Mike Richardson reports. The whole ethos of the Twenty First Century Supply Chains (SC21) programme requires a fundamental business transformation in order to more effectively share information, work openly and collaboratively and deliver benefits across the industry. SC21 means doing what we already do, but in a much more structured and coordinated way. It's about becoming the best of the best.
SC21 was launched by the SBAC during the 2006 Farnborough International Airshow to help boost UK aerospace industry's competitiveness, meet demands for more collaboration and remove the duplication of effort to reduce costs. The SBAC - now A|D|S - recognised that if it was to protect the UK aerospace and defence industry's future then the willingness of the primes to work with the supply chain was crucial.
Fast forward to the present and the same values still hold true: continuous improvement can never stand still, which is why A|D|S is evolving SC21 to ensure it continues to meets the global challenges faced by the UK's aerospace and defence industry.
Q: What were the original reasons for introducing SC21?
Phil Curnock, SC21 project leader, A|D|S: “SC21 began when a range of primes came together to develop a standard toolset for the supply chain. Back then, the direction and what the recognition process should entail wasn't clearly defined. Today we're seeing awards coming through the process with customers and suppliers experiencing significant business benefits and performance.
“This is great news, but a complicated supply chain takes time getting the primes engaged - along with a raft of suppliers. We're now up to 640 suppliers from all walks of life - not just aerospace and defence, but other sectors like security and MRO. It's a vast range, but we're starting to see benefits coming through. We also have a better idea of the direction and what developments are still required, such as sustainable procurement, and the cluster approach which appears in various forms around the country.”
Q: What underpins the ethos of SC21 and how has it helped UK businesses?
Curnock: “The underlying stream is in the relationship measurement matrix (RMM) because customer/supplier relationships have been somewhat adversarial in the past. The combination of customers with suppliers addressing issues jointly creates a much better working relationship and has had a huge impact.”
Jeannette Medati, BAE Systems: “SC21 has helped us drive the level of consistency in the way we do business and generates some peer pressure in the supply chain too. The structure has enabled us to align our own processes and the way we go about doing business; it's been an absolute blessing for us.”
Stephen Cowan, general manager - supply chain, Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast: “SC21 has created a standard and enabled the primes to get on the same page and have a consistent view of the supply base. Before SC21 started, we were dealing with 4,500 suppliers and we all had different views over accreditation, performance levels, recognition and relationships.”
Harvey Preston, TT Electronics: “TT has five businesses using SC21 for its operational excellence element. In the past, TT has sought to find the most appropriate method of moving its business forward. Is it Six Sigma or another tool? SC21 sends out a strong message in terms of operation excellence - especially the manufacturing excellence (MANEX) and the business excellence (BUSEX) - and also the added advantage of the RMM activity.”
Paul Benham, managing director, Benham Manufacturing: “SC21 has enabled us to transform our management style, communication, and systems and procedures throughout the business. We were already what I would consider a good subcontractor before we signed up. Nevertheless, the transformation for us has been significant.”
Q: How has SC21 continued to meet the challenges of standardising different aerospace OEM supply chain improvement and quality programmes and has it been successful in this task?
Curnock: “A common framework for documentation and processes has helped focus organisations. Many businesses have never had a structured review and deployment framework where they could actually instigate an improvement plan, review it and see it underpinning their profit and loss account and kpi performance. Companies can use SC21 as a total business improvement framework rather than just a supply chain tool.”
Q: Has SC21 made your understanding of how the primes work easier to understand?
Benham: “Our business activity with Cobham has driven us from the outset and access to new business will be easier with SC21 endorsement because it demonstrates where we are as a business and what our business model looks like, without customers needing to visit us and assess our business capabilities. SC21 is an extremely strong marketing tool for an SME.”
Preston: “In the last two months alone we've created more business opportunities through being on the SC21 programme - it's almost like a recommendation. SC21 is getting more kudos because it actually drives real sales opportunities for our businesses.”
Q: Has SC21 succeeded in helping smaller companies link up with their larger customers in a more efficient way?
Benham: “Yes, through the RMM process we've been actively engaged in. There's an opportunity to drive through improvement in areas where there may be known weaknesses or areas identified as weaknesses through this process. It allows us to do something positive and rectify the situation.”
