Jean-Hugues Cousin, General Manager, Safran, told us about some of the challenges and issues which weigh on his mind, and drive innovation at Safran.

After-market

The after- market business is growing massively for Safran, Cousin said. What the customer wants is also changing.

“[The need for] the capability to repair more and more complex parts so they don’t have to be replaced is obviously something that drives our business and keeps me awake at night.”

Supply chain

Very simple details on the shop floor can have a direct impact on an operation 8,000 km away, Cousin noted.

He explained: “That’s very difficult at the moment because the supply chain is very tight and with the growing manufacturing rates everybody has to be very careful with the details. It worries me but it also [gets me out of bed in the morning].

Data sharing

The industry needs to work more closely to collaborate around data, according to Cousin.

He commented: “I am not sure we are achieving anything now [with data sharing]. There are more and fences between the airline, the OEM, the MRO. The data is at the core of our business. If we want to deliver cheaper services, we need to anticipate the maintenance. To anticipate the maintenance we need to build models and algorithms with data. At the moment we are not sharing the data the way we could or should.”