Industrial and aerospace players, trends 2024 to 2026, and how to crack the cases
Who the players are, the aerospace ramp-up, other trends, regulation basics, typical prompts, traps and drills.
Industry brief, with a one-minute summary: Industrial manufacturing and aerospaceFirm processes and online tests change from year to year and differ by office. Use this to prepare, and confirm the exact current steps on the firm's own careers page.
Key takeaways
- Industrial cases usually ask how to grow services, raise factory output, cut cost, or decide where to build.
- Common traps: Looking only at new equipment sales and missing the aftermarket.
- Supply chain limits: across aerospace, engines, castings, forgings and some components have limited how fast deliveries can rise.
- Aviation: aircraft, engines and parts must be certified by aviation authorities such as the FAA (US) and EASA (Europe), and factories need production approval.
- Machine safety and product rules: for example CE marking for machines sold in the EU.
Key idea
Industrial cases usually ask how to grow services, raise factory output, cut cost, or decide where to build. Start with the split between new equipment and aftermarket, and with where the bottleneck is.
| Region | Machinery and electrical | Aerospace |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | Siemens, ABB, Schneider Electric, Atlas Copco, Sandvik | Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Safran; MRO such as Lufthansa Technik |
| United States | Caterpillar, Deere, Emerson, Honeywell | Boeing, GE Aerospace, Pratt and Whitney (part of RTX) |
| Japan, Korea and China | Komatsu, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Fanuc, Sany | COMAC (China); many component makers |
| India | Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, Thermax | Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), Tata Advanced Systems |
| Gulf and Singapore | Growing local manufacturing under national industrial programs | Strata Manufacturing (UAE, aircraft parts), ST Engineering (Singapore, MRO), airline engineering units |
| Latin America | WEG (Brazil, motors) | Embraer (Brazil) |
So-what
In large commercial aircraft, two makers (Airbus and Boeing) deliver most planes, so their suppliers depend heavily on both production rates.
Trends 2024 to 2026 (checked 28 September 2026)
- Aircraft demand exceeds supply: Airbus delivered 793 commercial aircraft in 2025, up from 766 in 2024, took 1,000 gross orders, and ended the year with a record backlog of 8,754 aircraft (Airbus, January 2026).
- Boeing's ramp-up: Boeing reported that in the second quarter of 2026 its 737 program began moving to a production rate of 47 aircraft a month, and that it started low-rate production on a new 737 line (the North Line) in July 2026 (Boeing second quarter results, 28 July 2026).
- Supply chain limits: across aerospace, engines, castings, forgings and some components have limited how fast deliveries can rise. This keeps aftermarket demand for older aircraft high.
- Electrification and data centres: rising power demand, including from data centres (IEA, Energy and AI), has raised demand for transformers, switchgear and grid equipment, with long waiting times for some products.
- Carbon and trade: the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, in its definitive phase since January 2026, adds a carbon cost to imported steel and aluminium, key inputs for machinery. Tariff changes in 2025 and 2026 pushed some companies to review where they build.
- Automation and data: more robots, sensors and software for predictive maintenance, which also helps makers sell service contracts.
Regulation basics
- Aviation: aircraft, engines and parts must be certified by aviation authorities such as the FAA (US) and EASA (Europe), and factories need production approval. Changes to a certified design take time.
- Machine safety and product rules: for example CE marking for machines sold in the EU.
- Emissions: rules for engines in off-road machines and aircraft.
- Export controls: many advanced machines, electronics and aerospace parts need licences to export.
- Local content: governments, including in the Gulf and India, often require local production or local partners for large public contracts, especially in defense. Treat defense topics neutrally, as a customer segment with its own rules.
Typical case prompts and how to crack them
| Prompt | Structure hint | First driver to check |
|---|---|---|
| An equipment maker wants to double service revenue | Installed base x spend per unit x capture rate; plus new offers | Capture rate, and why customers use independent shops |
| A factory cannot meet demand. Build a new line? | Capacity: find the bottleneck, raise OEE, then add capacity if still short | OEE at the bottleneck step |
| An aerospace supplier is late on deliveries | Process map by step, supplier inputs, labor, quality escapes | The slowest step or late input, not the average |
| Should we move production to a lower-cost country? | Footprint: landed cost (production, freight, duties), risk, time to move, customer needs | Total landed cost, not only labor cost |
| Should we buy a competitor? | M&A: market, target, synergies (often in service and purchasing), price, integration | Whether synergies are real and who captures them |
So-what
Before recommending new capacity, always check whether better OEE at the bottleneck would be enough. It is cheaper and faster.
Looking only at new equipment sales and missing the aftermarket. Recommending a new plant before fixing OEE at the bottleneck. Using full allocated cost in make-or-buy decisions. Comparing only labor cost when moving production (freight, duties, quality and time also count). Assuming a supplier can ramp up just because the final assembler does. Reading a large backlog as guaranteed revenue: orders can be deferred or cancelled.
Operations and process improvement; Capacity, supply chain, and footprint; Cost reduction and cost cutting; Revenue growth and growth strategy; Mergers, acquisitions, and due diligence.
Airbus took 1,000 gross orders for commercial aircraft in 2025 and delivered 793. What was its gross book-to-bill in units? Round to two decimals.
A packaging line in Egypt has availability of 95 percent, performance of 90 percent and quality of 99 percent. What is its OEE, as a decimal? Round to three decimals.
A plant allocates EUR 25 of overhead to a part that costs EUR 40 in variable cost. A supplier offers EUR 55. The overhead will not go away. What is the right comparison?
Why do engine makers accept low margins on new engines?
A factory has OEE of 60 percent at its bottleneck and cannot meet demand. What should you check before recommending a new line?
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