Who-are-the-suppliers-for-aerospace-and-defense-

December 18, 2023

Managing the supply chain in the aerospace industry has always been a complex affair. The need for global capability is constantly intensifying, along with a keen focus on local service and support. What’s important to note is that no single country has a monopoly on the supply of raw materials, including metals, such as Steel, Aluminum, Titanium, Copper, and more, primarily used for the manufacture of aircraft. As such, aerospace manufacturers and suppliers are caught up in a tedious and complicated process of sourcing materials from different regions worldwide.

GT Automation is a custom manufacturing company that provides precision CNC machining and fabrication services for the automotive, aerospace, medical, consumer appliance, and telecommunications industries. Its line of services and capabilities includes laser and waterjet cutting, turning, gun drilling, wire electrical deschange machining, grinding, welding, and more. The company is located in Fort Wayne, IN, and was founded in 1946.

Sustainability and environmental responsibility are becoming increasingly important for the aerospace industry, as customers and stakeholders demand more eco-friendly and sustainable products and practices. According to a report by McKinsey, the aviation industry could reduce its carbon emissions by up to 80% by 2050 through the adoption of new technologies and sustainable practices.

Tier 3: These companies are mostly component manufacturers that ship their products directly to Tier2 companies for the manufacturing of critical parts and subsystems. Tier 3 companies can be big players in the supply chain and may also be providing critical parts that must be AS or ITAR certified. Some examples of products Tier 3 component manufactures supply include:

Above we have listed the top featured aerospace contract manufacturing companies on Thomas, as well as the top companies in the US & Canada by revenue. We hope this information has been helpful to you in your supplier search. For more details on these and other suppliers, we invite you to check out the Thomas Supplier Discovery Platform, which features hundreds of aerospace-related suppliers, manufacturers, and service providers. For aerospace thermal acoustic materials, aerospace seat fire-blocking materials, and other aerospace materials, see our guides below:

Fairchild Auto-Mated Parts provides contract manufacturing services to the dental, cosmetics laboratory, optical, packaging, pneumatics, medical, and pharmaceutical industries by producing a variety of products including probes, connectors, fittings, medical parts, shafts, and more. The company is headquartered in Winsted, CT, and was established in 1944.

Efficient software platforms that integrate seamlessly with one another are critical to modern manufacturing. Without them, companies must rely on outdated, archaic, standalone software or manual

Rogan Corp. is a custom manufacturing company that supplies the aerospace industry with contract services including drilling, tapping, matte finishing, rotary staking, pad printing, hot stamping, sonic welding, and more. The company has its headquarters located in Northbrook, IL, and has been in business since 1934.

Size of the civil aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul market

Diversification of suppliers is expected to continue as a trend in 2024, with more aerospace companies exploring new sourcing options and building more resilient supply chains. This trend is also expected to drive innovation and competition in the aerospace industry, as new suppliers enter the market.

The aerospace supply chain in 2023 faced significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, and natural disasters. However, the industry is expected to recover in 2024 and continue to grow, driven by trends such as digitalization and automation, diversification of suppliers, and sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Going into 2024, these trends will receive an extraordinary increase in capitial expenditurees, which requries Supply Chain Leaders to begin quantifying potential Supply Chain initiatives. Within the the industry, the following business opportunity costs can be quantified in the following categories:

2. Government Regulations and Environmentally-friendly Policies

Contents

1 2. Government Regulations and Environmentally-friendly Policies
2 Aerospace Defense Suppliers
3 Diversification of Suppliers
4 1. Developing a Sustainable Supply Chain

These suppliers carry a tremendous amount responsibility at the middle of the supply funnel. They are extremely vital for ensuring the rate of flow of materials and production. They are also the companies that are held most accountable to the specifications, standards and compliances of parts and components.

flexco case study.

The requests for metal parts by OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers have been met with delays from local shops that don’t have the capacity to meet increasing demand. Therefore, aerospace and defense OEMs must search for alternative suppliers and routes to meet customer demand.

