Ross Bradley, executive director, Farnborough Aerospace Consortium (FAC) and former managing director, Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft programme at BAE Systems, talks to Helen Massy-Beresford about the role of cluster groups.
Q Which will be the key global markets for FAC and its members, and what are you doing to ensure that FAC members make the most of them?
We are setting up an office in Dubai to take advantage of opportunities for partnerships and sell into the Middle East. We have spent the last twelve months building up networks and partnerships there.
The new office will help members of the FAC set out a Middle East strategy, identify partners and provide links between the UK and the region.
Thirty companies have signed up – we wanted to start with a manageable number. In the next 12 months we’ll go forward with ten of them that have capabilities being sought in the Middle East.
This is FAC’s first overseas office, but we have agreements in place with Aerospace Valley in France, Germany’s Hanse Aerospace and the California Space Agency.
We are also partnered with the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) and other UK regional associations. Elsewhere, the amount of business we do in Japan is significantly less than it should be and we mustn’t forget Africa and South America. As for China, we’ll wait and see.
Q Which aerospace or aviation sectors do you see as most significant for the growth of your member companies?
The airline services and airport businesses are very significant growth markets but our response is very fragmented.
One of FAC’s ambitions is to bring together airline services procurers and suppliers as well as representatives of academia, matching different technologies with different market needs. India is a particularly important market for airport services – and we have the capability.
Q How does your own background in the industry affect your aims as FAC executive director?
One of my frustrations at BAE Systems was understanding the performance of the supply chain – the industry as a whole is very poor at understanding the supply chain.
Three years ago we decided we wanted to provide opportunities for large organisations to find different suppliers so we set up a database in conjunction with Kingston University.
It gives details of 1,000 companies, making their capabilities visible so procurers can find suppliers very easily, and sort the wheat from the chaff.
It has been taken up by a number of regions and we are launching it as national database at Paris.
No other country has this capability. The variety of capability in the UK is probably second to none but at the moment we don’t market it. We must make sure people round the world know what the UK can do.
Q How do you view the supply chain initiatives being undertaken at a national level, and what are their most important features?
SC21 [SBAC’s supply chain initiative] is good national programme that is long overdue. The good news is standardisation – it’s hellishly difficult and expensive for suppliers to be accredited so the AS9100 standard cuts out a lot of nonsense.
Q What impact will the ongoing weakness of the US dollar have on UK businesses?
The US dollar exchange rate is very important – companies are constantly having to find new efficiencies. Airbus will want to find more global risk sharing partners.
FAC has anticipated this and is putting together consortia of complementary firms. If we are to retain a share of Airbus business, we will have to adapt and FAC is taking the first step to doing just that.
Source: Flight Daily News
