Information technology in the defense industry. TAdviser 2020 Review

IT priorities of defense industry enterprises

At the end of 2020, TAdviser spoke with experts of companies involved in the implementation of IT projects at enterprises of the military-industrial complex, and learned what current tasks in the field of information technology are facing them.

Financial and economic management

Many defense industry enterprises have already updated their financial management systems. This was greatly facilitated by the requirement of separate accounting of costs in the context of calculation items, when fulfilling state defense orders (GOZ), according to the Alexey Kharitonov head of the department for the promotion of economic programs. 1C

In turn, Yevgeny Gribkov, head of the Razdolye shopping center, believes that in general, the great attention of defense industry enterprises is still focused on the tasks of order accounting and related processes.

It is no secret that since 2015, the state has consistently tightened reporting requirements for the targeted use of funds. At the beginning, it was a 200 order that determined the procedure for calculating the cost of products produced under state defense orders. Then 275 federal law, which regulated the work with money received from the state customer. Well, the last innovation is the 543 government decree, which collected all these requirements together - in single standard forms of reporting on state contracts. Although the 543 resolution is difficult to call completely new, the document appeared in 2018, but most defense industry enterprises are still forced to prepare reports manually in Excel - this is difficult, long and fraught with human errors. Therefore, the task of automating this process is quite relevant, "said the head of the Razdolye VC.

He adds that in practice, at the accounting level, this task is not solved. Data should be included in reports from operational accounting - at the moment when money comes from the customer, is spent on materials, materials are transferred to production, etc., up to the sale of finished products. This requires the prompt entry and processing of information, detailed batch accounting of the movement of goods and materials throughout the supply chain. Moreover, it is necessary not only to take into account the fait accompli of spending, but also to plan their actions in advance - for example, to plan purchases according to the established amount of funding.

For this, you need to create a new resource planning system or seriously revise existing systems in the enterprise. But in itself, resource planning cannot be carried out without current resource consumption standards - planned calculations, design and technological composition of the manufactured products. Verification and updating of this information is required. And sometimes the introduction of a specialized system of design and technological preparation of production. That is, it seems, the current financial task is to account for the money received from the state, but it actively moves all the processes of digitalization of the enterprise, "says Yevgeny Gribkov.

Operational planning and production management

Operational planning, production load management and progress reporting is very important for defense industry enterprises, since it directly affects the timing of orders and the cost of products. Unfortunately, here the level of readiness of the enterprises themselves, as a rule, is lower than in finance, self-development systems and technically outdated solutions are often used, experts say.

Automated planning in current systems does not always take into account the real current production load of capacity, repairs, the final work plan is often edited manually, sometimes just on paper, "says Alexei Kharitonov. - Production planning subsystem in 1C: ERP can help here, which is ready to work with large volumes of initial data and restrictions.

Industry 4.0 Technology Adaptation

Digitalization and adaptation of Industry 4.0 technologies. have already become priorities for many defense industry enterprises. Historically, the most advanced in terms of technology were enterprises operating for export: in addition to the quality and reliability of products, it is mandatory for many foreign customers to provide data on products in digital formats, the ability to quickly service and repair.

The strategic vector towards diversification, improving the quality of integrated project management and deepening integration within production chains requires enterprises to use a wide range of solutions, from "digital" twins to VR/AR and additive technologies, "said Yevgeny Sudarkin, CEO of Prof-IT Group.

Creating Digital Models

Many defense industry enterprises have the task of creating digital models or digital doubles of products. First, the operational management tasks in manufacturing are closely related to the preparation of engineering data, which are gradually evolving in the direction of full-fledged digital doubles of real objects. Many defense industry enterprises follow this path and very interesting opportunities open up here. For example, partial replacement of actual product tests with digital tests. Many defense industry enterprises conduct research work, which requires the release of test samples of products. And the use of digital models here can significantly reduce the cost and accelerate these tests.

Historically, first of all, the attention of industrialists falls on those processes that are directly related to the manufacture of products. Defense industry enterprises have a high level of knowledge-intensive development, unique design solutions and new manufacturing technologies. Therefore, the heads of IT departments of defense industry enterprises together with chief designers and technologists pay special attention to the introduction of smart design and production technologies, the creation of digital doubles of product prototypes and production processes in a virtual environment. In this context, two areas can be distinguished: modeling of the operational modes of the product and its components (strength, hydraulic and gas dynamics, magnetic fields and others) and modeling of the production processes of the product (verification of control programs for CNC machines taking into account equipment and special equipment, modeling of casting and stamping processes, etc.). Now more and more attention has been paid to interdisciplinary modeling, which is essentially approaching the creation of a digital double of a prototype product, "says Pavel Shcherbinin, head of special projects Askon."

