From product to production system
(and beyond)
Simulations and scenario planning help rocket scientists make one giant leap
WHAT’S IT TAKE
TO SHIFT
FROM MAKING
PROTOTYPES
TO FULL-SCALE
MANUFACTURING?
The Situation
The space industry is experiencing a renaissance, with new players, new products, and entirely new business models. One launch services provider in particular has spent years developing and testing its flagship product—critical rocket hardware for commercial use—and practically perfected it. Then it found itself at an inflection point.
A backlog of customer demand was steadily growing, meaning the company would need to change its trajectory—and soon. Meeting demand would mean increasing production volume from tens of units at a time to hundreds—and, eventually, thousands. Leaders had dialed in the product; now they needed a production system.
Practically speaking, that meant retooling a prototype factory into a high-volume production line. And while this happens every day in manufacturing, commercial space is a uniquely new industry, with all the business risk and complexity of a new venture compounded by the profoundly risky and complex nature of the products themselves. There are no precedents and just a handful of pioneers creating new ways to discover new territory. Complete (white) space.
So, would company leaders need to invest in new facilities, or could they scale within their existing footprint? What would capital investment look like for either scenario? Company planners had set aside significant capital for the effort; was it the right figure? How many people would they need? What would it take to win?
For help assessing their options, they called Deloitte’s Supply Chain & Network Operations practice, global specialists in manufacturing strategy and operations.
THE SOLVE
TO PRODUCE AT
SCALE, WORKERS
WOULD NEED
TO TRANSFORM
FROM ARTISTS
TO INFANTRYMEN.
The Impact
All entirely addressable. Company leaders were, to put it mildly, pleasantly surprised with the option of not writing a check—cash that could be invested elsewhere in the business and give the company a longer runway for its offerings (pun unintended, but unavoidable).
They were similarly pleased with the speed at which they could ramp their production, speed that would hasten scaling the business and reaching their strategic goals.
Meanwhile, Operations leaders came to understand and appreciate the cultural shifts needed to transition from prototypes to scaled manufacturing, from products to production. The Deloitte team’s diligence in walking the shop floor paired with their transparency in how that data informed modeling and recommendations (in other words, showing their work) helped make the case.
This newly informed perspective led to a new mission for manufacturing, with sky-high ambitions for growth. (Though in this case, the sky is no limit).
LET'S CONNECT.
Do these challenges sound familiar?
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