AIM Aerospace

Tools Designed and Manufactured with Integrity Delta Tooling, Inc. Specializes in Aerospace and Foundry Tooling. www.deltatooling.com • info@deltatooling.com 253.475.3131 Elevating quality aerospace parts for more than 75 years. General Plastics supplies top-flight custom-molded flexible polyurethane products and rigid foam core materials for aircraft flight decks, interior cabins and more. And because of our abundance of value-added services, we can supply intricate parts fabricated to customers’ exact specifications. Here is where high-quality parts and high-quality services soar. Where Great Ideas Take Shape GENERALPLASTICS.COM FAA Repair Station AS9100D & ISO9001 Since 1992, Romi Industries has provided manufacturers, MROs and airlines with quality parts at cost-effective prices by working with client engineering teams to quickly repair or replace parts. CONTACT sales@romiindustries.com P: (661) 294-1142 See our capabilities at WWW.ROMIINDUSTRIES.COM l Armcap & Food Tray Table (repair) l CNC Machining and Assembly l Sheet Metal Fabrication PREFERRED VENDORS n Definitive Solutions & Technologies www.dstwaterjet.com n RJM Corporation www.rjm-corp.com n General Plastics Manufacturing Co. www.generalplastics.com n Romi Industries, Inc. www.romiindustries.com n Delta Tooling, Inc. www.deltatooling.com the big customers in aerospacewere in amale-domi- nated environment,and nowit’s becomingmuchmore diverse,moremodern,andmore reflective of theworld we live in.” BVM: What are the biggest challenges you’re facing and howdoes the future look? Cagnatel: “The life cycle of the aircraft.In the years whenwewere going through thewrap-up phase of Boeing’s 787andA350,and the conversion of A320 to NEOand 737toMAX,thosewere all newplatforms that required collaborationwith the supplybase to the customer.The customer needs your help,you step upwith newtechnology,with investment,you get on the platforms,and help themmanufacturer these new products.Whereas,the life cyclewe’re in now,the plat- forms are steady,they’ve ramped up,and there’s very little going on.Nowyou’re into a cost phase,where the customer needs to bemore competitive in selling their aircraft,and theywill try to get the best cost for their part whether it’s local or outsourced internationally. “That’s where you have to compete and,at the same time,growyour company.Not growing is not an op- tion.You have to displace incumbents bybeingmore price competitive.We strive for amiddle ground.Our challenge is growing in a veryhigh-cost,high-pressure environment andwe need to compete byproviding the technology that reduces the price.Wewant to get into the growing jet enginemarket with the newplat- forms.The jet engine supplybase needs newcompos- ite suppliers because the amount of carbon fiber in an engine today is 10 times asmuch as it was in previous engines. “Our plan is to increase the volumes,the value and AIMAEROSPACE the revenue of our companyby50 percent in the next four years.Wewish to growbyabout 300 people; the level of employment would increase thanks to newlevels of automation.The future of aerospace, inmyview,is the fundamental digitalization of the supplychain.Aerospace is still veryconservative,and the level of digitalization is very lowcompared to other industries.Ahuge amount of overhead is spent becausewe still do things the old,manual way. “So,we are incorporating Industry4.0 to digitalize our company,to go paper free,and have direct links with our customers through data connections to reduce the costs andmake a verydiversified customer experience.That will be our next step.Over the next five to sixyears,having a digitalized company is going to be very important and a competitive discriminator forAIMAerospace.”