Airborne Systems

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :03/07/2008 16:09:22

On an upward trajectory

Written by Ellie Duncan and Produced by Alex Barron

Chris Rowe boarded the Airborne Systems management team two years ago as Managing Director and has already made his mark on a company whose turnover has seen a huge increase, a success that he attributes to the structured actions adopted by the company. Rowe is responsible for the UK half of the business, which covers Europe, as well as the business in Canada.

“In the financial year 06/07, our turnover was about £18million. That’s the European business, so that’s half if you like - the bit I’m responsible for. And then last year, it was £22million,” Rowe explains. And this year, turnover is expected to soar to £27million, so what does he attribute the major growth of the business to?

“I think it’s down to a number of things. We’ve tightened up the basics of the business, so we’ve got the costing and the pricing processes properly under control. We’ve got better shop floor management and we’ve got, if you like, a more formal strategy process in place,” says Rowe.

Fortunately for Rowe and his customers, the business has not felt the effects of the economic downturn either. “Our business tends to be more geared to military doctrine and operations at any one time, and less geared to the general economics of the moment.” In fact, Airborne Systems is in quite high demand as its biggest customer is the UK’s Ministry of Defence, whose operations in Afghanistan require supply dropping equipment.

The European company comprises three businesses, including Irvin Aerospace, formed in 1919, GQ Parachutes, founded in 1932, and Aircraft Materials Limited, which was started in 1958.

“This company is really the consolidation of these companies into a single one and we still retain those names of brands on our products, although they’re not companies in their own right,” adds Rowe.

Unique service

Talking about the firm’s current projects, Rowe says: “We look after all the UK’s parachute inventory, so we have a long-term, 10 year contract. Basically we receive them in, we inspect them, we repair them, clean them, pack them and have them available when the customer wants them, so it’s a sort of total service.” Such a service is a unique capability in the UK, according to Rowe.

However, Rowe is keen to emphasise that Airborne Systems is a textile engineering firm which not only manufactures parachutes but also naval decoys.

“If somebody fires a missile at a naval vessel, the missile normally has a radar on board which tracks the ship that it’s fired at. Basically we’ve got a system whereby they fire over the side a structure that then inflates within two seconds and floats behind the ship; it actually seduces the missile away from the ship because it looks like a very big target.”

These naval decoys are set to become one of the company’s growth areas over the next five years, along with aerial delivery platforms, used to deliver boats onto water and equipment onto land. Rowe reveals that this will be an expanding market both in the UK and overseas. The platform system has already been sold to the US and Australia, while other products have been sold to Oman and the Middle East, and within Europe, Sweden and France.

“It’s a very international business. Obviously our focus is mainly on developing the European market, and the States is focused on developing the US market but we do trade internationally,” Rowe explains.

Looking to the future and the possibility of major projects, Rowe says, “There are some big programmes coming up in the UK over the next few years which are going to require this kind of technology, maybe scaled down a bit in terms of size, but this is the kind of precise fabric engineering that we do.”

Management tools

At the manufacturing level, Rowe has enforced what he calls ‘common sense initiatives.’

“I suppose my principle here at the moment has been to get the shop floor management right, and to use this fairly sophisticated set of key performance indicators that we’ve developed.” These initiatives are based on certain elements of the Six Sigma and Total Quality Management (TQM) strategies usually implemented in manufacturing industries but, as Rowe says, in line with his common sense approach, these are not adopted dogmatically.

Updating the key performance indicators each month means Rowe can use them as the main tool for managing his side of the business. He can also employ this process to track supplier performance. “We do have good relationships with our suppliers. We try and develop our suppliers as well, not just send a piece of paper with a purchase order on.”

Airborne Systems’ relationship with Martin Baker, to whom they supply the parachutes for ejector seats in aircraft, is based on exclusivity.

“We basically supply only to them and they buy only from us. So that’s a highly successful relationship because they’re a very successful company and in their area they are the world leader – it’s nice to be associated with them in that respect.”

With such progress in terms of the company’s production capabilities and financial growth, to what will Rowe turn his attentions next?

“We do develop the people we’ve got, and we’re just starting to look now at the possibility of taking on a relatively small number of apprentices and starting an apprenticeship scheme,” he says. “This industry’s quite cyclical so, traditionally, there have been redundancies made, then you hire people and then you make them redundant again.” It’s a cycle that Rowe is determined to break.

In the last two years, the Managing Director has introduced a structured training programme for its staff, so team leaders and employees at the management level are fully trained, while others are studying NVQs. Rowe explains that this is all part of his plan to develop some of the company’s own talent: “What I’ve tried to do here is to keep a core workforce of well-trained, flexible people and, when we get extra business, we work some overtime but we also outsource to other manufacturers. So when demand goes away we don’t have to reduce our workforce.”

With its dedication to its workforce and superior relationships with suppliers, Airborne Systems looks set to continue its current upward trajectory. “In the market we’re the world leader and, certainly in the UK, there isn’t another company like us,” says Rowe.

“So combined with the US, we’re the world’s number one company in our marketplace.”