Airbus accelerates data-driven collaboration in the era of Industry 4.0

Efficient, secure operations management is a critical component of industries that carry out complex manufacturing decisions. And Airbus is no different. With a wide network of employees, third-party contractors, external suppliers and partners, the aircraft manufacturer recognises the importance of streamlining procedures for its extended enterprise while upholding stringent safety standards on its Final Assembly Line (FAL).

Being a frontrunner in modern manufacturing, Airbus needs to actively embrace the principles of Industry 4.0. This entails the quick adoption of data-driven technologies that enable the company to increase synergies among departments and external collaborators. By establishing a secure and data-driven collaboration chain Airbus will empower its workforce to seamlessly collaborate, co-design, and co-create with business partners, thereby increasing overall throughput and ensuring compliance and safety all the way. But how can Airbus achieve this?

Strengthen third-party collaboration efforts by adopting new governance policies

Being able to outsource and work with third parties has become integral to highly regulated manufacturing companies. While third parties help organizations streamline operations and support research and development, it’s important to make sure these collaboration efforts are transparent, comply with data regulations and avoid communication silos.

To address these concerns, Airbus should implement new governance policies. These policies would involve creating a fresh set of guidelines and rules to effectively oversee, control, and simplify collaborations with third-party contractors and business partners. The aim is to establish a framework that governs how the company engages with these external parties outlining protocols, permissions, and access privileges. By doing so, Airbus can enhance transparency, ensure compliance with data regulations, and efficiently manage resources and access levels with agility at scale. 

This approach enables the aircraft manufacturer to identify and manage collaboration efforts with external parties in an intelligent and effective manner, demonstrating a new way of working.

However, building a reliable and scalable partner ecosystem requires trust delegation. Each partner, for instance, should take responsibility for managing access for their team members. This decentralised approach grants autonomy to teams in making authorization decisions and allows leaders to effectively manage and ensure compliance with sector-specific regulations.

These new governance policies empower enterprise-level companies, like Airbus, to seamlessly distribute the responsibility of integrating third parties and partners into the value chain across all user levels through delegation and fine-grain authorisation capabilities. With the right technology in place, they can completely transform their work processes through intent-driven digitalization.

Accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0 with IAM solutions

In the era of Industry 4.0 where technologies are modernising what was once a traditional value chain into a fully connected digital core, it's now more important than ever to be equipped with a solution that can handle these tech integrations, maintain compliance, and make it easy to collaborate.

Identity and access management (IAM) solutions are built for scalability. Not only does an IAM solution unify the user experience across all stages in a collaboration chain (including onboarding and offboarding) – it's also built to help companies digitise complex operations, from start to finish. 

Modern IAM solutions often incorporate security safeguards as well, so organisations know when they are being compliant with data privacy regulations without their IT team having to do the heavy lifting. User data is also kept safe and protected from data breaches or unauthorised access, and no one has more access than they need. 

Investing in a dynamic IAM solution can also help accelerate the time it takes to design and develop a new product, too. By providing users with production chain visibility and identifying collaboration opportunities in a controlled space, teams can safely and securely reduce the time it takes to push a new product to the market.

Airbus and Thales together: Onwards and upwards with one goal

With Thales’s identity solutions, Airbus can build an efficient and scalable third-party and partner ecosystem and accelerate the adoption of Industry 4.0. By streamlining their business operations, Airbus can create a seamless data-driven collaboration chain that’s easy to manage, while meeting all safety and compliance regulations needed. 

• Streamline on-and-offboarding processes and achieve operational efficiency
• Increase overall manufacturing throughput
• Reduce time-to-design and staff turnover
• Ensure on-time delivery of committed orders
• Integrate always-on compliance and mitigate risk exposure

From identity to cyber security, from aircraft manufacturing to air navigation, from surveillance to air traffic management and communication, Thales empowers the Airbus enterprise as they transform their business operations for the better. With technology and innovation at the heart of both our DNAs, together we create a future that ensures the safety of every individual. 

Dive deeper into how Thales can be your one-stop shop for identity, security and aerospace safety to learn more.