Manufacturing still very much alive and thriving
05 May 2009
BAE Systems' Operations Council was set up five years ago to share best practice and keep engineering thinking alive. Its focus is very much on developing manufacturing capabilities for the future.
The Operations areas of the business are traditionally associated with our manufacturing capabilities, which play a key part in the delivery of the BAE Systems strategy.
Despite this, it is often reported in the media that manufacturing is no longer seen as a glamorous career choice by today's job seekers.
Frank Hayden, who chairs the Operations Council, believes manufacturing has plenty to offer and cites the wide range of exciting challenges and opportunities to be found in BAE Systems as examples.
"BAE Systems has an amazing breadth of capabilities and engineering success stories in the air, sea and land domains," said Frank, adding that "sometimes we take for granted the accomplishments we make on an almost daily basis".
He said: "In the air sector, projects such as Typhoon and F-35 Lightning II pose the type of technological challenges never seen before in the manufacturing environment. We are facing rates of production that can now be compared to the automotive industry and we are having to develop new ways of working to ensure we meet customer demand.
"Three years ago, for example, we were involved in the production of 30 Typhoons over a 12-month period. This year the rate will reach 60 aircraft and once F-35 Lightning II reaches full production we will be producing one rear fuselage every day and a set of lefthand tails every morning and right-hand tails every afternoon.
"When you take into account the complexity of these products it all adds up to an exciting challenge. Put simply, you can't afford to stand still. Innovation and a willingness to change are essential if we are to succeed."
There are also some equally exciting challenges in the land and sea sectors – our products are required to perform in the most demanding of environments and therefore require leading edge manufacturing techniques.
The council are an opportunity to share best practices, both through the discussions that take place around the meetings and through visiting other areas of the business.
A recent meeting was hosted by council member Haydn Clulow at Submarine Solutions in Barrow. Haydn said: "The council members were given the opportunity to see first hand how the Astute manufacturing build programme is progressing and also what steps we are taking to incorporate design features that will help to reduce throughlife cost."
The council does not just focus on manufacturing: there are a wide range of projects currently being undertaken by representatives of the council from how the company manages its carbon emissions to the creation of links with universities and government agencies to look at the technologies of the future.
"The key thing is that we provide the appropriate levels of governance and drive continuous improvement in everything we do", concluded Frank.