In addition, digitalization of production and movement in the direction industries 4.0 imply an increasingly close connection of digital models of various facilities at production into a single complex, said Alexei Kharitonov, head of the department for the promotion of economic programs. As 1C a result, he believes, the value of the digital models created today will increase in the near future.

Product Lifecycle Management Development

In terms of digital transformation, Russian defense industry enterprises prioritize the introduction of IT solutions that increase the competitiveness of products in the world market, said Roman Dzvinko, executive director of BusinessAutomatics NPC. At the same time, in his opinion, the long-term goal of the digital transformation of the defense industry should be the transition to domestic product lifecycle management systems (the so-called PLM systems).

Evgeny Sudarkin, General Director of Prof-IT Group, adds that among consumers of defense industry products, interest in life cycle contracts is increasing. This approach eliminates a huge number of problems for the customer, eliminates the need to look for contractors for maintenance, monitor the terms of maintenance and so on. And for manufacturers, this means the need to develop product lifecycle management systems and ensure their quality after-sales service.

Other priorities

It is worth noting that since there are many defense industry enterprises, the level of readiness for digitalization and their priorities can vary greatly.

Evgeny Sudarkin, General Director of Prof-IT Group, believes that following large defense industry enterprises, virtually the entire industry is now moving towards digitalization - CAD solutions are being actively introduced, ERP systems are being modernized, and "cloud" technologies are moving to a new level of production management system, procurement, logistics, and cautiously introduced.

Andrei Karachevsky, system architect of the Infosystems Jet Computing Complex Design Center, adds that for defense industry enterprises, the overall efficiency of the use of digital technologies and their positive impact on business processes are now a priority. Organizations focus on cloud services, IIoT platforms, Big Data tools, business intelligence, and secure DevSecOps methodology.

The pandemic also played a role in the pace of digitalization - there was a need to modernize the IT infrastructure, information systems and security systems to ensure the reliable and secure operation of the enterprise in a remote environment, "adds Yevgeny Sudarkin.

State subsidization and preferential financing programs for high-tech and innovative projects at production enterprises have become an additional driver for digitalization of the industry.

In general, we see high potential in the industry and believe that in the coming years it will be one of the drivers of complex and interesting projects, as well as a real platform for testing innovative Russian software and hardware, "the expert believes Prof-IT Group.

Interviews with experts

The largest IT suppliers in the defense industry

For the rating of the largest IT suppliers in the defense industry, 10 companies filed data. In the table below, they are ranked by revenue from the corresponding IT projects for 2019. The leader of the rating was 1C. However, it is worth clarifying here that its revenue is presented taking into account the company's partner network. The top three also included the companies of the BusinessAutomatics NPC and the Prof-IT Group.

Many companies on the list showed impressive year-on-year revenue growth. So, the already mentioned 1C (taking into account the partner network) increased the revenue from projects in the defense industry by 176%, the companies Advanta and HayTek - by 151 and 130, respectively, the NPC BusinessAutomatics - by 120%.

Revenue from IT suppliers in the defense industry in 2018-2019

' №'	Company	Activity	Revenue from IT projects in the defense industry for 2019, million rubles.	Revenue from IT projects in the defense industry for 2018, million rubles.	Dynamics 2019/2018,%	Largest Customers
1	1C*	vendor	2426	879	Rosatom 176	, Roskosmos Rostec,, USC, Almaz-Antey
2	BusinessAutomatics NPC	Vendor and Integrator	758	120	Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 46th Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Military Automobile Inspection of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, FSBI "N" Institute named after NZZZZ"
3	Prof-IT Group	Vendor and Integrator	500	40	UAZ LLC, Aviastar-SP JSC, Russian Helicopters JSC, USC JSC, Pilyugina FSUE
4	Ascon	vendor and integrator	602	8	Oceanapribor Concern
5	Hytek	integrator	230	100	130
6	Parus Corporation	Vendor	142	7	Rubin Aviation Corporation, GosNIIAS, AK Tulamashzavod JSC, AVANGARD Moscow Machine-Building Plant JSC, TsAGI TsAGI Professors
7	Sonet	Integrator	143	119	20
8	VC "Razdolye"|integrator|137	82	67	JSC 123 Aviation Repair Plant, PJSC ODK-Saturn, JSC Scientific and Production Center of Gas Turbo-Building Salyut, JSC Head Production and Technical Enterprise Granit, LLC RT-Inform, Stavo ON Design Bureau, JSC "Kal" GranIT IT,"
9	AST	integrator	134	122	Rostechnology, USC, United Aircraft Corporation
10	Advanta	vendor	54	22	151	JSC Kursk Electrohardware Plant (KEAZ), PJSC Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company, Federal State Unitary Enterprise CENKI, PJSC AAK PROGRESS to them. Nor. Sazykina", LLC Kronshtadt bespilotnye sistemy, JSC Vertolety Rossii, PJSC Engineering Plant of M.I. Kalinin, Yekaterinburg, NPO Sibelektroshchit, JSC Rostech-Proektnye technologii

