Aerospace manufacturer optimises production with MSC

A Midlands aerospace manufacturer is increasing capacity and productivity through the implementation of lean and efficient processes, as part of a five-year contract with MSC Industrial Supply.

As a machine to print manufacturer, AE Aerospace supplies the aerospace, defence and marine industries, manufacturing prototype components through to original equipment and legacy parts.

AE looks at products other manufacturers won't – components that haven't been made for decades, which will have been made on older machines. AE specialises in recreating these items, using modern tooling, in a very fast turnaround – but to do that the business needs stability of supply and support.

Ian Bouquet-Taylor, operations director at AE Aerospace, commented: “Our stability comes from good planning, but it also comes from working with people like MSC who help us to focus ourselves. By having less problems around tooling and knowing what tooling we get on a day-to-day basis, we’re able to pass that stability and assurance onto our own customers.”

AE was struggling with having the right stock on site because of its ever-changing order book, making it difficult to plan ahead for the tooling required. By using MSC’s ControlPoint vending solution, which has a whole range of tooling in there, AE benefits from having the correct tooling on hand for those emergency jobs that come up.

AE also takes advantage of MSC’s in-house engineering support. MSC’s engineering team is constantly plugged in with the team at AE, working on New Product Introductions (NPI) and Continuous Improvement (CI) projects, and combined the engineering support and vending service together really help drive efficiency improvements in both production and in the purchasing department as well.

Rob Smith, technical sales engineer at MSC, commented on the work with AE: “We're set-up to help businesses succeed. Whether it's using data to boost performance, building resilience and flexibility, or winning new business, we operate in a way which allows us to help businesses.

“In the next five years AE is planning on increasing significantly, so to support this we have started by looking at machining processes and operational efficiencies within the business itself and smooth out all the creases to get to the point where they're efficient and they can potentially run unmanned. We’re also looking at ways in which we reduce their cycle time and their cost for tooling so that the savings can be used as investment to create further profit and to drive even more revenue.”

Mr Bouquet-Taylor added: “For us working with MSC is about taking away that guesswork by using their engineers’ tool knowledge and expertise to get it right first time. We can work with them to think ‘what is the best solution for our problem’ and the solutions engineering side is incredibly important to us a business perspective, helping us save the tens of thousands a year from our current costs.

“What we like about working with MSC is their attitude to finding the right solution. It doesn't matter what's the most profitable, it doesn't matter what's the highest commissioned, it’s whatever happens to be the right tool for the job. It gives me confidence when we work with them, and they really make us feel that we’re working together in partnership.”

MSC Industrial Supply
www.mscdirect.co.uk