Leading Business by Design: Aerospace Sector

In 2013, the Leading Business by Design research project was launched to examine how businesses – including organisations not traditionally associated with design – can benefit from it.

This 2015 report highlights five key findings on how the aerospace sector can benefit from the use of design:

• User-centred success - Where design succeeds most, it is driven and informed by passenger and customer requirements
• Strategic implementation - For sustained corporate success, design needs to be embedded strategically and take place in a corporate environment with a strong design vision
• Pan-supply chain innovation -  Design-led innovation is achieved when designers collaborate with customers and companies across the supply chain
• Multidisciplinary collaboration - Design in aerospace requires many technical skills; strong collaboration between disciplines covering technology, manufacturing, sales and marketing are vital
• Customer expectations - Evolving industry trends pose a whole new series of challenges for designers in aerospace. Future requirements for passenger experience will transform design’s role

In the report, we highlight eight key recommendations for the aerospace sector in how to fully leverage design-led thinking:

1. Embed design strategically
2. Design with the passenger in mind 
3. Encourage intra-company collaboration
4. Incorporate best practice from parallel industries
5. Encourage design-led innovation through the supply chain
6. Support new approaches to design that can ease historic challenges
7. Government: embed explicit initiatives to support design in the sector
8. Foster the next generation of industry designers

You may also be interested in our design in the automotive industry research, and our over-arching report into design in high-value manufacturing.