* Includes Partner Network "

' 'TAdviser 2020

Relevant projects

The most popular categories of IT systems in the defense industry

As of December 2020, the TAdviser database contains information on about 600 projects carried out at enterprises of the military-industrial complex. Most often, these are projects for the implementation of ERP systems.

Relevant decisions

Problems of defense industry digitalization

At the end of 2020, TAdviser turned to market experts with a question about what, in their opinion, restrains the digitalization of the defense industry in Russia. Most often, answers were heard about various kinds of restrictions that industry enterprises have, as well as about the lack of funding and experience.

Inability to use certain technologies

One of the problems often mentioned by experts is the presence in defense industry enterprises of increased requirements for ensuring information security and a regime of secrecy, as well as their strict regulation.

As noted by Andrei Karachevsky, system architect of the Infosystems Jet Computer Complex Design Center, this leads to the fact that often a number of technologies cannot be used. For example, Wi-Fi and cloud services that would significantly accelerate the interaction between teams and the work of employees with documentation. Connecting to a wireless network and storing data in the cloud, unfortunately, is not feasible at the moment, he says.

Evgeny Sudarkin, CEO of Prof-IT Group, adds that the introduction of cloud services is problematic for defense industry enterprises, both because of data security requirements and the need for guaranteed high-speed access to all resources through secure channels.

Outdated standards

Another common problem of defense industry enterprises is the lack of current production standards - equipment, materials, labor standards, etc.

Alexey Kharitonov, head of the 1C economic programs promotion department, notes that in their projects, company specialists see this quite often.

An absolutely necessary condition for efficient production automation is the updating and rapid change of information about planned norms and requirements for equipment, materials, personnel necessary to fulfill the order. It is important that it is necessary not only to update the regulatory information at the time of the launch of the production automation project, but also to build a system for managing NSI changes throughout the product lifecycle. A significant volume of production of test samples complicates the problem of managing NSI changes, first of all, organizational solutions are needed here, "said Alexei Kharitonov.

Andrei Karachevsky from Infosystems Jet adds that it is restrained by the digitalization process and the outdated base of regulatory and technical documentation (NTD), which does not take into account modern trends, and sometimes completely contradicts them. For this reason, digitalization initiatives are closed at the stage of discussion, since the development and application of certain solutions contradicts the requirements of the ESKD, GOST R, GOST RV.

Many of these regulations were created back in the 70-80s, when, of course, there was no talk of digitalization. Only a complete update of NTD, in which the use of technologies will be resolved, will help in this matter, he believes.

Shortage of financing

Often, there is not enough money to implement certain IT initiatives. To solve this problem, experts say, we need targeted financing programs for digitalization projects, compensation for the costs of completed projects.

Such programs exist, but the more they are, the better it will be. Now there is such a situation when the laws adopted by the state oblige enterprises to change in the right direction, but this requires funds, "said Yevgeny Gribkov, head of the Razdolye shopping center.

Import substitution restrictions

The import substitution strategy often greatly reduces the choice of solutions for enterprises, as it obliges to use only domestic developments.

For example, the decision should be included in the register created by decree No. 878 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Thus, projects are more expensive and do not always provide the necessary functionality. As a result, organizations come to the conclusion that digitalization is not economically profitable for them, "says Andrei Karachevsky, an expert at Infosystems Jet.

Prof-IT Group CEO Yevgeny Sudarkin adds that the domestic market so far offers a limited set of solutions, but in the last 2-3 years, the emergence of new Russian technologies that are not inferior to Western counterparts has been noticeable.