Based on current trends throughout the industry, we could logically conclude the following trends to be the focal point of Supply Chain Initiatives:

Sustainability and environmental responsibility are also becoming important for investors, as more funds are incorporating ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria into their investment strategies. According to a report by Morningstar, global sustainable fund assets reached a record $2.7 trillion in 2020, up 96% from 2018.

Based on current trends throughout the industry, we could logically conclude the following trends to be the focal point of Supply Chain Initiatives:

Howmet Fastening Systems designs and manufactures a variety of fasteners, fluid fittings, bearings, latching systems, and removal & installation equipment for a number of industries including defense, aerospace, automotive, commercial transportation, technology, construction, and energy. The company is located in Torrance, CA, and was founded in 2020.

Size of the civil aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul market

Aerospace defense suppliers include those that supply manufacturers of combat and non-combat aircraft and related systems including transports, fighter aircraft, patrol aircraft, bombers, helicopters, unmanned aerial systems, and other platforms, as well as the design and manufacture of specialized avionics, radars, engines, guidance-and-control systems, reconnaissance and surveillance systems, and navigation systems.

Protolabs is a custom manufacturing company that provides contract services for the government, aerospace, automation, agricultural, chemical, medical, military, textile, and transportation industries, among others. Its line of services and capabilities includes engineering, finishing, post-processing, heat treatment, scanning, and much more. The company is headquartered in Maple Plain, MN, and was established in 1999.

The Tier supply chain is integral to the U. S. aerospace and aviation industry. Those that supply the U. S. military and aerospace markets must be ITAR certified, The International Traffic in Arms Regulations. ITAR is a set of government regulations related to defense exports. The regulations include policies and provisions related to prohibited exports, imports and sales to or from specific countries, and certain exceptions among many others. All manufacturers, exporters and brokers of defense articles related to technical data and defense services, as defined on the United States Munitions List, are required to register in order to participate in the supply chain. In addition, most organizations who provide materials to the aerospace industry supply chain are also required to register to one or more AS standards AS 9100, AS 9110, or AS 9120.

Demand shift. High-complexity industries are making a dramatic shift away from low-rate, bespoke production to larger-scale operations. For years, lower production rates were sufficient for OEMs to meet demand. However, the resurgence of postpandemic demand has encouraged a transition to high-rate production—representing a monumental change to not only the daily production operations, but also the operating model to sustain and deliver a higher output operation. Across an OEM’s value chain, the increased tempo means an evolution of current operations to maintain production assurance, quality, and profitability.

Romi Industries is a custom manufacturing company that supplies the defense, aerospace, electronics, and entertainment industries with CNC milling and assembly services, as well as painting, plating, and assembly. The company has its headquarters located in Santa Clarita, CA, and has been in business since 1992.

Table 1 below lists the top featured aerospace contract manufacturing companies on Thomasnet. com. Included in the information, you’ll find details on each company’s location, year founded, number of employees, and a brief summary of activities. Dashes indicate where data was unavailable.

LeeMAH Electronics, Inc. is a custom manufacturing company that provides contract services for a variety of industries including medical devices, military, transportation, communications, instrumentation, aerospace, and audio. Its line of services includes functional and environmental testing, assembly, custom programming and packaging, and more. The company is located in Brisbane, CA, and was founded in 1971.

Aerospace and defense OEMs that understand the value of implementing digital transformation initiatives to optimize factory floor processes still struggle with extracting data from the shop floor and then putting it to use. Challenges with data extraction include the age of communication components on legacy machines and difficulties with developing interconnected environments.

Companies that are succeeding in their production transformations show a common recipe for ramping up, comprising two components: a set of core ingredients, together with a few critical accelerants (Exhibit 2). The core ingredients—maximizing throughput of current assets, augmenting necessary labor hours, and efficiently deploying capital—focus on how best to use existing resources to meet demand. The accelerants—leveraging analytics, scaling the supply chain, and optimizing working capital—provide the ability to both step change output while also creating the infrastructure to sustain higher rate production.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of diversifying suppliers, as many aerospace manufacturers faced supply chain disruptions due to factory closures and transportation restrictions. As a result, companies are looking to source components from multiple suppliers to reduce their dependency on a single source.

