Aerostructures Hamble

Aerostructures Hamble

MARKETS DO NOT STAND STILL. When customer needs and technology change, companies, big or small, must create new products and invest in new technology Co keep abreast of such changes in the marketplace,

Ac re i structures Hamble, a Hampshire (L'K}­based aircraft components manufacturer, is one company that has survived many changes in its industry. Through it­s emphasis upon customer­oriented innovation and lean management techniques to speed up product development, it has main­ tained outstanding performance in a highly competitive aircraft com­ ponents industry.

602 • Chapter 14 Product Development and Life­Cycle Strategies

The company started in 1936. making the Midge and Gnat aircraft. Hawker .Siddeley took it over in 1963. The aircraft­manufacturing side of Hawker Siddeley was nationalized as part of the British Aircraft Corporation, which was privatized in 1979. It became Aero structures Harable in 1989 when British Aerospace decided to make it more account­ able as a profit centre. In 1990 Andy Rarr, chief executive, joined from

Rover Group and led a £46.7 million management buyout. With a small team of ten senior managers, including Mr Barr and an operations director, Mr Wyman, who had also come from Rover, new management techniques were introduced ­ notably Japanese techniques devised by car manufacturers.

In the 1930s, the slipway of Aero structures Ilamble was used to launch seaplanes. In the 1990s, it is being used to dispatch cargo doors of transport planes. Its transformation from aircraft to aircraft component manufacturer

is not the surprising element in Aerost rue tu re's strategy, whieh reflects the many changes undergone by the British aerospace industry. What is note­ worthy is the speed of execution of the order and its on­time delivery ­

something. Mr Wyman claims, that is totally alien to the aircraft industry. The company stresses the need to introduce the 'right product' first time, like the Japanese car makers do. It is hard work, but all functions in the firm must be involved in innovation.

The company has invested heavily in new plant equipment, including riveting machinery, a large press, machine tools and a world­class aluminium finishing plant. It also sets tight parameters for component manufacture, using computer technology and techniques such as statistical process

control, which ensure that a part will fit and comes out right first time. In order to get things right first time, the firm approaches each new project, through a innltidisciplinary team with a manager who becomes the main contact with the customer. People are seconded from other parts of the firm. The manager sticks with the team from the initial bid through to completion of the project. While some of the team members might change, there is a consistent thread running right through the project, from initial conception to final delivery. The goal is to achieve a 'seamless' process as Mr

Wyman suggests, whieh is in marked contrast with the old method of

passing a project from one department to another.

Quality is given heavy emphasis, and quality control techniques, including suggestion schemes in which over 50 per cent of the staff have taken part, have borne fruitful results.

Other parts of its operations have been reworked or reorganized to allow the company to utilize just­in­time delivery of components to speeific parts of its factory. It has introduced 'kitting', through whieh parts are dispatched to a customer in a carefully laid out package. This simple innovation enables any part missing to be immediately visible and has revolutionized the trace­ ability of orders and saved hours of dispute.

The company's reliance on its former owner, British Aerospace, which accounted for 93 per cent of its business in 1990, fell to 78 per cent in 1993 and is expected to fall further in the late 1990s. It has successfully secured new orders and acquired an impressive blue­chip customer base, including Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Vought and Raytheon.

The company claims that its methods are new in the aircraft com­ ponents industry. While the new techniques ensure that it creates new prod­ ucts which are a perfect fit with customer requirements, management are well aware that it gets tougher as they go on ­ customer and market needs are continually evolving, and products and methods must follow suit. 1

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