According to Andrei Karachevsky, the emergence of new solutions and new vendors in the Russian market will help the development of this segment and will open up new opportunities for defense industry enterprises and law enforcement agencies.

Insufficient qualifications of staff

The sick issue that not only defense industry enterprises face is not always a sufficient qualification of employees, but it undoubtedly plays a significant role in modern business.

It is necessary to increase the knowledge and competencies of existing employees, train them in new "skills," reduce the distrust factor in digitalization, attract professionals and form, together with IT partners, competence centers for new technologies, "said Yevgeny Sudarkin, general director of Prof-IT Group.

Alexey Kharitonov from 1C calls the lack of necessary competencies among employees one of the key problems of the industry.

It is important to note that on the one hand, a deep understanding of the peculiarities of the processes of defense industry enterprises is needed, and on the other hand, knowledge of modern technologies, tools and the possibilities of their application. Such specialists need to be prepared and this is a fairly long process. Simply calling "which buttons to press in the ERP system" is not enough. In order that digitalization specialists can comprehensively study the essence of business processes of real enterprises and how these processes are reflected in automation systems, we are publishing a series of books "1C: ERP Academy," he explains.

The head of the Razdolye shopping center, Yevgeny Gribkov, adds that targeted training programs are needed. According to him, now there are quite a few training centers that, for example, teach how to properly prepare reporting on state defense orders, but there are practically no places where they teach how to properly organize the processes of digitalization of purchases, production, sales, etc.

We need not theoretical knowledge, but competence centers, possibly funded by the state, in which examples of successful digitalization projects from all over the country are collected and analyzed - what result was obtained, at what cost, by what methods. And, according to the results, practical recommendations for working on such projects are being developed - in the form of training courses, advanced training programs, author supervision programs, etc., "the expert explains.

Lack of exchange of experiences and practices

It should also be noted that often defense industry enterprises are not only behind the physical, but also the information "barbed wire fence."

Exchange of experience, practices, practicians between defense industry enterprises is an urgent need if we want to pass stages of digitalization of difficult productions most quickly and cost-effectively, - the expert 1C Alexey Kharitonov considers. - And in our opinion, the involvement of manufacturers of domestic information systems in this work will be useful to all parties - defense industry enterprises, the domestic IT industry and the state as a whole.

He believes that it is necessary to organize sites for testing and development of domestic digital systems based on the target requirements of defense industry enterprises. This is an industry-level task and, in his opinion, should be solved at the state level.

"Analog" interaction processes

Pavel Shcherbinin, head of Askon special projects, among the most obvious reasons inhibiting the digitalization process, calls "analog" processes of interaction with customer representatives (for defense industry enterprises, this is the Ministry of Defense) and information security.

Although we see cases when these issues are resolved. For example, OKB Fakel (part of Roscosmos) is working on electronic coordination of design and technological documentation with military acceptance. A certification center has been deployed at the Titan-Barricades FNPC: digital certificates of electronic signature are used to coordinate and approve design and technological documentation, the Askon expert says.

On the other hand, regulators are also making efforts to change the conservative approach to document flow in the defense industry. So, in 2019, the Ministry of Defense approved a roadmap for the transition to the development of electronic design documentation. It provides for the use of electronic signatures, the organization of processes for long-term storage of documentation, the guarantee of the safety of electronic documents, the unification of the presentation of formats of design and technological documentation in digital form.

This is a serious step forward - it creates the basis for transferring the processes of product development and military acceptance to a "figure," said Pavel Shcherbinin.

Other difficulties

Failure in digitalization may be in the absence of support from enterprise managers for this process. According to Yevgeny Sudarkin, CEO of Prof-IT Group, the main factor in the success of such projects is support from senior management. At the same time, without a clear understanding of the goals, their communication to all employees and ensuring transparency of the processes, it will not be possible to implement the "figure" normally, he is sure.

Roman Dzvinko, Executive Director of BusinessAutomatics NPC, among the deterrents to digitalization is strict regulation and extreme caution of customers when implementing information systems.

Alexander Belugin, Deputy Director of the Promotion and Products Department of Advanta Group of Companies, in addition to the problems already mentioned above, lists a number of barriers to digitalization. This, in particular, is the presence of previously purchased Western systems, which are on the balance sheet, but are practically not used, which does not allow enterprises to consider modern Russian solutions. Another factor is the lack of clear requirements from the state on the inadmissibility of purchases of Western business applications in the presence of Russian analogues.