Aerospace Defense Suppliers

Insulfab Plastics, Inc. is a custom manufacturing company that provides contract services for the aerospace industry. Its line of services and capabilities includes CNC machining, PCB tooling, stamping, pocketing, sawing, tapping, internal forming, and more. The company has its headquarters located in Spartanburg, SC, and was founded in 1923.

PMF Industries, Inc. is a custom manufacturing company that provides contract services for the aerospace, microelectronics, energy, and filtration industries, among others. Its line of services includes CNC machining, EDM, hot spinning, stamping, laser cutting, and much more. The company is headquartered in Williamsport, PA, and was established in 1961.

In the aerospace and defense manufacturing industry, Lockheed Martin outperformed all competitors, including its closest rivals, Raytheon, Boeing, and Airbus, with a revenue of around 67 billion U. S. dollars.

AMA’s other pillar, Sunshine Metals, is a premier supplier of specialty metals and custom supply chain services for aerospace and defense applications. As a leader in the optimization of raw materials, the company provides near net shape, semi-finished products and kitting, scrap/revert utilization, and more from its expansive inventories of plate, rod, bar, and forgings. The company’s value-added services include multi-axis machining, nesting, drilling/tapping, milling, surfacing, dovetailing, prep sawing, and straight, circle, and shape cutting capabilities. Besides, in terms of quality control, the company provides CMM inspection,
USI testing, heat-treating or retempering, electrical conductivity, and hardness testing. “Our focus is on being valuable partners to the parts manufacturers, Tier-1 to Tier-4, by helping them finish parts in a more expeditious fashion without tying up their expensive finishing equipment,” asserts Piancone.

As with many other major industries such as automotive and medical equipment, the tier supplier network in aerospace is comprised of those who provide a variety of essential materials and commodities that are used to manufacture a finished product. There are three primary levels of segregation for tier suppliers; Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3. Each of these tiers plays a significant role in the supply chain to aerospace OEMs and the support of U. S. military readiness. First we need to understand who the OEM is.

Tier 1 suppliers provide parts directly to Aerospace Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Tier 2 suppliers provide parts to Tier 1 suppliers and others, rather than directly to OEM companies. Tier 3 typically provide products directly to Tier 2 suppliers.

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American Industries Group specializes in providing offshore and nearshore manufacturing services for the aerospace industry. Its line of services includes shelter administration, duties optimization, accounting, tax and legal compliance support, and real estate services. The company is located in El Paso, TX, and was established in 1976.

Diversification of Suppliers

OEMs in high-complexity, low-volume industries face skyrocketing demand. But it’s now possible to scale production in ways that preserve product portfolios and profitability.

Efficient software platforms that integrate seamlessly with one another are critical to modern manufacturing. Without them, companies must rely on outdated, archaic, standalone software or manual

Some Tier 3 can be smaller machine shops that produce thousands of parts which ultimately serve a critical purpose. There are also many 3rd Tier suppliers that produce mission-critical components and software that are more than just nuts and bolts.

Optimize working capital. If higher output targets lead buyers to scale their inventory orders accordingly, ramping up production could significantly constrain working capital—while also raising the risk that excess parts will eventually become obsolete inventory. That risk can be compounded by incomplete or unstable engineering designs, which may result in obsolescing whole categories of components. A “plan for every part” fulfillment strategy can help balance part availability and mitigate waste by accounting for variability in demand, consistency of design, and ability of suppliers to deliver parts at the required lead times.

