Keywords
Citation
(2005), "Aerospace acquisition secures Liverpool manufacturing jobs", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 77 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2005.12777daf.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Aerospace acquisition secures Liverpool manufacturing jobs
Aerospace acquisition secures Liverpool manufacturing jobs
Keywords: UK, Aerospace industry
An innovative UK aerospace supply chain management company based in Liverpool whose rapid growth has been aided by advice from business support organisation Motivating Merseyside Business to Innovate (MMBI) has further expanded through the purchase of another Liverpool business.
Aerogistics, which combines project management expertise and advanced E-business systems to provide a one- stop shop service to the aerospace industry, has now purchased King & Fowler Ltd, the Brunswick Business Park-based aerospace metal coatings company.
The purchase will guarantee King & Fowlers 45 existing jobs and Aarogistics managing director Tom Dawes plans to increase its staff by a further 20 per cent during the next six months, again with help from MMBI.
Born in Rochdale, Tom went to school in Bury before arriving at the University of Liverpool in 1995 and now lives in the Mossley Hill district of his adopted city.
He says: “Im excited to be in Liverpool at the moment. I cant think of a better city to start a business – no other region gets this quality of support. The business networks and support groups such as MMBI and Business Link are second to none.”
Tom, 28, identified an opportunity in the aerospace industry through his PhD research and established Aerogistics in August 2003. He then formed a joint venture – Aerogistics Systems – with the AIMES Centre at the University of Liverpool to develop supply chain management software for the aerospace industry.
Aerogistics creates value in the supply chain by its continuous cluster development approach, streamlined cluster management processes, leading-edge software and integrated kitting procedures. The companies comprise professionals from industry and academia, bringing together a wealth of sector skills, experience and insight to develop world-class aerospace cluster organisations.
Tom Dawes says: “We work with our cluster members to identify business opportunities and add real value through our detailed knowledge of the aerospace industry. We believe in transferring our skills and support the improvement programmes of our cluster companies”.
Throughout its development the Aerogistics group has received help from MMBI.
“Theyve helped us find cluster partners, as they know good engineering companies, and help develop partnerships”, says Torn, “and theyve also helped to develop our ongoing relationship with the University of Liverpool, where Alan Heaton has helped with business planning and strategic planning as well as helping us to focus on the technology transfer aspect of the business, with MMBI appraisal he ping pinpoint what was needed. This help will continue at King & Fowler where we will be looking for MMBI assistance to support our development into the worlds leading aerospace metal coatings company”.
The benefits of being part of Aerogistics cluster are exemplified by a number of companies.
Miles Tudor, Managing Director of Birkenhead-based North West Precision Forms Ltd, says: “By working with Aerogistics we have won work packages that we would not have been considered for. We have been able to concentrate on our core strengths and leave all the project management and supply chain issues to Aerogsties. The Cluster Development Programme has greatly improved out competitiveness especially in planning and control, purchasing and inventory management.”
Ian James, Managing Director of James Engineering Ltd from Prenion, Wirral, adds “Before working with Aerogistics we had never worked directly for the aerospace industry despite our high-end precision manufacturing capability. As part of the Cluster Development Programme, Aerogistics has developed our quality management systems and planning and control capability in line with aerospace requirements. We are now bidding on work packages that we have never had access to in the past. Our relationship with Aerogistics is strategically important and we are fully committed to the benefits of clustering”.
“MMBI identifies and nurtures business opportunities, taking an independent overall view and matching companys capabilities with our business needs.”
MMBI is a unique initiative aimed at technology-based small to medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) based on Merseyside.
Funded through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF – objective one) and the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), the project focuses on offering support to business to further develop new ideas, products and services by successfully accessing networks, technologies and essential funding.
Geoff Birkett, who leads the MMBI project team, says: “MMBI can transform the way business is done, it gives a real opportunity to gain leading edge technical knowledge, gives access to senior managers in North West Englands largest companies and aims to increase innovative thinking within local small companies.
Companies helped by MMBI will be equipped with knowledge regarding the technical newness of their ideas, information regarding the current technology related to their ideas and the main research and development tasks involved to make their ideas a step change in technology.
The programme is being delivered using the specialist knowledge from the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University, business support from Business Link for Greater Merseyside and assistance from specialist business mentors, at no cost to the companies.”
