Making the right connections

In a Q&A session, Mike Richardson talks to Amphenol's managing director, Andy Bragg to hear how the company goes about making the right connections within a competitive civil and military aerospace interconnect supply chain.

Employing some 250 people at its site in Whitstable, Kent, Amphenol offers a design and manufacturing service for a large range of connectors and interconnect solutions. Accredited to AS9100, the company supplies into the military, aerospace and industrial markets and offers the latest interconnect product technology to meet the needs from a variety of challenging applications. Q) What kinds of interconnect performance demands are placed on Amphenol by today's aerospace OEMs? A) “Clearly, communication data rates, speeds and power management requirements are getting increasingly higher. We're seeing more airline operators re-qualifying their aero-engines, whereas in the past the original ones would have probably lasted for the entire lifetime of the aircraft. Newer versions of aero-engines are much more efficient, so engineers choose to perform a partial re-qualification of an engine because it's becoming more cost-effective for the aircraft builders, MRO companies and airline operators to actually get an updated version of the engine, or even remove the old engine entirely and replace it with a next generation one. “There is also a constant drive for weight reduction and efficiency. As the aerospace industry becomes more sensitive about how it obtains higher operating efficiencies, then the investment in aero-engine management becomes much more complex too. This complexity also requires more aero-engine sensors to absorb and calculate increasingly more data. Our hermetic connector specialists are developing capabilities in a range of hermetic connector products for both the military and civil aerospace sectors. This is because we're seeing more and more customers requiring sensors built inside the interconnect product, and also ensuring that the sensor obtains the data without any risk of fluid ingress or gas leaks. Ultimately, when the customer connects their products, they need to have a connector capable of giving them total integrity. “Another more political issue coming to the fore concerns the actual control processes in defence related issues such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Amphenol has a secure facility where it can perform completely controlled ITAR projects within the UK. This has required a lot of investment in terms of our time and resources because we need to specifically security clear people to work on individual projects. However, the benefits we offer our customers is that when we're working on a US military project, we can physically manage it so that personnel cleared to work on a specific project have access to controlled data. On the flipside, we have some customers who specifically want their products to be completely ‘ITAR free'. This all helps to differentiate Amphenol from its competitors, as there are very few companies able to manage both ITAR and non-ITAR projects seamlessly. We're fortunate to have 250 employees on this site, so we're at a size where we have the critical mass required to manage these sizeable projects. There are very few connector manufacturers in the UK that can boast a headcount of this size. Q) What technological barriers do you need to overcome in order to get your new connector offerings to market? A) “There is an increasing demand on interconnect products to withstand elevated temperatures, waterproofing and salt spray resistance. Although there has always been this requirement, it's now becoming much more formalised. Amphenol offers the full value proposition: we purchase the raw polymers and material bar stock and we're capable of fully manufacturing parts onsite, if that is what the customer requires. Similarly we're capable of purchasing some of the more straightforward catalogue-based high volume components from low cost source sister companies, yet we also offer a full interactive design service to the customers too. If we become involved in the customer's design programme early enough, we can help them design reliability into their systems and remove cost. The closer we work with customers in a genuine integrated partnership then there is more likelihood that together we'll achieve some really stunning results. Consequently, the total cost of the system architecture is reduced which is what you must be able to demonstrate in UK manufacturing, if you want to continue winning the business.” Q) To improve the company's engagement within the global aerospace supply chain, what experience has Amphenol with continuous improvement and Lean manufacturing initiatives like SC21? “We're about 18 months into our SC21 journey and will soon complete the manufacturing excellence and business excellence element of our continuous sustainable improvement plan. We're in the process of obtaining the necessary data and customer feedback in terms of our on-time delivery performance. Over the five years I've been here, we've made some big step changes in terms of the reliability of our deliveries, as well as the quality of our products, but there are still opportunities to improve. This facility typically ships 3,000 different line items to around 150 different customers every month. In one year we'll service hundreds of different customers. Amphenol operates a very complicated small-to-medium batch manufacturing facility which has just got better and better over the last five years. “We're also fortunate to have a very supportive sponsor in Aero Engine Controls (AEC) who has invested a lot of time and energy here at Amphenol. AEC acts as an outside pair of eyes on our business processes. Two years ago we were awarded AEC's most improved supplier award and recently they rewarded us with two new contracts, so from our viewpoint there are many positive benefits in undertaking the SC21 journey.” Q) Finally, where do you see the biggest aerospace business challenges coming from in 2013? A) “We all recognise that military budgets will continue to be closely managed. Furthermore, there is a huge question mark over whether there will be another genuine frontline jet fighter designed and built like the Eurofighter and the F-35, or whether the military aerospace industry will migrate towards unmanned aerial systems. Obviously there are some dynamic changes ahead, but from Amphenol's viewpoint it's a question of prioritising the right resources and getting behind the right opportunities. I have no doubt that there are still many opportunities out there.” www.amphenol.co.uk