Time for a reset?

In a virtual roundtable Q&A session, Composites in Manufacturing’s Mike Richardson hears the views of five leading UK companies as they discuss the effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the industry.

Part way through the pandemic, a number of manufacturing companies have been using their time wisely to prepare for an efficient restart of operations post-crisis and emerge stronger by taking steps to improve performance and capitalise on strategic opportunities. The smart companies will already have contingencies for an unanticipated disruption to their business and as a result can start the process of executing their action plans now.

Q) Is there a particular area of your business that has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in your opinion, or is everyone equally affected?

“We’ve seen a mixed response across the manufacturing industries we serve,” begins PRF Composites’ sales & marketing director, Hannah Khusainova. “Most affected have been the automotive and aircraft industries, however no industry has been unaffected. We have customers who didn’t halt production during lockdown and those that are still getting back to full capacity.”

JETCAM’s managing director, Martin Bailey has seen a dip in some areas of business during the lockdown period: “What worked to our advantage is that we’re a global company split across two distinct markets – composites and sheet metal. So, where some markets were hit, others were not. Fortunately, we received some large orders during this period which offset the drop and we had our best May sales figures in eight years of trading.”

SHD Composites’ global commercial director, Nigel Blatherwick points to the aviation industry as being the hardest hit: “Clearly the pandemic has affected all sectors, but rather than making broad judgements we have just hunkered down and focused on supporting the immediate needs of our customers. We are fortunate that the company’s service-first ethos and uncomplicated structure allows us to be very agile and adaptable to changing circumstances.”

Q) What particular aspect has helped your company get through the pandemic?

According to Blatherwick, SHD had to furlough some staff at the peak of the lockdown in the UK: “We are now back to full strength and very proud not to have had to make any redundancies. Our agility, flexibility and global footprint have served the Group businesses well over the last few months and the company has performed very strongly. When we are considered part of our customers’ team, the openness and clarity this brings helps you make a lot of right decisions… and quite quickly.”

5th Dimension Composites’ managing director, Tim Wybrow says that like other businesses, his company has reduced its expenditure as far as was practical to do so, without risking its ability to deliver upon projects: “We have been cautious about spending on anything other than paying projects, and we have also seen disruption and changes from our customers as they make changes themselves to protect their future. As a group, the pandemic has pulled us together and helped to identify synergies and gaps in capability within the broader group.”

Q) Should companies be using the pandemic to ‘reset’ and look at how effectively they’re running their businesses?

“We’ve always worked with continual improvement in mind, so this isn’t something we introduced purely to occupy any downtime,” says Khusainova. “We’ve found that it has been a useful time to focus on infrastructure improvements and product development. We’ve also strengthened our R&D team in order to prepare for the recovery of the industry going forward.”

According to Wybrow, companies need to constantly be thinking about where they can improve and how they will meet future demands: “Any company that fails to do so is likely to run into problems later down the line.”

Q) Are there any positives in general to come out of all this?

Bindatex’s managing director, Chris Lever reckons it has enabled his company to look at its capabilities and reconfigure production to cut discs for filters for ventilators for the NHS: “This has been very satisfying for the whole team, as we were able to do our bit to help the country handle the crisis,” he explains. “We were also able to assess the skills we have and to conduct internal improvement projects which will help us in the long-term.”

Wybrow: “The world has changed so much in six months, and many have suffered as a result. We have embraced the challenges we are faced with, and we now emerge stronger than ever. It is hard to see how such change could have been effected if it were not for the disruption the pandemic has caused us all.”

Q) What kind of industry landscape will we face when everything gets back to normal?

Bailey suggests that ‘normal’ is still some time away: “There are two ways out of this: cure or vaccine. I don’t see the former coming any time soon, and a vaccine needs to be rolled out to the majority of the population in order to be effective - and that will take time. During lockdown, staff were coming to terms with this new way of working online. Thankfully, software sales and support lend itself well to these online methods. Now that people are used to dealing with others over a video conference this will actually accelerate companies’ ability to implement new projects rather than it being seen as a poor substitute for face to face meetings.”

Wybrow says it’s clear the commercial aerospace sector is going to be affected for years to come: “But conversely, emerging sectors such as home delivery vehicles and personal mobility vehicles are gaining traction and providing a wealth of new opportunities within tooling and composites. There are many new opportunities and new customers in a post-pandemic world, so long as we can remain agile and adaptable to the ever-changing landscape.”

Q) With no tradeshows for the foreseeable future, are ‘virtual’ tradeshows now the way forward?

“Tradeshows will be ‘different’ for the short-term future,” notes Khusainova. “We must be prepared to do shows a little differently for the foreseeable future and plan to get the benefits from them in different ways. I’m uncertain on virtual shows; the way they develop will need to evolve organically to see what the market responds well to and what works.”

Bailey reckons that tradeshows will make their way back, but only after mass rollout of a vaccine: “And I think that’s at least a year away. We’re not just talking about the UK here - imagine shows like JEC World and the Paris Airshow: they cannot take place until enough attendees are vaccinated. Virtual events will gain some traction but not to the extent that a tradeshow would generate.”

SHD’s Blatherwick says it’s very disappointing and desperately sad for the people who arrange these events: “We have tried a few virtual shows, but honestly can’t say that they have been a great success. Not that we won’t be working with organisers to take part in similar future events and trying to make them better meet our needs.”

Business relies upon networks, and therefore losing such a critical network building event will no doubt have a negative impact. Wybrow says this is why 5th Dimension Composites needs to find new ways to engage its current and prospective customers: “Many events are looking to only run virtual events, such is the risk that a physical event attracts, so whether we like it or not, they are with us for some time to come therefore we must embrace the change and look for ways to further improve the experience.”

Q) Do long-standing partnerships bring huge benefits and where to next for your company?

“PRF has always focused on being a trusted supplier to our customers, and building long-standing partnerships with our suppliers,” Khusainova affirms. “Many of our suppliers have been with us for the majority of our near 40 years of operating and many of them are family businesses that have grown as we have. Good relationships with our suppliers and customers have always been integral to how we operate and will continue to be.”

Bailey agrees: “That’s the key word – trust. Many of the conversations we’ve had this year with existing customers have come about because of them trusting our opinion and knowledge.”

Bindatex’s Lever says that his company has been lucky to be able to change the way it operates in order to keep staff safe and continue to manufacture products for its customers: “It has made all of us – not just the aerospace and composites manufacturing industries – think twice about the level of reserves we have and how we run our companies.”

Meanwhile, SHD is working just as hard at supporting its suppliers as it does customers: “Over the last few months we’ve made an even more concerted effort to ‘shuttle’ information up and down the supply chain so that everyone has had as clear as possible a view on ever-changing supply availability and programme demands,” Blatherwick concludes. “It’s a never-ending process and suppliers are very much a critical part of our team.”

According to Wybrow, his company values partnerships, whether they are with customers or its supply chain: “Developing trust takes time and hard work, and is rarely straightforward, but we see it as an investment in the future. Certainly, we have been fortunate to benefit from a close relationship with many of our repeat customers and suppliers, and in challenging times, such relationships can make all the difference to the viability of a business.”

People, technology, commitment. Our UK companies are really pulling together and stepping up to the challenge posed by the pandemic. And while all of us have been surprised just how effective some of these new methods of working have been, it looks like this crisis is bringing out the best in people.

www.prfcomposites.com

https://bindatex.com

www.jetcam.com

www.shdcomposites.com

www.5dtooling.co.uk