Manufacturing Advisory Service aids two British companies

Citation

(2007), "Manufacturing Advisory Service aids two British companies", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 79 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2007.12779eaf.011

Manufacturing Advisory Service aids two British companies

Manufacturing Advisory Service aids two British companies

The UK's Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) recently aided two of the country's smaller aerospace companies. The first was Micrometric, a Lincoln-based manufacturer that uses lasers for the production of fine parts and precision components is set to increase its productivity by more than 10 per cent following help from the MAS.

Under MAS' LiftOff Programme the manufacturer, which has a turnover of approximately £2.5 million and 47 staff, received eight days support over eight weeks to help it boost its business with the aerospace sector. MD, Neil Main, who purchased the business in 2003 in a management buyout, wanted to increase the firm's aerospace sector turnover. The company is currently supplying anything from watch to tractor parts, from prototype to volume production for a variety of industries such as medical, automotive and power generation.

The LiftOff scheme enabled Micrometric to buy in the skills of a software consultancy to look at how their current system was helping them to manage and cost work flows. Neil Main explained: “Our problem with the software was that it had some capability, but it was limited. For example, we knew how much time we spent on each job, but we didn't know how much our materials were costing and therefore didn't know the true cost of a job and how much money we were making on it.”

The software consultancy was asked to interrogate the software to evaluate what capability it was missing and what was due to lack of staff awareness and understanding.

Micrometric committed 20 days and 17 staff to working on the project. They examined not only how the software worked, but also what reports staff wanted to generate to help them manage the scheduling of individual jobs. The result is a software system that manages projects from planning and purchasing through to the invoicing and costing of any sub-contracting.

Neil said: “It's not the finished product by any means as we are still changing many of our data inputting and reporting processes, so I expect it to yield further cost savings this year. So far, we have dealt with 10 per cent more jobs compared with the same period last year. I am delighted with our progress and would recommend MAS to any manufacturer; they employ experts who have been in my position who know how to make the impossible possible.”

The LiftOff scheme was delivered by the MAS in the East Midlands. It was funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), was heavily subsidised and was available to manufacturing companies, which were connected to the aerospace industry and based in objective two areas of the region. It was able to provide help on a range of business areas including developing new workforce skills, introducing new business competencies and processes plus marketing support to look at new markets and diversification.

MAS also helped Lobo Systems Ltd, based in Derby and established in 1999, it specialises in the design and manufacture of lightweight access platforms for industry, specifically aerospace. It currently has ten employees, a turnover of £1 million and a customer base that includes NASA, Airbus Industries, Boeing and Rolls Royce.

Owner and MD, Rob Bokros, wanted to grow the business by 10 per cent through increasing its overseas markets, and turned to the MAS for help.

Rob said: “Our product is unique. It allows businesses to design and build their own platforms easily without the hassle of scaffolding or more permanent structures. However, it was difficult for customers to visualise how the system could work and we were getting requests for a 3D web application.

“The support that we had from MAS enabled us to fund a technical consultant to help with the development of a web-enabled visualisation drawing system. It's only recently gone live, but we are already seeing the benefits as our customers are now designing their own products online and ordering as a result.”

Geoff Collis, the MAS aerospace specialist who worked with Rob on the project commented: “Lobo Systems has excellent potential in the world-wide aerospace industry as there is no other product that matches what they offer. It is lightweight and can be easily assembled to fit any space which is ideal when working around an aircraft or any large component.”

Lobo Systems are now looking at increasing their business in Canada, the USA and Europe.