TheChek News Flow

Borrowing from the motor industry, the national aerospace sector embraces a new mass production operating model

China’s aerospace industry is undergoing a quiet but potentially game-changing manufacturing revolution that could make rockets and satellites as efficiently produced as cars, according to scientists involved in the project.

Through a painful structural reform, the country’s state-owned space sector is adopting a new production philosophy known as the “final assembly pull” system, a model inspired by lean manufacturing principles seen in the car industry.

This emerging system aims to mass-produce space systems not just quickly but with consistent quality, lower cost and greater flexibility.

With global space activity projected to grow exponentially fuelled by new technology and orbital launches reaching 170,000 tonnes of payloads annually by 2045, the country that masters scalable space production will dominate the future, according to the researchers.

Traditional aerospace production has been a “push” system: components are made based on forecasts and schedules, often leading to mismatches, delays and inventory pile-ups.

The new “pull” model flips this logic. Instead of pushing parts through the pipeline, final assembly pulls components from upstream suppliers solely when needed and strictly in the required quantity.

Toyota pioneered the pull system through its famed Toyota Production System in the mid-20th century.

Using tools like kanban cards, each workstation “pulls” parts from the previous step only as needed, minimising waste, reducing inventory and increasing efficiency. This approach became the foundation of lean manufacturing worldwide.

China’s space industry now applies this just-in-time, demand-driven logic to rockets and satellites. From final assembly to subsystem assembly and components to raw materials, each stage is triggered only when the downstream stage signals a need.

What ensues is a tight, responsive supply chain in which every rocket engine, solar panel and circuit board is produced in sync with the launch schedule.

But it also means that the relatively flat organisation of China’s space industry, which gives suppliers more bargaining power and resources, would be replaced by a steep pyramid-shaped structure.

“It represents a systemic and disruptive transformation of existing manufacturing models,” wrote a team led by Wang Guoqing with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the country’s largest aerospace company, in a July paper in the Journal of Mechanical Engineering.

Wang is CASC’s chief information officer and an expert in space manufacturing.

For decades, space vehicles were largely hand-built masterpieces, each rocket or satellite a unique product of meticulous engineering.

But as demand has soared for satellite constellations, reusable launch vehicles and sustained lunar missions, the traditional approach no longer suffices.

China’s space programme, like those around the world, has evolved from making first-of-a-kind systems – the idea of “can we build it?” – to balanced development and production of multiple models in parallel that produce small batches reliably, according to Wang and his colleagues.

Today the world was entering a “mass customisation era”, they said, of high-frequency launches and massive satellite networks requiring scalable, repeatable and flexible manufacturing.

China is not alone in this pursuit. SpaceX’s Starlink has already launched more than 7,000 satellites, “demonstrating the stunning power of industrial-scale space production”, Wang’s team wrote.

But unlike the US, where one company dominates, China’s approach is described as more networked and ecosystem-driven, leveraging state-owned enterprises, research institutes and private suppliers in a coordinated national strategy.

Projects like the Guowang, Qianfan, and Hongtu-3 mega-constellations are accelerating the need for industrialised satellite and rocket factories, with thousands of units to be built in the coming years.

This shift demanded a “fundamental rethink”, according to Wang’s team. In the paper, they gave more details on how the space pull system worked.

A central manufacturing integrator – often the final assembler – takes full ownership of the entire production process. This entity manages schedules, contracts, quality and supplier coordination.

Rather than fixed, one-size-fits-all production lines, China is adopting modular, reconfigurable assembly systems such as pulsed assembly lines where products move in rhythmic cycles, like a heartbeat, reducing idle time and maximising efficiency.

Smart flexible assembly centres use AI and robotics to dynamically reconfigure workflows for different rocket models – ideal for mixed production of multiple launch vehicles.

A groundbreaking feature is the collaborative digital platform that connects factories, labs and suppliers throughout China, even across different security-classified networks.

Using cloud computing, IoT, AI and digital twins, this platform enables real-time tracking of production status, instant visibility into supply chain bottlenecks, automated alerts for missing parts and secure data sharing across organisations, according to the paper.

Dubbed the “digital pull board”, the system gives managers a live dashboard of the entire supply chain.

This reform is taking effect as China’s space launches have picked up pace in recent months.

But the gap with the US remains large. In 2024, the United States held a big lead with 158 orbital launches, mostly by SpaceX, while China completed only 68 launches.