Seize the day

Following his recent appointment as head of aerospace business development at Unipart Logistics, Scott Bairstow is looking forward to embracing future aerospace challenges.

My first appointment in the aerospace sector was in a business development role at the North West Development Agency in 2006, following which I joined the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA) as head of programmes.

I managed both the trailblazing £12 million Aerospace Supply Chain Excellence 2 (ASCE 2) programme and the £9m GAMMA autonomous systems programme.

The ASCE 2 programme was centred on improving supply chain performance through collaboration within the North West aerospace supply chain with great support from regional key players notably, Airbus, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and Safran.

With the ASCE 2 programme completed, I left the NWAA in 2014 to join Buck & Hickman in a key account role selling industrial consumables to aerospace customers, following which I left the aerospace industry to work for TVS Supply Chain Solutions with a specific focus on the utilities sector.

In December 2022 I joined Unipart Logistics as head of business development for aerospace. This follows on from the recent contract win with Airbus, where Unipart will be managing the Airbus on site logistics activities at both their Broughton and Filton UK manufacturing plants.

I was excited to get back into the aerospace sector and really missed the dynamic nature of the industry and the close collaboration of strategic, technical, Governmental and supply chain activities.

I recognise there is a real requirement for supply chain companies to focus on their core competencies of designing or manufacturing products, and thus utilising external expert providers to manage their supply chain and logistics needs.

With Unipart’s extensive capability across manufacturing, consultancy and logistics, there is a great opportunity to utilise these unique assets to support the aerospace supply chain to deliver new efficiencies and achieve their net zero targets. 

Coming back into the sector following this five-year hiatus I have seen some significant changes. When I left in 2016, the sector was very buoyant and all major civil and defence aircraft programmes were ramping up to record levels. Then the pandemic struck and the sector went into freefall. Thankfully it is now recovering strongly and though still some way off the 2018 peak, the forecasts and future aircraft demand are very strong.

During this period there has been a significant number of mergers and acquisitions especially involving US global tier 1s with notable activity by Raytheon, Triumph, Spirit, Rockwell Collins, UTC, and Parker.

Other noticeable changes in this period have been the increased focus on net zero and the critical requirement to reduce carbon emissions. Whilst this has long been an issue, the focus and intensity to change has heightened dramatically and created rapid technology development in the areas of sustainable aviation fuels, electrification and hydrogen technologies.

The concept of eVTOL and Air Taxis has also gathered pace and remains an area of excitement and future opportunity, as early-to-market manufacturers jostle for a competitive position.

Looking further ahead to the future there is a lot to be excited about, as new technologies offer new opportunities and aircraft programmes continue to ramp up.

The likelihood of any new civil aircraft programmes in the near term seems unlikely, but opportunities in defence on the Team Tempest programme create a great opportunity for UK aerospace to collaborate and further develop its full aircraft capabilities. I expect to see a continued pace of change in view of new technologies and improved capability.

Companies at the forefront of innovation, whether improving existing capabilities or introducing new ones, will continue to thrive, especially when these are linked to the JetZero agenda.

The concept of working collaboratively will continue to create new momentum and the supply chain should reach out and grasp these opportunities when they arise.

It’s great to be back in the aerospace sector and I look forward to embracing the future challenges and also exploring the ongoing potential that Unipart’s unique capabilities offer to the market.

www.unipart.com/logistics