Pictured above: (l-r) David Kilpatrick (Semta), Tom Townsend
(TPT), Robin Jaques (SA Partners), Andy Chapell (Babcock), Phil
Curnock (ADS Group) and Cliff Johnson (MAS-WM)
One of the UK's largest engineering support services groups has
teamed up with the Manufacturing Advisory-West Midlands (MAS-WM)
service to launch a new regional cluster.
Babcock International Group, which delivers critical asset
support to the defence, transport, energy and telecommunications
sectors, is adopting a joint approach to meeting World Class Supply
Chains for the 21st Century objectives.
The FTSE 250 company believes SC21 - the specialist programme
for the aerospace and defence industries - offers an excellent
opportunity to manage its complex supply chain so that it continues
to offer high levels of competence in supply planning, inventory
forecasting and modelling.
More than 30 suppliers from the region heard keynote
presentations from the company and MAS-WM, with the latter
announcing a £1m funding pot for firms keen to make the
commitment.
Andy Chapell, Head of Supply Chain Capability Development at
Babcock, picked up the story:
"As a leading support service provider, we see the Supply Chains
in the 21st Century programme as forming a significant and
fundamental part of our wider supply chain management."
He continued: "SC21 encourages greater collaboration, which is
why we wanted to introduce this regional cluster approach so that
we can work with our suppliers from the outset on improving all
aspects of our engagement."
Babcock, which turns over £1.9bn, is the major industrial
support partner to the Royal Navy. It provides integrated
operational support and military flying training to the Royal Navy
and RAF and is a chosen support partner of the British Army.
It is anticipated that SC21 will help to continually improve
quality and on-time delivery performance, potentially generating
significant performance and cost improvements throughout its supply
chain in the process.
MAS-WM's Cliff Johnson continued: "This event is crucial
for companies in the Babcock supply chain, who want to discover how
they can deploy processes leading to world class performance, so
critical to the defence sector generally.
"By forming an SC21 cluster, not only can we support and nurture
them as a group, but suppliers can also position themselves to win
future business in an ever increasing competitive market."
West Midlands companies involved in the cluster can access
individual grants of up to £20,000 to help them deploy the
SC21 programme, which is funded by Advantage West Midlands and the
European Regional Development Fund and is delivered by MAS-WM.
Once a commitment has been made to participate in the programme,
an experienced adviser will arrange for a series of business
diagnostics to be carried out within the company, which will help
identify where it is now and what it needs to do to work towards
globally competitive performance via the SC21 programme.
A sector specialist will then work hand-in-hand with the
business on improving performance and quality, as well as
facilitating relationship workshops with stakeholder customers.
Cliff concluded: "SC21 is growing in importance and, judging by
the way the industry is embracing it, it looks set to become a
significant differentiator when competing for new contracts.
"We still have over £1m of funding left for companies to
tap into and gain specialist assistance as they work towards global
competitiveness via this World Class Supply Chains for the 21st
Century programme."