Evgeny Gribkov, head of the Razdolye shopping center, considers the most problematic area of ​ ​ digital design of new products. He notes that at most defense industry enterprises, the designer and technologist are specialists whose work is worst automated.

It is not uncommon for our industry leaders to store drawings and production technology on paper, on paper they design new products. This is a reality that we regularly encounter on our projects. Somehow it happened that behind the fashion terms ERP, MES, SCM, CRM management forgets that production is primarily based on the work of the designer and technologist - they work slowly, as well as the rest of the processes will be slowly executed, they work with errors - errors will be everywhere - from the production plan and the procurement plan, to the financial reports on the target money expenditure. Therefore, it is necessary to go consistently - with the digitalization of design and technological preparation of production, "the expert believes.

Promising technologies for defense industry

Among the most promising technologies that could be a serious help in the development of defense industry enterprises, cloud services, big data solutions, intelligent technologies, the Internet of things and digital doubles are more often than others. At the same time, experts note that starting all new technologies should be based on a strong foundation of IT systems that are basic for the industry.

Cloud services

A number of experts see high potential in the development of secure cloud services for defense industry. So, for example, cloud-based PLM systems make available the most modern design technologies, which will accelerate the development time, reduce the cost of products and improve the final quality of products.

PLM solutions from the cloud can become a flexible and inexpensive tool that can be easily configured to meet the requirements of each customer with minimal time and resources, "says Yevgeny Sudarkin, CEO of Prof-IT Group.

Andrei Karachevsky, system architect of the Infosystems Jet Computing Complex Design Center, adds that cloud services will allow several teams to work on one project both inside one defense industry enterprise and inside enterprise cooperation. At the same time, fast and convenient data exchange will help to simultaneously and efficiently use hardware and human resources.

Big Data Solutions

Big Data solutions allow you to work with large volumes of heterogeneous data (data arrays, events, etc.) to obtain analytics. The accumulated data can be used for recommendations in human decision-making and for training artificial intelligence algorithms.

To use Big Data technologies, it is critical to have this very information in the figure, explains Pavel Shcherbinin, head of Askon special projects. At the same time, high requirements for cleanliness are placed on the data.

The master data in the QMS is product data. They are born in a PDM system, then translated into an ERP loop - these are those systems that have already been deployed in defense industry enterprises. Therefore, as a preparation for the next stages of work with data (predictive analytics, machine learning and others), it is necessary to completely debug data collection both during the design and production process and during operation, the expert says.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies will bring a range of technologies for automated decision-making without human participation. This will redirect the human resources of the defense industry to more responsible and critical areas.

On the other hand, artificial intelligence shows itself well in complex engineering calculations. According to Roman Dzvinko, executive director of BusinessAutomatics, this technology will be especially in demand in the aircraft industry, shipbuilding and the space industry.

Internet of things

Defense industry enterprises are interested in the development of the domestic Internet of things, since in the conditions of discrete production it is difficult to automate the control of technological processes without the appropriate equipment. According to Andrei Karachevsky, IIoT devices will help collect data on objects or equipment and transfer them to any other information system located both inside the defense industry enterprise and outside it.

Digital doubles

Digital doubles are a complete virtual model of an object with a complete description of all stages of the life cycle and characteristics, including drawings and 3D models, process models and other important parameters. The solution is used as a source of operational information, without the need for a long search for the desired version of the object in the archive of defense industry enterprises. In addition, on a virtual model, you can carry out any tests and checks, having previously loaded into the system the appropriate parameters of the influence of external factors - for example, conduct a "virtual" missile flight with a certain wind resistance.

Conclusions

Experts note that new technologies should be superimposed on a solid foundation - a reliably built IT landscape from key information systems. According to Alexei Kharitonov, head of the 1C Economic Programs Promotion Department, the core of this IT landscape should be a complex of a PDM system, a MES system and an ERP system closely integrated with each other.

Not all defense industry enterprises have built such a solid foundation, we, unfortunately, very often see outdated and fragmented solutions that are practically not integrated with each other. Therefore, we are confident that building such a strong IT landscape will bring defense industry enterprises much greater advantages than the point application of new technologies, "says a 1C representative.

 

See also

• Review: Information technology in the military-industrial complex (2016)
• Review: Russian Industrial Robotics Market 2019
• Industry IT Vendor Map
• Russian industrial robotics market map