Any company operating in the aerospace industry today has to apply robust systems and provide its customers with class-leading technology and services. To achieve these goals various manufacturing systems are used by Premier, to fall in-line with customers' operational requirements. These range from forward scheduled machining/build plans to kanban systems and eProcurement.

The 35-strong company operates an aerospace standard OTIF (On Time, In Full) system, which allows customers to monitor delivery performance. This is backed-up by a continuous quality assurance and improvement programme operated in conjunction with the company's quality assurance department.

"Customers have an opportunity to track their jobs through the workshop, via job sheets with unique barcodes," explains managing director, Stuart Grant. "This is an important support function because the components scheduled may be very near completion - where the deep hole drilling is almost the final process - or at the very start of production process when any delays would have serious delivery consequences on any subsequent operations."

Every component has complete manufacturing method which is issued with a unique bar-code. These are then tracked between each movement through the factory.

Says Stuart Grant: "This is an important support function because the business has evolved. Although we still undertake subcontract drilling and aim to provide a quick response service, many of our components now have long manufacturing routes covering material procurement, drilling, machining, honing and grinding as well as subcontract processes such as heat-treatment and surface coatings. These require lead-time planning and capacity booking in conjunction with the customer to meet their MRP requirements."

"For long-term scheduled work we take the customers forecast requirement and back-schedule to material supply. Where possible machines are dedicated to the customer. For these contracts, Premier has moved from a single process house to a manufacturer of complex machined blanks and finished components," he explains.

As a signatory to SC21 Premier undertakes a number of improvement activities within this framework, including appointing a Business Improvement Manager at the end of 2007. Lean principles have been applied to the complete re-organisation of the shopfloor, goods inwards and despatch area. Workflow management has been increasingly delegated to Team Leaders, to empower the staff who aware of issues with the means to correct them.

Business Improvement Teams have taken the new weekly Quality reporting system figures and instigated actions around recurring problems areas. This has resulted in a change of responsibility for drill grinding and maintenance, focused operator training and the refurbishment of a number of machines.

A new production controller, Peter Jones, has been recently employed to ensure smooth workflow and to act as an initial contact point for any customer queries. Workflow management operates at a number of levels. The monthly output forecast is used to develop capacity plans for each month. These are then broken down into hourly plans for each section. Scheduled work is allocated to either dedicated machines or dedicated days on a machine. These plans are then fixed. Order driven work is then loaded in and the full schedule agreed.

Customers are then contacted to confirm delivery or resolve any problems. Work arriving with little or no notice is added to the capacity plan and the customer is given a lead-time at quote or order receipt.

For scheduled work, weekly plans to meet kanban signals as well as a report of the previous week's performance are submitted every Monday, either by e-mail or via the customer's dedicated supplier portal where this exists.

And, the company's commitment to its customers extends to raw materials. Reducing the global fluctuation that affects the materials markets, Premier holds an extensive stock (circa £200,000 worth) of raw material for many of its customers. As well as smoothing the price variation this also acts as a buffer if a customer increases the batch size, but requires the same delivery date.

Engineering expertise

The creation of deep holes that are accurate in terms of geometrical form and position is a specialised process that requires capable equipment, robust processes and skilled staff. With an exceptional track record in providing highly accurate holes to tightly toleranced dimensions, Premier has invested in the right manufacturing equipment, which is operated by highly skilled staff, all of which adhere to aerospace industry proven procedures.

Since the company moved from corporate ownership (as part of Gardner Aerospace) to private ownership, the management team has continually invested in new plant and equipment. As well as new drilling and honing machines, which amount to an investment of over £500,000, machine tools to support the core business have also been purchased, with around £300,000 invested in new CNC lathes. These are used to prepare raw material prior to drilling or to carry out post drilling operations that take the components nearer to completion or even to a finished state.

Thanks to its investment plan the company can now drill and hone up to 250mm diameter by 4m using one of the five ejector machines. The company can gun drill diameters from 2.5 up to 38mm, to a depth of 2000mm from one end or 3000mm through from both ends. A total of 22 machines, single and multi-spindle types, provide the capacity for central holes in round workpieces, while four knee-type machines cater for prismatic and off-centre work.

Stuart Grant, says: "As well as investing in production equipment and staff, we have also improved the building infrastructure to facilitate better material workflow. For example, as the new drills are capable of drilling up to 250mm diameter by 4m long, the overhead cranes had to be extended and increased in lifting capacity. Over £100,000 has been invested in improvements to the facilities. We have just purchase the next door factory adding 9,000 sq ft of capacity. Smaller components will be manufactured in the new factory and larger components in the existing factory."

Certified to BS EN ISO 9002 and accredited to the AS9100 aerospace standard, Premier has an extensive list of customer approvals. These include well-known aerospace companies such as Rolls-Royce, Goodrich, Messier-Dowty and GE Aviation, as well as various customers in other sectors, which include defence, oil & gas and motorsport.

Stuart Grant concludes: "By offering a can do approach to customers' demands, our stance is - given the problem we will find a solution." This commitment to service and technology has seen the company increase its turnover from £1.45 million in 2005 to £2.8 million last year, and ambitious plans have been laid out to achieve a target of £3 million turnover this year.