The Manufacturer Editor, Joe Bush, sits down with Jason Aldridge, Managing Director of ASG Arrowsmith, to discuss another milestone year for the company.
ASG Group is a leading precision aerospace subcontract specialist and a strategic supplier to the likes of Rolls-Royce and Airbus. This year has seen the company invest significantly in CNC machinery and metrology equipment at the ASG Arrowsmith Centre of Excellence in Coventry, which is set to revolutionise the company’s machining capabilities and secure major machining contracts.
Partnering with Mills CNC, ASG Arrowsmith has embraced cutting-edge CNC automation technology to enhance its machining capabilities. A newly installed automated manufacturing cell is augmenting the company’s existing automated manufacturing setup that includes a DVF 5000 simultaneous 5-axis machining centre, integrated with an automatic workpiece pallet changer.
These state-of-the-art Fanuc controlled lathes, armed with multi-tasking capabilities, are enabling ASG Arrowsmith to deliver rapid, high-precision machining of intricate and complex turned and milled aerospace parts. Installed at ASG Arrowsmith’s machine shop facility in Coventry in July 2023, the newly established automated cell has been purchased to support growth in existing aero engine production parts, plus the introduction and ramp up of new NPI components.
Company background
The company was formed in 1967 and has been supplying machined components to Rolls-Royce in the aero engine sector since 1970, originally starting life as a development company, but since growing into more of a strategic supplier.
“If you pay us a visit, we look like a Rolls- Royce aero engine company,” said Jason. “Our quality plan is based on SABRe (Supplier Management System Requirements) – the supplier-facing element of the Rolls-Royce Management System which is applicable to all suppliers or partners who supply products and/or services to Rolls-Royce. We’re also AS 9100 certified and are 99% focused on the aerospace sector; that’s where we’ve hung our hat.”
Being part of the Rolls-Royce supply chain has placed ASG in a very strong position which has seen the company achieve SC21 Silver using the Supply Chain Solutions Framework (SCS) for the past eight years, and recognised with a Queen’s Award for International Trade.
The company was run as a family business until 2017, when Jason initiated the merger with the larger ASG Group. This has, in turn, dramatically improved the company’s relationship with Rolls- Royce. Now part of a £60m business, ASG is a strategic supplier on Rolls-Royce’s integrated scorecard, and has given the larger manufacturer the confidence to work more closely with ASG.
“It’s tough being an SME in aero engine and aerospace,” he said. “Customers now want to work with bigger groups. This move has allowed us access to better support, increased our capabilities and improved our financial structure. It’s helped us double our turnover in those first few years, and if it wasn’t for COVID, we’d have grown even quicker.”
Industry trends
Of course, it’s been a turbulent few years for all in the manufacturing sector, and it hasn’t all been plain sailing for ASG, with a crippling lack of material a particular fly in the ointment, with Jason citing mill run times increasing from six months to 30 in some instances.
A key reason for this is that, unlike a sector like automotive, aero engine is a comparatively small user of material and as such, lacks clout and tends to get pushed back for specialist materials. “We have huge problems with material turning up late,” he added.
“Lead times have quadrupled in some cases, but the worst issue is the reliability of information. We’ve been told we’d be receiving material on a certain date and it’ll turn up two months late. We’ve got good order books, but getting the material on time is a huge problem in this sector.” He added that the aero engine sector as a whole was a little slow out of the gate as the country began to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, and forward orders were not placed by ASG’s customers meaning material supply chains began to shut down.
This has resulted in the sector having to play catch up over the last few years, with Jason predicting at least another 12 months of material shortages. This has seen the company having to adapt, pivot and find alternative sources and types of material; something it has been able to do due to the level of experience and expertise within the group. It has also seen the company dramatically increase inventory to counteract these extended lead times.
“We purchase much bigger consignments now,” Jason added. “We’re buying two years’ worth of material to make sure we hold the price and that we’ve got enough going forward. In terms of challenges, reliance on material is bigger than labour, order book or sustainability.”
Investment driving the business forward
Speaking on the machinery investment cited at the start of this piece, Jason was keen to stress that ASG Arrowsmith still specialises in development work, meaning the company retains a requirement for individual machines to help prove out manufacturing processes for its customers during preliminary or development cycles.
Customers such as Rolls-Royce will still bring early-stage drawings to ASG to be evidenced and the company will come back with ideas around how to improve the manufacturability of that product. And because the sector traditionally deals in smaller volumes, the need for individual machines remains.
However, what has changed is that now, 80% of ASG Arrowsmith’s work is in longterm agreements of around two to three years. This gives the company the vision to plan forward which is crucial to strategies to deploy new machinery or automation.
“We’re not automotive which makes parts in the millions; that is dead easy,” Jason continued. “Aero engine isn’t like that. So we need that forward vision. It may be smaller numbers but if we’ve got vision, we can start running it through the business.
“With that evidence from customers we’ve been able to bring in digitalisation, automation and higher capability machinery. Some companies may automate without first looking at their order books. Automation needs to be running almost constantly to justify the investment so you have to have an order book big enough to do that. Therefore, we have had to move more into production and initially had to take the risk of pricing jobs as if they were already being automated, before we actually had the equipment.”
The company has just completed an innovation project with the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), looking at three of ASG’s production parts to analyse how best to increase volume.
“It’s about looking forward and seeing what is cost effective,” added Jason. “Fundamentally, the most important factor is getting the job out at a reasonable cost to the customer. That’s the only reason to automate.”
