By Ty Haines, VP Manufacturing Programs

While attending a recent Airbus Supplier Conference, I learned several interesting facts:

1. Supplier opportunities continue in aerospace, more so for most companies in tiers 2, 3, and 4. Airbus may have hundreds of tier-1 suppliers but there are tens of thousands of tier-2+ companies in the supply chain making parts and subassemblies.
2. Smaller AS9100-certified manufacturing companies will have more opportunities as Tier-2, 3, and 4 suppliers of parts.
3. Differentiation and market diversification continue to make sense.
4. AS9100, cost + time to implement + procedure changes within a manufacturing company, remains a prerequisite for much of the aerospace work. It is either an OEM requirement or sometimes just a favorable differentiator for the suppliers to the suppliers.

Manufacturers' new market opportunities are often directly related to the pain that is present in a supply chain. WIRE-Net pioneered this concept through the New Markets Initiative and their first program that grew into GLWN.org. Those who feel the pain are typically from the demand-end of chain customers like the OEM and Tier-1 companies and include those in, Purchasing, Procurement, Sourcing, Buying, Engineering, Supplier Quality Assurance, Supply Chain, and more. Suppliers should strive to stand out in the following areas.

Price delivered cost, payment terms	Capacity make enough good parts when needed, whether today or next year
Quality functioning AS9100 or NADCAP system that keeps away reject and other hassles	Service technical support, smooth quote-build-delivery-bill process, flexibility, and problem solving
Delivery on time, every time

The OEMs and Tier-1 companies present at the conference shared their needs, which included:

• Airbus described their pain as a need for fewer suppliers to manage and instead focus (like Boeing) on buying directly the major subassemblies like wings, avionics, landing gear, etc. As you would expect, there are only a few companies that can handle the often huge physical size demands for delivering a part to an OEM like a finished wing. Airbus explained their need for large facilities and machines to preassemble or integrate the major bolt or weld together modules and parts. A challenge for most final assemblers of huge assemblies is the impact of tolerances and cumulative tolerances so that all lines up for easy final assembly.
• RTI International Metals needs include fabrication capacity and better communications.
• Specialty Metals & Frontier Steel identified no specific pains.
• GE Aerospace encourages differentiation so a supplier can stand out from a crowd of possible suppliers (e.g. a company demonstrating expertise in a scarce but needed process).
• Spirit Aerosystems is seeking high-speed machining, supplier expertise in new technology applications, and supplier service that reduces risk.
• Rockwell Collins (like Spirit) indicated the need for providing technical solutions, risk reduction, technology integration solutions plus the constants of plus low cost, quality, and on-time delivery.

Is your company in need of growth through diversification, differentiation, or just a start in a new market? Watch WIRE-Net and MAGNET for upcoming New Markets Workshops in Northern Ohio starting in early 2011. For more information, contact Ty Haines at 216.920.1957.