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By accessing funding through the SC21 Competitiveness & Growth programme, precision spring manufacturer, G&O Springs provides an example of how one company has used government funding to its advantage during the pandemic.

SC21 Competitiveness & Growth (C&G), the UK aerospace supply chain improvement programme, predates the Covid-19 pandemic by several months. But it has never been more needed, as manufacturers adjust at speed to a radically altered supply-chain landscape.

Launched in 2019, C&G is a government-funded scheme delivered via industry trade association, ADS, to improve supply chain capability and competitiveness within a three-year timeframe, particularly among SMEs. It sits alongside and is designed to boost the ongoing SC21 Operational Excellence programme. As such, it’s part of a broader national strategy to improve the overall productivity and profitability of UK plc. Two years into the C&G scheme, companies taking part describe it as transformative and highly beneficial.

“The business case is extremely powerful,” says Peter Bruch, managing director of AE Aerospace, a machine to print, subcontract precision machining company. “If we manage 25% of it, it will revolutionise the cashflow and profitability of our business. There are no negatives to this.”

Funded assistance

Grants of around £120,000 each from a total £10 million funding pot are available until March 2022 to UK civil aerospace manufacturers that are willing to invest the required time and energy in C&G’s comprehensive, guided improvement programme. This covers the cost of an in-depth organisational capability assessment, including detailed feedback from customers, and the subsequent development and rollout of a precisely tailored action plan focused on achieving strategic goals. Training and mentoring from high-calibre industry experts support the process, progressing activities at the right pace to ensure success.

“Why wouldn’t you take this opportunity?” asks Steve Boyd, managing director of precision spring manufacturer, G&O Springs, which embarked on the C&G process last September, working with manufacturing experts at Industry Forum. “Even if it wasn’t fully funded, we would still be doing it, because it’s absolutely transformed this company.”

Leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic, G&O Springs was enjoying double-digit growth, thanks to its strong niche leadership position at the high-tech performance end of the springs market, predominantly in the aerospace sector. However, this masked serious underlying issues.

“We were so busy and fraught, we were losing control of the business, fire-fighting and limping from one challenge to another,” states Boyd. “We were being left behind. We were prioritising the customer but, behind the scenes, the basics such as appraisals, 5s and TPM activities, as well as essential admin, weren’t getting done.”

A Covid reboot

The arrival of Covid saw orders plummet, but instead of sinking into despondency, the company decided to use the enforced downtime to get its house in order and relaunch as a fitter enterprise, ready to take on new opportunities.

A comprehensive restructure saw headcount reduced by half by June 2020. G&O Springs knew it had to rebuild from the ground up with a new strategy and internal processes. The SC21 C&G programme was just what was needed.

“The first thing we did with C&G was a comprehensive product market analysis to see where we sat with our customers, for better or worse, and define some market groups that we could then focus on,” continues Boyd. “This detailed process took several months, but he feels it was well worth the effort. “It’s really driven our strategy going forward.”

Transparent visibility

The results of the analysis were fed into G&O Springs’ policy deployment system and the company’s updated vision and mission, all embedded within a Microsoft Teams environment, which is transparent and visible to everyone and also to the consultants at Industry Forum.

“We were already paperless and I’m a big proponent of Teams,” explains Boyd. “Every project in the system has a task bucket and each activity supports specific business imperatives, such as having highly trained and skilled staff, the latest kit and world class performance. Everyone fully understands what we’re trying to achieve and why. Everybody is working together, and they know exactly what they’re doing.”

Tier changes

This all links back to individual employees’ performance and development reviews, creating a virtuous circle of continuous improvement which is opening up new avenues for growth.

“We’re moving up the tiers now, from a make-to-print to a design-make model. Opportunities that were previously out of our comfort zone, we’re now grabbing with both hands.” This includes global procurement agreements with large customers.

Boyd currently anticipates operating at pre-Covid levels this time next year and surpassing them within three years, pointing to the C&G programme for helping to make this happen.

“We’re so much more productive than we were before. When I look at our weekly stats, I’m swimming in a sea of 100 percents! A lot of people can’t say that at the moment. I don’t know if it’s Covid or Brexit or struggling with remote working, but, when we look around the sector, we see supplier lead-times slipping and deliveries missed, whereas for us, the opposite is the case.”

So, what message does Boyd have for fellow UK aerospace supply chain manufacturers?

“You really cannot wait for this to pass,” he replies passionately. “Things are never going to go back to the way they were. I’ve been really impressed with this programme. It’s an opportunity to sort out all your problems.”

Anyone interested in joining the C&G programme and benefiting from the improvement funding can register an expression of interest here: https://www.sc21.org.uk/sc21-how-do-i-sign-up/cg-opportunity-to-participate

www.sc21.org.uk