He added that there is a greater level of complexity involved in deploying automation successfully when there are smaller volumes involved, but vital to the journey is having the onus on the customer to offer that forward vision and to guarantee the work which will make those smaller numbers worth investing in. Of course, it goes without saying that this should be a partnership.
As a group, ASG is looking to create smart factories through digitalisation and automation, with much being driven by the end customer which is now demanding the use of the newest techniques and the safeguarding of future production.
Last year, the group performed 80 PPAPs (Production Part Approval Process), to prove the production process on parts. The company has had people trained on PPAPs, in collaboration with customers, to make sure that production parts and the process is proved out and finalised very early on, so the company can get on with its digital transformation.
Deployment challenges
Much of the issues encountered around these new machinery deployments relate more to the aforementioned material shortages than they do to any technical difficulties, which Jason claimed the company can deal with fairly routinely.
He highlighted that certain machines could be run full-time with a robot arm. However, the reality is the machine could be down for weeks while the company waits for materials (which it has already ordered) to arrive. Plus, not knowing when material will show up makes it almost impossible for the company to repurpose the robot arm in the meantime.
“There’s no way you’re going to split it down, repurpose it etc. So you just have to sit there and wait for the materials to arrive,” he said. “The problem isn’t with technology, it’s getting the constant orders and the material in on time.”
Staffing
Despite significant staffing issues due to COVID, the furlough scheme enabled ASG to remain profitable during the whole pandemic, maintain its SCQ1 silver level as well as keep OTIF and deliveries at 98%. This was due in no small part to the fact that although civil aviation dropped by around 45% during the coronavirus crisis, ASG Arrowsmith still maintained the military and business jet part of the business, while it also diversified into manufacturing ventilators.
The two years of COVID was spent digitalising and trialling new levels of automation, meaning that ASG has rebuilt post-pandemic with new technology already in place. “We spent two years working with the MTC and universities on digitalisation, and conducted £120,000 worth of training on all these new systems and technologies,” Jason added.
Much of the research which took place during lockdown pointed towards the future need for NPI engineers. “If you’re automating and digitalising it’s done at the front end,” Jason continued. “So a lot was done around bringing in engineers to fill those positions, which has in turn, made our shopfloor engineers more productive.
“It’s worth mentioning that with aero engineers, only around 20% of our work lends itself towards automation. Therefore, 80% is still going to be conducted manually purely due to the smaller numbers that are being ordered. Automation has just helped increase the capacity of what our workforce is already doing.”
Due to the numbers involved, Jason explained that there has been no reticence towards automation adoption at ASG and no fear around robots replacing human workers. “We just haven’t got the numbers moving through the factory that you might see in automotive or the food and beverage sector,” he continued. “Our industry really isn’t like that. We have to do too many change overs, not to mention the development work we’re involved in as well.”
Visting ASG Arrowsmith you will find a number of graduates from Coventry University, apprentices from the MTC and normally five or six R&D projects a year taking place with a huge emphasis on development work.
The constantly evolving nature of the company is a pull to potential engineers, however, Jason explained that there is a constant struggle to retain talent. With firms such as JLR and Rolls-Royce nearby, in the past graduates have treated ASG as something of a training ground before moving on to a role at one of those larger companies after one or two years. This means that ASG often takes on interns to fill the gaps.
“You have to accept where you live,” he admitted. “I go and sell ourselves to the students at Coventry University and the last time I visited, we followed Leonardo and GE. They’re like the Liverpool and Manchester City of the manufacturing world. We’re like Accrington Stanley in comparison, so we act like a feeder club.”
However, he explained that not all graduates will be ready for ‘Premier League football’. Some will need to start low. Out of a room of 30 students, those larger firms will only take on the three or four best people; the reality is that the others will go into the supply chain, which is where ASG can help.
“We’ve got new, modern engineering offices with enough space for around 20 to 30 engineers. If they’re coming from the MTC they will be used to a state-of-the-art environment. So, we’ve brought in new kit and increased our levels of digitalisation, so we’re now set up to bring younger people in and create an environment which is on par with our customers.”
Future strategy against current challenges
Looking forward, the conversation circled back to the ongoing challenges around materials, and while the ASG order book is strong, Jason warned that around 30% of orders could be missed this year as a consequence. In reality, he explained that some customers have only returned to full scale production (post-COVID) this year, however, that’s too late to secure the orders of some materials.
“It will likely be another six months to a year until this material problem is sorted. Unless aerospace can assist and use its influence to help control some of the mills to get some material across. Within aerospace manufacture, the biggest problem at the moment is aero engines. There’s a lot of airframe already manufactured that is just sitting waiting for engines.
“It has been a tough time. ASG Group did really well; we joined them at a brilliant time which allowed us to come through COVID stronger than we went in. But I know a lot of companies weren’t as lucky. However, even in a position where we can increase capacity, our hands are tied due to the supply chain issues around materials.”
As mentioned, 80% of the company’s existing work is in long-term agreements, and those strategic contracts will allow the company to have that vision into the future that will enable investment in automation and digitalisation.
Going forward, partnerships and strategic relationships with customers will be crucial to alleviating the current supply chain challenges, so that material can be ordered ahead of time and allow the company to manufacture in the most efficient way possible.
Jason concluded: “There’s only a finite amount of material in the world and it’s not just sitting there waiting for us – our customers have got to have enough vision to look ten years into the future so we can get that material secured.”