Transforming manufacturing operations on Palantir Foundry.
Every manufacturer is measured on the same two things: how much they make, and how much they throw away. Almost none of them fall short for lack of data.
The constraint is not the availability of information but its accessibility at the moment a decision has to be made. That failure has a specific origin on the factory floor, and predictable cost.
Problems on Factory Floors Today.
Four conditions account for the majority of that gap. Each is the predictable result of systems adopted independently over many years, every one justified at the time.
Fragmented data.
Production, quality, maintenance and supply data reside in separate systems with no common interface between them.
Delayed reporting.
KPIs are compiled after the shift or at the close of the week, so problems are diagnosed retrospectively rather in real-time.
Inconsistent practices.
Plants measure and improve by different methods, with no standard tooling or common approach across the network.
Reactive supply chains.
Disruptions surface late. A missed delivery is typically identified only after it has already halted production.
One Operating Model.
Palantir Foundry brings data to life by quickly integrating disparate systems to fuel analyses, drive operational decisions, and identify cost savings and waste reduction methods. Foundry unifies your scattered data across ERP systems, spreadsheets, sensor feeds, maintenance logs and emails into a single data model that Palantir calls an “Ontology.”
One picture of the operation, assembled from the systems already running it. Nothing is removed, and nothing has to be rebuilt.
“Every machine, every line, every shift generates data. Most of it goes unused. With Palantir, your plant manager sees the truth in real time, not another report or dashboard, but the intelligence to turn complexity into control”
What the solutions look like.
Built on Palantir Foundry, five workflows carry most of the value on a factory floor.
01Production monitoring.
Live visibility into the line, flagging deviations in the cycle time and process metrics as they happen so teams can respond in the moment instead of reviewing them after the shift. A supervisor sees the deviation during the shift that produced it.
02Predictive maintenance.
Sensor data, maintenance logs and conditions combined to show failure risk and maintenance backlog. The schedule reflects the condition of the equipment rather than the calendar.
03Supply-chain control towers.
Procurement, shipment and inventory data fused into one view with the ability to spot downstream risk early and reallocate stock when shortage appears. A planner learns about a delayed shipment while alternatives still exist.
04Yield and KPI standardization.
A consistent KPI set across all plants with automated tracking that helps generalize practices. A method proven in one plant can be recognized and adopted across the others.
05AI-assisted planning.
AI applied to resource planning, scheduling and inspection, adapting to its constraints in real time. Planners evaluate more scenarios against real limits in time a single pass used to take.
Airbus encountered this problem at maximum complexity. Production of the A350 depended on schedules, crew shifts, parts, deliveries and defect data held in separate systems, leaving no consolidated view of the line at any given moment. Palantir integrated those sources into a single interface, enabling teams to plan production, diagnose issues on the line, and respond to disruptions such as supplier delays as they occurred.
The immediate return was a 33% increase in the A350 production rate. The strategic return proved more significant. The deployment extended into maintenance and ultimately became Skywise, which now connects nearly 12,000 aircraft across the aviation industry. An investment scoped to a single production line established the operating standard for an entire industry. Executives evaluating this class of infrastructure should account for that trajectory, as its value is rarely confined to the use case that justifies the initial expenditure.
increase in the A350 production rate
aircraft now connected through Skywise
The second deployment illustrates a different dimension of the same capability: the speed at which it can be established. The manufacturer operated on at least seven legacy ERP systems, which put its cost and production data beyond practical reach for daily decisions. Palantir harmonized those systems into a unified environment within days.
Teams used that foundation to optimize cost of goods sold and production, generating tens of millions in estimated annual savings. For executives weighing implementation risk, the timeline is the finding that matters. A unified operating picture required neither a multi-year replacement program nor a new system of record, only a model capable of reconciling the systems already in service.
legacy ERP systems harmonized
to a unified environment, not years
Considered together, the two deployments support a single conclusion. The operating picture is itself the asset. Airbus demonstrates the scale it reaches over time; the consumer goods manufacturer demonstrates how quickly it can be established on existing infrastructure.
Better Decisions.
The next generation of manufacturing will be built on better decisions. Every machine, every line and every shift is still generating what a plant needs to know. The difference is whether that data becomes control or goes unused. The plants that put it to work will not announce it. The gains accumulate quietly, quarter after quarter, while competitors keep diagnosing last week.
Aplos Data is a Palantir implementation partner. We integrate Foundry into the environment you already run, build the Ontology around how your operation actually works, and stay with it once it is live. The engagement starts with a conversation about where the delay is costing you most, and which single workflow would prove the case fastest.
