The materials are only one part of the equation in the partnership. The three companies are trying to change the traditional aerospace paradigm, said Miles Arnone, CEO of Re:Build Manufacturing, an industrial manufacturing group that integrates new technologies into conventional manufacturing businesses.
“If we want to keep evolving the industry and creating more efficiency – whether that’s for environmental purposes or cost purposes – we cannot have top-down decision-making about products and processes from the primes forced upon the supply chain,” he said. “We have to ideate on our own, develop processes and put them forward.”
That necessitates collaboration.
“It takes a leap of faith to push the innovation boundary. People tend to tack conservative and take that safe option,” said Wakenshaw. “Collaboration is really great because it’s not one company carrying all the risk and all the capital. That format can be applied not just to aerospace, but to all adjacent industries.”
The panelists offered the following advice for attendees on forging collaborations with peers:
- Nurture your networking connections. “Stay abreast of what’s going on and keep your network active because when you need to put the right skills together and make it happen, you can do it that much quicker,” said Wakenshaw.
- Be willing to fail. Re:Build Manufacturing, Elroy Air and Victrex are forging a new path that requires rapid iteration. Arnone says all the partners are committed to the idea that they will “fail forward fast,” or use failures to propel success. “We are going to make mistakes, and that’s all fine,” he said. “We learn something and go on from there.”
- Be completely transparent. “When you have a common understanding that you will be open and share information and be honest, it takes a way a lot of bureaucracy that’s really waste,” said Arnone. That includes forthright conversations on what costs each company incurs and how to share profits.
- Communicate regularly. “When we talked about putting this collaboration together, the resource requirement and cadence for communications were probably the things we talked about most,” said Sourkes. “We talk a lot.”
Arnone hopes that sharing their story of collaboration will inspire others in the composites industry – and throughout manufacturing – to build their own partnerships.
“No one has all the answers, and you are not likely to get the capital or people or time to do it on your own. So you must collaborate with others,” he said. “You see other cultures that do it differently. We have to find an American model of doing that.”