The performance measures are fundamental to the cluster development programme and ensure that Aerogistics only use suppliers that operate a centre lied manufacturing environment. It is essential that Aerogistics have visibility of the best performing suppliers at the request for quotation (RFQ) and order stages to ensure that the optimum sourcing decision is always made.
The SAPRE (supplier and product relationship evaluation) code was developed in collaboration with the University of Liverpool Management School and Westland Helicopters to optimise the sourcing of parts. The code captures the manufacturing requirements of a part and automatically matches it with the manufacturing capabilities of the supply base.
Aerogistics helps cluster companies to develop their processes and procedures to ensure that they have in place systems designed to manage business risks and provide appropriate levels of control. Existing systems and processes may need to be reviewed and updated, or new business demands may require that companies address organisational issues in an increasingly competitive market.
Aerogistics reviews key supplier attributes to ascertain its strategic fit within the cluster and identify areas for improvement and helps its cluster members to decide whether their business is doing the right things and is operating in the most appropriate position in the value chain. To maximise their competitive advantage, the cluster members need to concentrate on the things they are good at, and try to move out of everything else.
Supply chain positioning analysis examines the members relative competitiveness in each element of the business they are in.
Tom Dawes says: “The essence of successful change management is recognition of the fact that imposed changes seldom work and never last. Changes generated in the main by the participants in the enterprise achieve “ownership” by those who must operate them and create a virtuous circle, in which success feeds on success and continuous improvement becomes a way of life.
Aerogistics offers the extra resource and know-how to kick-start that virtuous circle. We map cluster members inventory profile against that which is the oretically ideal and install procedures and disciplines that offer the opportunity to monitor and maintain optimum inventory levels.
There is no one size fits all solution for delivering cluster benefits. Companies place different emphasis and priorities on a variety of areas such as procurement, logistics, manufacturing or ERP Systems. Clarity of purpose is essential from the outset to avoid increasing levels of frustration, missed targets and wasted time and money.
Our approach is to combine best practice supply chain management techniques with leading-edge E-business solutions to streamline the flow of materials, money and information across a business in a way that has not been possible before.”
One of the projects for Westland was to develop a part sourcing codification system that tactically mapped dusters of parts with preferred suppliers. The code captured the inherent complexities of the aerospace industry, such as commodity grouping, quality specifications, line of maintenance, tooling and political sensitivity.
This provided Westland with the flexibility to rationalise its supply base and develop closer relationships with fewer preferred suppliers.
A project for Airbus UK was to develop a supply chain management portal to improve project management capability for an offset programme with Korean Aerospace Industries. To enhance programme visibility and facilitate inter-company collaboration, the portal design required dynamic project planning, production scheduling and communication forum.
A second project for Westland built on the capability developed through the Airbus/KAI on line project management application. The scope of the project was to develop a supplier relationship management portal that would distribute and manage request for quotes and purchase orders, provide online forecast demand schedules, dynamic measurement of supplier performance and a forum for supplier development.
“This created my interest in supply chain management, looking at the whole industry and what it did and expected from the supply chain”, says Tom.
“Research with Airbus and Westland led me to see a business opportunity as end companies want more varied suppliers”.
“Thus Aerogistics was set up as a one stop shop, an SME project management company working with companies across the whole range of machining, fabrication, electrical and manufacturing all interrelated and we act as consultants, valuing people and improving their capability so that they provide a better service to the end customer”.
“Thus we offer a one stop shop for major customers to create a virtual cluster of suppliers with improved performance, lead time and delivery”.
The company is based in the AIMES Centre, which is the Advanced Internet and Emergent Systems Institute which is a department of University of Liverpool dealing particularly with Professor Dennis Kehoe. Four staff are based at the AIMES Centre headquarters with three more outposted at supply chain companies.
They are using internet grid technology to allow more effective integrated systems and data to build a virtual business community.
To fulfill its vision statement requirements (to provide a world-class project management service to the aerospace industry by deployment of best practice supply chain management expertise and leading-edge E-business technologies) Aerogistics employs its PROVEMTUS supply chain management software – developed during Toms PHD work – to allow it to automatically monitor the performance of its cluster suppliers.
Details available from: Aerogistics Limited. Tel: +44 (0) 151 795 0121; E-mail: tdawes@aefogistics.co.uk; web site: www.aerogistics.co.uk