Isle of Man aims higher

With the Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster (IOMAC) now well and truly established within the supply chain, its chairman Adrian Moore tells

Simon Lott how the cluster aims to implement its own version of Rolls-Royce's Journey to Process Excellence (JTPE) programme.
This year, IOMAC began its new 5-year strategy with a key part of its plan being the adoption of the Journey to Process Excellence programme by all of its member companies. The island's cluster organisation is one of the most active in the UK and Adrian Moore believes that committing to JTPE is of vital importance for all Manx aerospace companies as he looks to develop the island's capabilities.

There are various continuous improvement programmes out there, including the Northwest Aerospace Alliance's Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence (ASCE) initiative, so why choose JTPE?
A: There are indeed a lot of programmes like this available. The cluster committee considered different options like ASCE and SC21 but thought that JTPE was the most relevant programme for us given the diversity of our supply chain. We are closely linked to the Northwest Aerospace Alliance, which has been very successful with ASCE over the years and have been working with them to understand how we can implement that on the island. We soon came to the conclusion that we've got quite a lot of capability here already, especially with one of our key customers being Rolls-Royce.

Island-based RLC Ronaldsway has become a JTPE supply chain champion for Rolls-Royce and has been rolling it out internally across the entire RLC Group. We've now got a cluster alignment with the aero-engine manufacturer and RLC is leading this from the top, helping to roll it out across the whole cluster. This should make us attractive to any aerospace customer.

What do you hope to achieve by adopting JTPE?
A: What it allows you to do is measure your business against a world class model from top to bottom. It's quite complex, covering every single element of an engineering business but you could apply it to any company as it looks at business and quality management, leadership and people, process basics, process control, process flow and process capability. That includes things like Lean principles and Six Sigma.

We've taken the JTPE template and adapted it to our own needs. Fundamentally it's exactly the same but the real strength of it is that every single aerospace company will go through the same process. It's not elitist so whether they are involved in design or a small machine shop or a service provider, everyone will benefit.

What has been the response from member companies and how can they practically implement JTPE?
A: When we presented it to the cluster and explained why it shouldn't be optional but part and parcel of business on the island going forward and how it would work, we were oversubscribed immediately. We envisage that the first five companies will have gone through benchmarking in the next six months.

It is a complex thing to roll out and we're all busy people so we have engaged with a Lean Six Sigma black belt, Roger Callister to facilitate the rollout. He is going into businesses, teaching them the fundamentals of JTPE and helping them to go through the benchmarking process in the first place. He is also an extra pair of hands as well as a conscience so people are honest about how well they are performing.

As chairman of IOMAC and also development manager for the island's Department of Economic Development, how are you looking to grow your aerospace sector?
A: IOMAC is all about honing what we've got into the very best but we do want to expand in two directions. One is to grow what we've got. There are 17 companies in the cluster now and nearly 1,000 employees, most of those being engineers. We support those businesses to make sure they have the tools and techniques as well as the Government support to grow to their full potential.

The second thing is to attract new companies to the island. I'm now working with a large portfolio of inward investment companies looking to come and set-up on the Isle of Man and a big reason why they want to do that is because there's a credible and existing manufacturing aerospace industry already here and it is proven. We've had big names like General Electric, RLC Ronaldsway and Swagelok here for over 50 years.

These things can take a long time to come to fruition. Manufacturing companies aren't as mobile as service providers but in the meantime we're experiencing significant growth with the companies that are here. We're looking to put another 50 engineering jobs on the island by the end of the year, which is brilliant because in our new 5-year strategy the ultimate key performance indicator is employment, with the target being 200 new full time jobs by 2016. I'm hoping to blow that target out of the water!

What businesses would you like to attract to the island?
We're not completely self-contained and still rely on a lot of services off the island, but we're now getting to a volume of work where it would make sense for businesses to set-up here to support local companies. We have a certain amount of capability in surface treatments and heat treatments for example but I think there's an opportunity to pick up on the amount of work being generated with services such as machine maintenance and calibration. There are also new areas we haven't yet developed like avionics and software development that would be ideal on the island because you don't need a lot of materials, just active minds and ingenuity.

The big message from our last cluster event is that there is a tidal wave of work coming and our order books look extremely strong – especially with the need for replacement as new aircraft designs are so much more efficient. The opportunities ahead are extremely good. That in itself will be a challenge as we work to make sure we're positioned properly and have the right investment in place.

www.aerospace.co.im

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