Phase Four enables the exponential growth of satellite constellations by solving the satellite’s costliest problem: the propulsion system. Based in El Segundo, CA, the company designs and manufactures compact plasma propulsion systems for satellites. Traditionally, satellite operators must maintain a particular orbit for the duration of the mission, and subsequently dispose of the spacecraft after mission termination. Phase Four’s propulsion systems allow operators to do so at a fraction of the cost of traditional propulsion systems.

In 2020, Phase Four began ramping up deliveries of flight units to customers, which raised a new challenge: How can we continue to innovate, while simultaneously shipping quality satellite engines?

The team was spending countless hours across their PLM system, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Jira to collaborate on building assembly and test procedures, and they knew they had to make a change.

The Phase Four team turned to ion to manage complex manufacturing workflows at the speed a fast-moving hardware company needs.

“Ion saved our core team of engineers 50% of the time they typically spend on creating, collaborating on, and releasing manufacturing procedures,” said Phase Four president Laura Overly. Moreover, ion allowed the team to capture data it would not have previously captured in the process, including photos and in-line sign offs. Because rich data collection fields are embedded in the procedure, Phase Four now has the ability to collect and use historical data for certification or troubleshooting in an instant. It also allows engineers to capture richer data from builds — data that they can then use to continuously improve their designs and processes.

By setting up the assembly and calibration procedures for the mass flow controller (a key sub-assembly in Phase Four’s MAX-1 propulsion system) in ion and going through a few runs, Phase Four engineer Austin Prater and his team can easily hand the assembly and test of future builds to new members of the team and expect quality hardware. Thanks to ion's ease-of-use and elegant balance of flexibility and embedded quality control, Phase Four engineers have confidence that new team members will be able to quickly learn the existing workflow and production process. Furthermore, ion's background data collection for production engineering, including cycle times and other metrics, is helping the team to set itself to deliver even more engines to its satellite customers efficiently and reliably.