You only get one launch. Your supply chain doesn't get a second chance either.
Space programs run on unforgiving milestones and BOMs with no acceptable substitutes. Silkline gives space manufacturers real-time visibility across long-horizon builds so you always know where your parts stand, long before you need them in hand.
The Challenge
Why is supply chain management uniquely difficult for space manufacturers?
Space hardware programs are long, complex, and irreversible. A missed milestone can delay a launch window by months. A late component can cascade through a fully integrated program. Your supply chain needs to be managed with the same rigor as your flight hardware, and most teams aren't there yet.
Multi-year builds with hundreds of long-lead items
Your BOM has parts with 12-month lead times sitting next to ones you can get in two weeks. Managing the timing across all of them, and knowing the right moment to order each, is a discipline most procurement tools were never built to support.
No room for substitution
In space hardware, you don't swap a part when the original is late. You either have the right part or you have a problem. Qualification takes months. Which means early visibility isn't a nice-to-have — it's mission-critical.
Supply chain disconnected from program schedule
Your program manager tracks milestones in one system. Procurement tracks parts in another. When schedule slips, nobody updates the expected need-by dates on open orders. By the time anyone notices the mismatch, recovery is nearly impossible.
Supplier communication that depends on heroics
Critical status updates get tracked through one person's email inbox. When a supplier goes quiet, nobody notices until it becomes a fire. You can't build a reliable program on relationships that live in individuals instead of systems.
What Goes Wrong
Where space supply chains fail, and how early the damage is done.
None of these trip an alarm. They just quietly move the launch to the right.
1. Orders placed too late because procurement wasn't in the loop
Engineering finishes the design. Procurement gets the BOM. By then, the 52-week forging should have been ordered six months ago. Late orders create late deliveries, and late deliveries delay launches.
2. No proactive supplier follow-up
A PO was placed and confirmed, and then nothing for eight months. When the team finally follows up three weeks before the need date, the supplier mentions they hit a capacity issue two months ago. Nobody was watching.
3. Schedule and procurement living in separate systems
The program schedule says integration starts in Q3. The long-lead part supporting integration won't arrive until Q4. These two facts live in different systems and nobody reconciles them until Q3 arrives and the part isn't there.
4. Institutional knowledge trapped in individuals
Your most experienced procurement lead knows which suppliers are reliable, which need to be chased, and which parts carry hidden risks. When that person leaves, the knowledge goes with them.
Why Silkline
How does Silkline help space manufacturers manage long-lead procurement?
One system that holds the whole program — long after any single person moves on.
Long-lead tracking built for space-program timelines
Silkline tracks every open order with expected need dates, confirmed ship dates, and automated supplier check-ins. Long before a part is late, Silkline surfaces the gap so you can act rather than react.
Automated supplier communication, not heroics
Silkline proactively checks in with suppliers on your behalf. Confirmation requests, status updates, and ETA checks go out automatically, and responses are captured in the system rather than someone's inbox.
A procurement record that outlasts any one person
Every quote, PO, supplier communication, and delivery record lives in Silkline. Institutional knowledge becomes organizational infrastructure. New team members get up to speed immediately, and nothing walks out the door when someone does.
Connects to your PLM and ERP
When BOMs change in your PLM, Silkline keeps procurement aligned. No more discovering mid-build that an active order is on a revision that's no longer current.
Platform features most relevant to space
Source
RFQ and quote management across complex, multi-level BOMs
Procure
Streamlined PO approval and automated PO confirmation
Track
Long-lead monitoring with automated supplier check-ins
Monitor
Supplier reliability scorecards; risk flags on open orders
Comply
AS9100 and NASA workmanship (NASA-STD-8739) records with full certificate-of-conformance trails