The Aerospace Growth Partnership (AGP) has published Means of Ascent; a strategy document for UK Aerospace for 2016.

The strategy outlines how the AGP plans to build on achievements over the past six years, and how the industry will continue to work with government and academia.
Means of Ascent sets out ways in which the AGP will enable UK Aerospace to meet the challenge of international competition and the need to exploit opportunities for growth through increased investment in technology, manufacturing and skills.
A key feature of the strategy is industry’s Supply Chain Competitiveness Charter signed by the sector’s leading civil aerospace manufacturers. The Charter has been designed to strengthen relationships between the large companies and their suppliers, so that they work together more effectively in order to raise productivity and competitiveness.
While UK aerospace can count on at least nine years work-in-hand, with 13,000 aircraft worth almost £200bn on the books, future success will be determined by the industry’s ability to keep pace with the rapid expansion of global growth. Key to this is ensuring that companies both large and small can adapt and respond to challenges including: the shift to robotics; the Internet of Things; cyber-physical systems, and 3D printing.
The Supply Chain Charter builds on the success of the Supply Chains for the 21^st Century (SC21) programme: an operational excellence programme designed to encourage continued performance improvement. The Charter aims to:

• Promote wider participation in structured continuous improvement programmes, such as SC21 and Sharing in Growth, providing informed and ongoing guidance to assist in setting performance targets
• Provide visibility of future growth opportunities and share with appropriate candidate suppliers
• Support the focused development and dissemination of technology to radically improve product performance and manufacturing productivity
• Facilitate access to sources of support, e.g. financial institutions, HVM Catapult, research institutions, government departments
• Invest in the development of skills and apprentices in order to have the resources, capabilities and experience needed to improve productivity and meet future demand
• Build long-term relationships with globally-competitive suppliers.

UK suppliers will:

• Engage actively in structured continuous improvement programmes, such as SC21 and Sharing in Growth, to become sustainably globally competitive
• Invest in technology to radically improve product performance and manufacturing productivity
• Invest in the development of skills and apprentices in order to have the resources, capabilities and experience needed to improve productivity and meet future demand
• Invest for growth
• Build long-term relationships.

ADS CEO Paul Everitt said: “The Aerospace Growth Partnership’s focus on the value of the UK supply chain and the steps required to sustain global competitiveness will help ensure the sector continues to make a growing contribution to our national prosperity.”
“The AGP has transformed the way in which industry and government work together to secure the long-term future of one of the UK’s most important sectors.”
Download the full document here
Download the summary here