Resonate Testing recently announced £650k of investment in additional capability as part of a strategy to further enhance its offering to both local and global customer bases. In a Q&A session, Resonate Testing’s managing director, Tom Mallon reveals more.
County Armagh-based Resonate Testing offers a range of testing processes and capabilities, including propulsion level fire testing, aircraft interiors, vibration and shock, vibration and shock measurement in the field, combined environmental testing, altitude testing, temperature and humidity environmental chambers, pressure and load testing.
Q) What have you been doing to get through the pandemic crisis, i.e. getting advice on furloughing employees, grants, funding, etc.?
Like many businesses, the pandemic presented many challenges which we just weren’t prepared for. Education was key and I have tried to inform myself on the implications and outcomes of previous pandemics and the hard lessons learnt during those tough times. I’ve then applied those to our own business model to ensure informed decision making for the company.
At Resonate Testing, we approached the initial onslaught of the pandemic from several directions, we made commitments to our customers, suppliers and employees that we would support them in whatever way we could – no stone unturned.
The UK Government has been very generous with their schemes, and we have been able to avail of their financial support packages, implementing partial furloughing of employees only when necessary, and taking advantage of the bounce back loan.
Q) What particular aspect has helped your company get through the pandemic?
Being a family-owned SME, one of the significant advantages we have encountered is our size - or lack of it! We are small and agile; we can literally make decisions over the kitchen table and move forward on this basis.
Test facilities have become more sought after as companies economise and opt to use external resources, instead of having an in-house capability and thus the additional overhead.
We’re located on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, we’re therefore ideally located to service both markets. We also have unfettered access to the UK and EU markets, although we’re still waiting to see how this plays out given the Northern Ireland Protocol. Given how frequently we have faced adversity here in Northern Ireland, we have the ability and optimism to deal with problems, turn around challenges and find advantages.
Our commitment to quality and service is important and is supported by rigorous external auditing and ISO 17025 accreditation. This reassures our clients that the service they receive from us is of the highest standard.
I also have to recognise the support the business has received from our staff. We have encountered a significant increase in workload throughout the pandemic but as our workload has increased, so has the team effort.
Q) Do you think companies should be using this pandemic enforced downtime to effectively ‘reset’ and look at how efficiently they are running their businesses?
The phrase ‘Innovate or Die’ has never Resonated (excuse the pun) so loudly. We are taking the view that today we stand at a crossroads, and rather than a ‘nice to have’, it is essential that we refocus the business and quickly!
Q) Do you have any positive ‘good news’ stories that your company has performed, i.e. pivoted to manufacture PPE for the medical sector, etc.?
Resonate Testing was able to provide immediate support to Aer Lingus for the initial PPE flights from China by quickly certifying the new carriage materials for use in flight.
Considering our support activities to the space industry, we had previously taken a view not to provide high shock testing, similar to the shock experienced by components in launch vehicles and during booster rocket separation. However, due to the implementation of the travel restrictions, a particular client was unable to travel internationally for this testing. They needed support and we stepped up to provide it, demonstrating our ‘can do’ attitude. This pyro-shock capability has subsequently been accepted by ESA and Primes and our capability for providing these profiles with shocks, ranges up to 10,000G.
Q) Are there any positives in general to come out of all this?
There are always positives - we just need to look for them. For some clients, I believe the above and beyond commitment that we have demonstrated throughout the pandemic has cemented the business relationship for now and in the future.
Given our location and Brexit, we may (geographically) be the closest aerospace company to the EU and as a SME, we understand the importance of adding value to our customers.
Prior to the pandemic, we were offering high quality live streaming testing to clients, so that they didn’t need to travel to every aspect of the test. When the FAA issued the policy statement on remote witnessing, we were in a fortunate position where we were already fully compliant.
We made the decision to further invest in this area and increase the quality of the service. As a result, we received a Platinum Innovation award. The real reward however was being able to help our clients and thus the volume of testing we were able to attract.
Finally, we were able to compete with competitors without clients considering proximity or legacy relationships, and the high quality of our service, as well as customer care, has generated renewed interest in our state-of-the-art laboratory.
Q) What kind of industry landscape will we face when everything gets back to normal – if indeed we ever do get back to ‘normal’?
I suspect that as a consequence many companies will turn to R&D in the near future, as such we will see an increase in workload. I see the level of remote testing becoming a more prevalent option for both staff and customer projects, and of course the relentless drive towards more sophisticated testing, with higher and more accurate data acquisition demands being driven by the industry.
The drive for greener technologies will in itself generate further challenges for the test service providers. We will continue to be innovative and fully support our customers with new test and data acquisition capability as required.
Q) What are your thoughts that there won’t be any tradeshows for the foreseeable future? Are ‘virtual’ tradeshows now the way forward?
The lack of tradeshows could be a problem; however, they are not necessarily a simple answer to the challenges presented in business development. The reality is that it can be remarkably difficult to connect with primes and large OEMs at tradeshows, and it wouldn’t be a key objective of ours when attending these events. We seek out the smaller SME-sized customer that may need help and may not be experts in every field of testing but require valuable dependable support.
Virtual tradeshows are good for sharing information, but you really do need that personal engagement when doing business – you need to look someone in the eye. With the lack of tradeshows, we’ll continue to look for innovative ways to target this market through sales and marketing.
Q) Have your long-standing partnerships brought huge benefits, particularly as trusted relationships can lead to a better way forward for all?
For us, the focus, whether officially recognised or not, needs to be on a two-way partnership. Resonate Testing’s experience offers significant opportunity for risk mitigation. The increasing costs associated with product validation and verification outweigh those of design and development. Few industries value quality and reliability as highly as aerospace, where the cost of failure is prohibitive.
When we are introduced as early as possible into the process, we can clearly offer the maximum benefit of our experience, which isn’t always measured by passing a test. When we are integrated into the team, we are bringing invaluable knowledge to the table.
Q) Please provide some news on your latest facility upgrade?
We are currently expanding our capability and capacity and are in the early stages of planning the installation of a mezzanine within our facility, as well as reconfiguring the space to maximise testing capability.
All these efforts are being undertaken with the purpose of increasing our efficiency in operations and using space wisely to house new capability and equipment, including shaker tables and salt spray corrosion chambers.
Q) Finally, where to next for your company?
Coming from a highly regulated aerospace and space sector, we have the capability to further develop the brand into fire testing of construction and building materials. The skills we have perfected within aerospace, will ensure we can engage with and add value to these new industries and customers. Along with Dr Mary Dowey, Resonate Testing’s Test House manager, it is fair to say we have the best minds working on it!
