An Irvine-based aerospace group has sky-high goals to streamline the industry.
So far, Southern California’s response has been lukewarm.
The Supplier Excellence Alliance is wrapping up a pilot program in the nation’s largest aerospace region,Southern California,and plans to launch its so-called “lean manufacturing” programs nationwide.
The goal: help aerospace contractors boost quality while cutting costs and production time.
The bid comes amid contractors’ efforts to hold down prices for finished airplanes, helicopters and other aerospace products, and greater competition from overseas suppliers.
“We’ve never had this kind of pressure, both on the commercial and defense side, to make improvements like we have now,” said Michael Beason, chairman of the alliance.
The 2-year-old group has the financial backing of the top aerospace companies such as Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
They traditionally have counted on the Southland’s crop of aerospace parts producers to help build satellites, airplanes, helicopters and other aircraft for commercial and military buyers.
Still, only some 50 of the 5,000 or so suppliers the alliance targeted in Southern California have signed on.
One top contractor said it will take time to attract more.
“I would like to see more suppliers in California engaged,” said Ken Marcia, director of supplier development for Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp., which makes helicopters, airplane engines and other aerospace products. “What always happens is there will be some pioneers. They’ll succeed and eventually a critical mass of suppliers willing to get on board.”
The alliance is expanding to Connecticut and plans to target Texas and Florida, too. It’s seeing more interest in those areas, said Mickey Wiebe, executive director of the alliance.
But the field is crowded. Other national groups and consultants pitch their own lean manufacturing methods.
One well-known group is the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which backs the Manufac-turing Extension Partnership. The partnership targets small and midsize suppliers in several industries.
Its local outreach is through the California Manufacturing Technology Consulting group in Los Angeles.
“We’re doing a lot of work with aerospace companies, and the results are very good as far as reducing costs, improving their delivery times and their quality,” said John Anderson, the group’s director of aerospace and defense.
The Supplier Excellence Alliance counters that it has the most complete programs specifically designed for the aerospace industry.
Another advantage the alliance touts is that it doesn’t just look at manufacturing processes, but also helps companies do overall strategic planning.
“It’s a more comprehensive system,” said B.J. Schramm, president at Gardena-based aerospace supplier Hitco Carbon Composites Inc.
Boeing and others have looked at lean manufacturing since the early 1990s, though the industry is just beginning to embrace its principles on shop floors.
Setting standards is something the automotive industry went through.
In the 1980s, foreign and U.S. automakers began to accept and copy Toyota Motor Corp.’s efficient production model. The automotive industry developed common supplier standards based on Toyota’s.
The changes shook the industry and weeded out players who didn’t get on board. From 1986 to 2003, the auto industry went from more than 30,000 suppliers to about 5,000, according to a study by researcher A.T. Kearney.
The same is starting to happen in aerospace. Some contractors are looking beyond their familiar partners to suppliers from overseas or elsewhere in the U.S.
The alliance and others are telling suppliers that lean manufacturing will help keep those big companies happier.
Beyond the accuracy and cost requirements of lean manufacturing, many big contractors also want suppliers to go beyond making parts,they want systems instead. Suppliers who made fuel pump pieces in the past now are being asked to make fuel systems.
Take Boeing’s C-17 transport plane. The Pentagon wants the new version of the plane to be 25% cheaper.
So Boeing is asking for more complete assemblies and parts to arrive on time for new planes.
Although some suppliers have taken steps toward these kinds of improvements, more will be required, industry players say.
Standard quality measures used to be about 99.5%. The alliance now wants suppliers to hit the 99.7% mark.
Hi-Temp Insulation Inc. in Camarillo signed up for the alliance’s program at the end of 2003. The company, which has 300 workers, rearranged its manufacturing lines and made other adjustments at the group’s suggestion.
Hi-Temp saw annual savings of about $240,000 and a 400% reduction in cycle times after the tweaks, according to the alliance.
Ultimately, the supplier has to decide whose standards it is going to go with, said William Lewandowski, vice president of supplier management with the Aerospace Industries Association in Washington, D.C.
“No one size fits all,” he said.
