SC21: Is “getting it right first time” truly achievable within aerospace?

Following yesterday is SC21 supply chain event hosted by the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) in Preston, there were a number of questions raised around proactive competitive growth and supply chain engagement. 

Predictions that the global aerospace sector will continue to grow to $352.5 billion by 2023  give the sector a lot to be positive about. However success will be reliant on collaboration and transparency with supply chain and taking a “must do” approach to the objective of “getting it right first time” will help the industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency.  Assessing a company’s competitiveness not only indicates how they are performing, but also highlights areas where improvement can and should be made.

Recent enhancements to AS9100s Rev D regulations have put the spotlight firmly on risk-based thinking and NPI business processes fair people up and supply chain risk management. A commitment to excelling in tasks such as APQP, NPI and integrated management systems will create opportunities robust processes and to work together with Primes and Tier 1 aerospace heavyweights within the industry. 

SC21 Competitiveness and Growth will undoubtedly provide a strong platform for success for the aerospace and defence sector to drive forward and close gaps in supplier and customer collaboration. Both parties need to take responsibility to be more collective and intelligent in supply chain engagement. One of the main methods of achieving this could be by benchmarking suppliers against one another in terms of competitiveness to keep pushing the bar higher. This will see the aerospace sector continue to strive forward into new territory and boost the sector’s operational excellence. NWAA’s SC21 will play a major part in demonstrating a commitment to competitiveness and growth, as a focus on quality will lead to quality cost reduction, a reduced cost of scrap and rework and reduced dispatch cost (as a result of re-delivery).

Lessons learned from automotive will help to support the aerospace and defence industry to drive forward. The National Manufacturing Competitiveness Levels (NMCL) is a system developed by an ADS Group and Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders led consortium, supported by industry primes and OEMs. The aim is to establish a single, national, quality assured, best practice approach to improving the competitiveness of manufacturing supply chain companies to raise workforce capability, increase productivity, boost UK economic growth and increase export levels. The improvement modules within the framework will support in analysing specific areas of development and improvement – focusing on business processes, manufacturing operations, quality management, NPI and lifecycle management. Keeping eyes on the prize and achieving transparency will drive performance and result in growth and winning more orders.

The aerospace sector, like many, can sometimes get tied up In analysing the upfront costs in achieving getting it right first time. However there was a recognition that business excellence can be achieved - along with an ROI - when reducing the hidden costs of getting things correct , such as administration and inefficient processes, to step away from traditional inefficient processes achieve superior performance in business delivery. By investing in processes, seeing this as an investment and focusing on operational excellence, there can be monumental positive impacts on the bottom line of the balance sheet.

Brexit continues to cause market uncertainty, this instability could have a knock-on effect in terms of rumours of manufacturers stockpiling supply chain parts to ensure smooth operations and increased cost pressures. This combined with fears around ambiguity in the legal status of UK certified designs and parts could result in aircraft being unable to fly anywhere. Similarly, vagueness about the status of aircraft maintenance approvals, pilot and maintenance training approvals as well as pilot and technician licences threaten the continued operation of aircraft across Europe – potentially grounding aircraft.

Quality management and effective and efficient new product introduction processes will play their part in achieving a good standard in getting things right first time. The implementation of AS9001 Rev D is on the horizon and this standard looks set to revamp the approach to supply chain quality in aerospace and defence. Request a demonstration of Q-Pulse to learn how Ideagen can help your organisation comply with this new standard and “get things right first time”.