthening end-to-end planning and supplier performance, and developing the skills needed to sustain stronger results.
Our support centres on operational excellence and environmental sustainability, drawing on expertise across operations, procurement, supply chain, asset performance, data and analytics, sustainability, and organisation change.
Ready for the next stage?
Whether you’re preparing for your first Aero Excellence assessment or working towards the next level, we can help you focus on the improvements that matter, strengthen performance across the supply chain and create change that sticks.
Talk to our aerospace and defence specialists.
Email: info@fourcentric.com