Welcome to the Factory of the Future, an intelligent, digital factory designed to accelerate the advanced manufacturing of military aircraft.
Our Factory of the Future at Warton in Lancashire is a connected, intelligent factory designed to drive pace and cost-effectiveness into production of our aircraft today, and demonstrate how aircraft could be built in the future.
The Factory serves as an experimental hub equipped with state-of-the-art technology to enable the brightest and boldest engineers to research, invest and test new technologies and capabilities at pace. Underpinned by IoT (Internet of Things), the connectivity between the machines, the robots and the human operators creates a new and revolutionary approach to manufacturing, propelling our capabilities into the next generation.
Industry 4.0
We're developing our 3D printing techniques from small parts of Typhoon and Hawk aircrafts, to large structural components for future air systems.
Powered by IoT
A connected factory with a data-driven smart office to measure real-time factory performance and utilisation to achieve tighter efficiencies.
Intelligent systems
Our intelligent workstation makes learning faster and more effective through digital workbenches and cutting-edge cobotics techniques.
Unparalleled accuracy
We work to tolerances to less than a third the width of a human hair, whilst off-the-shelf production robots tend to work to within half a millimetre of accuracy.
Agile scaling
Designed to flex to manufacture different products within the same area, the factory's autonomous and intelligent systems can accommodate changes quickly.
Best of British
Working with academia and industry, we're developing critical sovereign skills to keep the UK at the forefront of technology.
Partnerships
The Factory of the Future is more than the sum of its parts.
A host of bright minds, from our strategic university research network to specialists in data, robotics, connectivity and 3D printing technology, have worked together to design and build the first-of-its-kind, fully connected, digital factory. Together, we are driving the very best of UK innovation into the facility.
Partnering with the best in industry in this way ensures we can meet the needs of our customer requirements in a more efficient, cost effective and flexible way.
Transforming for the future
We are part of a UK-wide consortium called Team Tempest, which is behind more than 60 technology demonstrations with the aim of designing and delivering the most capable, connected, flexible, affordable and upgradable UK-led combat air system ever devised. Due to enter service for 2035, the Tempest project is one of the most advanced and ambitious engineering and technology projects in the UK today. And the challenge is not only to break new ground in aviation, but to do it in half the time and for less cost than ever before.
Our Factory of the Future is key to achieving that goal. Our manufacturing experts are committed to ensuring we deliver affordable, advanced manufacturing capabilities for decades to come, helping us make the Tempest vision of the future a reality and ensuring that the UK retains its world-leading critical manufacturing capability.
Discover a career with meaning, in a place where you can make a real difference.