THE SBAC COMPETITIVENESS CHALLENGE
DTI has supported the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC)’s
Competitiveness Challenge (CC) activities with about £500K of Government
funding per year over three years, up to March 2000. This support has
now been extended with further Government funding of nearly £1M to stimulate
competitiveness improvement work to continue until at least 2003.
The aim of the CC is to help aerospace companies understand factors
that affect their competitiveness; promote open and competitive markets;
and to promulgate and encourage best practice. The general and long-term
objective of the CC is to “enhance the performance and effectiveness
of the UK aerospace companies through the promotion of proven quality
techniques that improve business results”.
The following are the main elements of Competitiveness Challenge, more
details of which can be found on the SBAC's
website.
Supply Chain Relationships In Aerospace (SCRIA)
SCRIA aims to improve working practices within the industry. Participating
companies include BAE SYSTEMS, GKN Westland, Rolls-Royce, and many other
aerospace companies, large and small.
SCRIA’s function is to provide a framework for constructive co-operation
between all companies involved in the aerospace supply chain. SCRIA
encourages companies to seek common benefits in all dealings, rather
than negotiate for individual gain. This change is effected through
a variety of practical mechanisms, including custom-designed “Working
Together” workshops attended by members of actual supply-chains and
a ‘champions’ support network, containing representatives from all the
leading UK aerospace companies.
Lean Aerospace Initiative (UK LAI)
The UK LAI dovetails with the SCRIA initiative and primarily addresses
two areas. Firstly, the need to develop consistent performance measures
which will allow member companies to benchmark their performance within
the industry and, potentially with other industries; secondly, to compare
their operating practices with so called “lean enterprise” practices
which have been applied in the world leading Japanese automotive industry
for many years. The Master Engineers programme (see above) is an extension
of UK LAI.
Business Winning
The main product of Business Winning is the SBAC Marketing Centre,
accessed through the SBAC Website,
which gives those responsible for business development and marketing
vital market intelligence and contact information.
Knowledge Management (KM)
The Knowledge Management programme supports the other areas of improvement
covered by the Competitiveness Challenge.
Within this element of the CC there are three major areas of work;
KM Training, Business Excellence Model Assessment and Rapid Score project.
Further information is available on the SBAC
website.
People Management
The main activity of this initiative centres around the People Management
Survey, an independent report conducted by the Institute for Employment
Studies of 380 organisations. The outputs to the report were briefing
papers on Skills and Training, What works at Work, Changing Management
Capabilities, Reward Strategies, Employee Relations, In-depth Case Studies
and Regional Workshops on People Management Skills.
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