That means fulfilling an existing book of business while adding assets, onboarding new hires, and redefining the operating model. To manage the strain, a foundation of core infrastructure is critical to mitigate cost overruns while transitioning to full-rate production. The most important elements include:

Instead of adopting a one size fits all approach, PASU follows a case by case strategy with every single customer based on their distinct needs while considering the pricing, delivery, and inventory requirements. “If a customer approaches us for an LTA or a blanket order for a product, we can give them access to an online portal where they can check at any time the items they have on their blanket order. They can see the inventory levels of those specific items and can schedule shipments for those directly without having to get in touch with us,” Olson explains. This simplifies the overall process as they just have to put in the required quantity and then schedule a specific new Purchase Order (PO) number against it along with the desired date. As soon as they hit save, the request is immediately sent to the operations team at PASU to pull that order and ship it based on the specified schedule. “Our quality system is AS9100 certified and all our suppliers are either AS9100 or ISO certified, depending on the quality requirements,” says Olson. Moreover, PASU is the right to – buy supplier for Lockheed Martin on their F-35 program (a part of the Joint Strike Fighter program). As they have subcontractors and partners all over the world who are manufacturing parts of this combat
aircraft, PASU provides these companies with the materials they need based on the Lockheed Martin negotiated price.

Deploy incremental capital using a total cost of capital approach. Macroeconomic factors are increasing budgetary pressures for OEMs and restricting available capital to invest in incremental production assets. A total cost of ownership approach that considers predictability in future demand, product design specifications, and lifecycle management should be assessed when investing to close capacity gaps. Capital investments can be minimized by evaluating levers such as design-to-build and make-buy decisions, which can smooth production flow and minimize spikiness in temporary demand profiles.

A combination of new and old barriers has made scaling production more difficult even as it becomes more important strategically.

The aircraft manufacturing sector is beginning to recover after manufacturers reported some of the lowest volumes of aircraft orders in more than a decade during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the industry faces new and continuing challenges, including skills shortages, rising costs, and developing technologies to mitigate aviation’s impact on climate change. Meanwhile, defense manufacturing has remained on an upward trend. The sectors most likely to emerge as drivers of global growth for the defense industry include intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) technologies, as well as the cybersecurity sector and the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The key contractors of military aircraft include Europe’s Airbus, as well as U. S.-based Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

Interconnect Solutions Company (ISC) is a custom manufacturing firm that provides contract services for the medical, military, aerospace, electromechanical, and electronics sectors. The company has its headquarters located in Fountain Valley, CA, and its products are made in the USA. It was established in 1971.

Tier 1 companies are the drivers of the supply chain and are responsible for ensuring the entire operation is being managed in an effective and efficient manner, following all required government guidelines. They serve as the pull through of the entire supply network.

Airbus and Boeing

We are delighted to have been recognised as one of the top 10 businesses providing service and support to the aerospace & defence sectors.

Aerospace & Defense Review 2020 have released a special edition for Aerospace Manufacturing. The magazine comprises of in-depth insights, trends and knowledge of the industry from some of the worlds leading providers. Our very own John Olson (VP, PASU) and Gage Piancone (VP, Sunshine) were on hand to offer their knowledge and our plans for the coming year.

1. Developing a Sustainable Supply Chain

Aero Metals Alliance
The Answer to All Your Metal Procurement Needs

As long as there is a multitude of political and economic conflicts, countries or organizations will continue ordering and investing in their defense capacity. In 2021, there were around 14,713 combat aircraft listed in military inventories worldwide. F-16 was the most deployed combat aircraft in that period. Beside military aircraft, there are also a multitude types of missiles manufactured utilized to protect air space of a territory, for instance, the manufacturer MBDA. MBDA is a pan-European manufacturer of missiles and missile systems for air, land and sea defense. It is a joint venture of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo. Between 2014 and 2021, MBDA’s annual revenue went up remarkably, reaching 4.2 billion euros in 2021. During that same period, the annual order backlog of MBDA increased by five billion euros, up to 17.8 billion euros in 2021.

Pulsar Manufacturing supplies the aerospace, automotive, electronics, marine, defense, medical, textile, and pharmaceutical industries with contract manufacturing services such as CNC fiber laser cutting for a wide variety of materials. It also accepts blanket orders and meets military specifications. The company is headquartered in Rosenberg, TX, and was established in 2015.

Achieving scale has never been easy. It is a complicated, often lengthy process that is all the more difficult for OEMs seeing postpandemic demand increases. No longer do companies have three to four years to incrementally scale production—now, the expectation is to accelerate changes in production at two to three times the previous speed, while remaining profitable and maintaining diverse offerings.