In aerospace, a document is not paperwork. A missing export classification can stop a shipment at the border, and with it a production line on the other side of the world.

The company

Safran is a French high-technology group in aerospace and defence. It designs and builds aircraft engines (including, with GE, the CFM engines that power a large share of the world’s single-aisle aircraft), landing gear, wiring, interiors and defence electronics. Its customers include the largest aircraft manufacturers and engine makers, among them Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

Context

I worked with the Sales Ops teams who manage key aerospace accounts. Their documents travel across countries and are subject to trade-compliance rules: export controls, classifications and traceability requirements.

The challenge

The worldwide electronic document management system (GED) had to be migrated while sales teams kept working on live accounts, and without losing a single compliance trail.

What I did

• Ran the migration of the document management system for the Airbus and Rolls-Royce accounts.
• Restructured how documents were classified and controlled, so that compliance rules travelled with the files instead of living in people’s heads.
• Automated international reporting for Sales Ops, so that compliance could be checked at any time, not only before an audit.

What changed

Compliance should be a property of the system, not a heroic effort before each audit.

What I keep