• Shortened lead times for material delivery resolves operational bottlenecks before physical implementation and reduces investment risk.
• Digital capability validated with Airbus on an existing logistics setup.
• A library of reusable ‘build bricks’ allows manufacturers to rapidly reconfigure and scale logistics simulations for any industrial environment.
• Modular architecture transferable to industry that is managing complex material flows and coordination between production lines.

Challenge

To support the design and manufacture of low environmental impact, commercial aircraft by developing and testing innovative methods and digital capabilities that can rapidly simulate and optimise complex internal logistics.

The project aimed to move away from fragmented, time-consuming one-off modelling approaches toward a standardised, repeatable system that identifies operational bottlenecks before physical implementation.

Background

A major barrier to industrial transformation for new aircraft designs is the complexity of intralogistics, which refers to the internal movement of materials, assemblies and components across a production site. Traditional modelling methods are often too slow to keep pace with rapid design cycles and are difficult to reuse across different projects.

Strengthening these processes is essential for both existing and future, high-efficiency aircraft families, requiring manufacturers to bridge the gap between process knowledge and digital technology adoption.

As part of the Out of Cycle Next Generation Highly Efficient Air Transport (ONEheart) programme funded by the Aerospace Technology Institute and Innovate UK, this specific work package was developed collaboratively by the University of Sheffield AMRC, Airbus and Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick. The broader ONEheart consortium also brings together key academic partners including the Universities of Bristol, Cranfield, Greenwich, Surrey and Southampton.

Innovation

As part of the project, the AMRC and WMG developed and demonstrated a simulation-driven approach to optimise internal logistics for next-generation, low environmental impact aircraft manufacturing.
The team carried out a detailed assessment of modelling and simulation methods, comparing software capabilities against logistics operations involved in both external transport and internal site movements to determine which tools would deliver the greatest value.

To represent system-level flows and constraints, such as vehicle movements between buildings, the team used Discrete Event Simulation (DES). For detailed process-level operations, such as truck unloading, sequencing and product put-away, kinematic 3D process modelling was selected to provide task-level precision.

A key innovation of the project was the development of a library of common modular ‘build bricks’ for both models and data. Rather than building static simulations, this approach allows models to be rapidly reconfigured, reused and scaled across different use cases.

For each ‘build brick’, the team mapped the required data inputs and aligned these with Airbus’ available data to provide standardised datasets for key processes.

Result

The project successfully established a transferable methodology for analysing complex internal logistics systems, supporting efficient operational planning:

• Integrated simulation approach: This methodology combined DES and 3D process modelling to create a complete picture of operational performance, improving model fidelity and strengthening the accuracy of industrial decision-making.
• Modular model library: The team created a library of reusable model and data ‘build bricks’ enabling repeatable and scalable application across multiple industrial environments.
• Standardised data framework: The team developed a structured definition of data requirements aligned to common logistics processes, ensuring every simulation remains consistent with real-world operational data.

Impact

The work was validated through representative case studies at Airbus, where it was used to explore internal logistics for both existing and future wing designs. This provides a digital capability to improve understanding of current operations and evaluate potential improvement scenarios for next-generation aircraft programmes.

By enabling material delivery scenarios to be assessed digitally, the project increases confidence in decision-making for early-stage industrial system design. This allows manufacturers to identify and resolve operational bottlenecks within complex environments before physical implementation, reducing investment risk.

While developed for aerospace, the modular build-brick architecture is directly transferable to any industry managing complex material flows between buildings and production lines. Ultimately, this project reinforces the AMRC’s position at the interface of industrial challenge and applied digital research, ensuring innovation remains grounded in active industrial use cases.