About Radius Aerospace
With over half a century of expertise in aviation and aerospace fabrication, Radius Aerospace is a premier provider of complex components and assemblies for the commercial, military, and industrial gas turbine markets. Operating across nearly one million square feet of manufacturing space in the United States and United Kingdom, the company employs over 1,000 dedicated professionals specializing in advanced capabilities such as titanium hot forming, chemical milling, and complex machining. Led by a management team with over a century of combined industry experience, Radius supports a diverse global customer base by delivering mission-critical structural components for aircraft, rotorcraft, and hypersonic systems.
The Challenge: Managing Autonomy and Global Complexity
Operating four specialized facilities across two continents creates an inherent "visibility tax." Each site, while possessing deep technical expertise, traditionally functioned as an independent silo with its own ERP data and localized decision-making processes. In the volatile post-pandemic aerospace landscape, characterized by "whiplash" demand signals from OEMs and erratic raw material lead times, this decentralized model posed a significant risk to enterprise-wide resilience. Without a single version of the truth, Radius faced the classic Bullwhip Effect: the risk of holding millions of dollars in excess inventory at one site while facing critical shortages at another, threatening both the balance sheet and customer trust.
The Strategy: Centralized Visibility for Localized Action
To combat these systemic risks, Radius Aerospace moved away from reactive, site-specific management toward a unified enterprise strategy. The cornerstone of this transformation was the implementation of APEX by LeanDNA, an AI-powered supply planning tool that transforms supply planning with up-to-date intelligence, collaboration with suppliers, and prescriptive optimization. By integrating APEX across all four primary manufacturing hubs simultaneously, Radius established a consolidated, up-to-date performance view that replaced fragmented spreadsheets and siloed ERP systems with a single, authoritative version of truth. This was more than a software installation; it was a strategic pivot toward prescriptive optimization, enabling procurement teams to move from simply tracking data to acting on AI-driven insights.
The primary resilience tactic centered on establishing global transparency to navigate uncertainty. In an industry where a single missing component can halt a multi-million dollar assembly, the ability to proactively identify "deltas", variances between incoming inventory and shifting planned requirements, became a competitive advantage. Using sophisticated analytics, the system now flags discrepancies caused by supplier errors, sudden expedite requests, or forecast inaccuracies before they escalate into line-stoppers. This foresight allows Radius to absorb the whiplash of the aerospace supply chain, ensuring that even when global conditions shift, its internal response remains steady and calculated.
Furthermore, the Radius leadership team recognized that true resilience cannot be mandated from the top down. Their approach focused on empowering local site teams through data, providing them with the tools they needed to find autonomous solutions. By providing access to complex supply chain analytics, leadership ensured that while each site remained aligned with overarching corporate financial goals, local managers had the agency to solve problems instantly. This balance of centralized visibility and localized action created a culture of accountability and agility, turning the supply chain from a point of vulnerability into a pillar of organizational strength.
“In today’s environment, everything’s about cash. And where’s cash? Inventory. Say a customer needs to push out an order by 6 months. If you don’t get that indicator, and stop your supply chain, it just keeps piling (I’m talking millions of dollars). The faster you can get in front of that, the better. And that’s what LeanDNA did for us.” - Darren Hill, VP of Supply Chain at Radius
The Results: Quantifying the Impact on the Bottom Line
The day-to-day operational data provides the definitive proof of the strategy's success. Resilience in the aerospace sector is often seen as a trade-off: organizations believe they must choose between being "resilient" (holding massive buffer stocks) and "lean" (minimizing inventory). Radius Aerospace has shattered this binary, using AI-driven intelligence to achieve both simultaneously.
A 65% Reduction in Shortages: Eliminating the "Chaos Tax."
Over the last 12 months, Radius has achieved a staggering 65% reduction in shortages. In an industry where a single missing fastener can stall a multi-million dollar assembly line, this metric is the ultimate indicator of a stable supply chain. By reducing shortages by two-thirds, Radius has effectively eliminated the "chaos tax": the hidden costs of expedited shipping, emergency labor, and administrative firefighting. This stability allows the workforce to focus on high-value strategic planning rather than daily crisis management, creating a culture of proactive excellence.
51% Improvement in Inventory Turns: Freeing $11M in Working Capital
Parallel to the reduction in shortages, Radius has fundamentally transformed its capital efficiency. In just 18 months, forward inventory turns improved by 51%, rising from 3.5 to 5.3. This unlocked $11M in working capital that was previously frozen or tied up in excess safety stock. In the face of economic volatility and fluctuating interest rates, increasing capital velocity by over 50% provides Radius with a significant opportunity to reinvest in innovation and facility upgrades.
These results represent the "Resilience Dividend." By moving from a reactive, decentralized model to an empowered, data-driven strategy, Radius Aerospace has not only protected its business against global disruption but has significantly enhanced its profitability and market agility.
A Blueprint for Future-Ready Aerospace Supply Chains
The transformation at Radius Aerospace serves as a definitive case study in how a legacy manufacturing organization can pivot toward modern, data-driven resilience without sacrificing its core values of craftsmanship and expertise. By bridging the gap between four disparate sites and a unified corporate strategy, Radius has moved beyond the firefighting mentality that often plagues the aerospace sector. The 65% reduction in shortages and the 51% improvement in inventory turns are not merely isolated success metrics; they are the indicators of a fundamental shift in the company’s DNA.
As Radius Aerospace looks toward the future, the framework established through the integration of APEX by LeanDNA serves as the blueprint for all future growth and acquisitions. The company has proven that it can consolidate facilities, integrate complex data, and optimize inventory across continents with surgical precision.
Radius Aerospace did not just survive the volatility of the last 18 months; it used that pressure to grow into a leaner, faster, and more transparent organization. For its commitment to innovation, its success in large-scale operational integration, and its record-breaking improvements in supply chain health.
Hear firsthand from Darren Hill, VP of Supply Chain at Radius, how partnering with LeanDNA helps them stay ahead of supply chain disruption.