Cowan: “The RMM has proven to be an excellent tool for SMEs and Bombardier. Although the relationship hasn't always been great, SC21 bridges it together. For the award of new business, we're writing SC21 into our source selections scorecard and a higher score will be awarded to someone who is on this journey. It gives SMEs hope that if they continue this journey they can differentiate themselves and win more business.”
Medati: “I would agree. SMEs often struggle to find a foothold with the larger primes and BAE itself has often been criticised for not opening up. However, we've seen growth as a consequence of suppliers developing themselves on the SC21 programme and benefited from this.”
Q: What changes are required to ensure SC21 continues delivering the right results?
Curnock: “The industry has to drive SC21 and one challenge this year requires getting as many companies as possible to have a continuous sustainable improvement plan (CSIP) and go through the diagnostics process. As Stephen said, it's still early days, but we're seeing better performances.”
Cowan: “We're reinforcing CSIP and already have a 50% improvement in on-time improved deliveries from the majority of the suppliers on the SC21 journey. We will soon be moving into the competitiveness segment of CSIP. This is a huge milestone in improvement that wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for SC21, the relationship meetings and the MANEX training. By using simple tools like SC21, without emotion and without applying pressure to meet cost reduction targets, the suppliers themselves have witnessed big improvements.”
Q: Where do you think the biggest business challenges lie for SC21 over the next two years, how do you intend to overcome them and what new developments will we be seeing?
Curnock: “We must stick to what we've got and deliver on it rather than reinventing the wheel. SC21 clearly works; companies are getting the business benefits so we need to drive the plan and get everyone engaged.”
Medati: “We're placing huge effort in ensuring we've got decent sustainable improvement plans so that we can put some true fixes in place; not just putting plasters on them. If we find consistent poor performers that aren't prepared to stick with it, then there has to be a consequence as our industry can't afford it. We want to make a difference and make performance matter. We're running cluster events like many of the other businesses, involving sessions where we create opportunities to talk directly to many suppliers and reinforce how serious we are about SC21.”
Curnock: “Many companies feel more confident in making the SC21 journey together and the cluster groups I've attended have been extremely powerful with a number of managing directors being open and honest with each other and working through it together.”
Medati: “We've been holding joint training days comprising smaller groups of suppliers as well as BAE and its customer, the MoD. This is a two-day programme containing more detail and awareness. Phil is right: people feel more comfortable making the journey together. These sessions have been very useful and we've had great feedback.”
Cowan: “We all still need to drive the programme otherwise it will drift quickly. The primes, self- and regionally-led companies must sing with one voice. The SMEs can sometimes be vocal if they don't see big developments in their accreditation. They still see primes like Bombardier auditing, even when ISO/EN 9100 and NADCAP are in place, and obviously these costs get passed on. SMEs are seeking bigger success stories so they can start winning more business, but this was never the original intention. The original mandate was to improve the competitiveness of the UK supply chain to prevent work going overseas. From day one, SC21 was about utilising the ‘best of the best' from all the existing supplier development models. We don't need to benchmark anymore; we just need to deliver on what we have.”
Q: Have there been any unintended benefits of SC21?
Preston: “SC21 is even more than what we expected and the sustainable improvement plans and RMM are just so powerful in terms of moving the business forward. I'm pleased that it's bringing new sales and development opportunities to our business.”
Medati: “When I first became involved in SC21 I was dubious as to its ability to sustain. Having attended the task force events and listened to managing directors explain how they have taken ownership of their improvements has really impressed me because it's providing genuine results. We're getting the momentum – success is breeding success. Task force events are extremely powerful in this respect.”
Benham: “I'm delighted how our workforce has embraced the concept of SC21 and its ethos for continuous improvement. We've all seen the benefits of continuous improvement and want to maintain it and strive for greater things. One of the many significant successes is the change to the business culture on the shopfloor.”
Cowan: “The RMM tools have given us the chance to look in the mirror because we had a very different view of how we were treating the supplier base than they had. It was a shock because we thought we were doing reasonably well, yet it certainly wasn't the feedback we were getting.”
A|D|S will be exhibiting at the Farnborough International Airshow to promote SC21's key themes that focus on business benefits and sustainable procurement. The organisation also hopes to announce some more recognition awards.
www.adsgroup.org.uk/21
