10 AEROSPACEMANUFACTURING | MARCH 2010
NEWS INDUSTRY INSIGHT
Magellan navigates the way
The advanced engineering value chain is populated
with a wide variety of different styles and types of
partnering because the whole thing arises from some
very human interactions: companies don’t talk to each
other – people do! Dr Neil Calder reports.
I
had the opportunity shortly before is not one for a quick return on capability – the whole range.
the Christmas break to experience at investments and financial plans have to The personal chemistry is obvious in
first hand the business relationship have a period similar in magnitude to talking to these guys, as is their almost
between Magellan and Airbus. The that of the development and lifecycle of parental enthusiasm for the spar business
occasion was the opening of Magellan’s the aircraft programmes that they are stream. They both cite the ‘bad old days’
new £5 million wing spar machining supplying into. where venture capital was dominating
facility in Wrexham, tucked just inside In the particular case of Magellan, the financial aspects of many suppliers,
the Welsh border and supported by the the trust seems to have been borne out and short-termism was rife.
Welsh Assembly Government. of a ten year journey taken together by There was definitely an agenda that
As it happened, I also had my 11 year Dave Micklewright of Airbus to see a Airbus had in breaking the adversarial
old son tagging along as his school was flourishing and effective participant relationship that is common within so
closed that day and so I found myself within the Airbus supply chain and many parts of the supply chain. I have
having to explain the setup of aerospace Haydn Martin of Magellan to establish worked long enough with the doctrine
supply chains to him as we drove the future prosperity of his business. of ‘lean’ to know that this is exactly
down to Wrexham. This explanation Dave says that firstly Airbus had to where the waste or non-productive
encompassed the technical side of decide it was going to change the way energy goes within a supply chain
machining aerospace metals, along with it interfaced with the supply chain. The network.
the business aspects of tiered supply second thing then was that they had to Perhaps it is fitting that Magellan is
chains and of course the nature and find people in the supply chain that were echoing the achievements of its historic
characteristics of the various players capable of going on that journey with namesake in navigating these unforgiving
in this activity. It can be an interesting them. This is management capability, waters. ❙
and thought provoking experience to financial capability and technical neil@engineeredcapabilities.co.uk
view what we regard as pretty normal
and routine aspects of our daily business
through the eyes of a child seeing it for
the first time – questioning the customs
and practices of a strange industrial
world.
In trying to define good supply chain
relationships and what makes them tick,
I centred on mutual trust, respect and
understanding as the core elements of
the best ones that I had experienced.
The business of manufacturing
components and assemblies for aircraft
So near so spar: The opening of Magellan’s new £5 million wing spar machining facility in Wrexham
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