8 août 2022 | Local, Aérospatial
Le CP-140 Aurora survolera le Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières
Un CP-140 Aurora de la 14e Escadre Greenwood effectuera un survol dans le cadre du Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, le dimanche 7 août.
28 août 2018 | Local, Aérospatial
Airbus aggressively sourcing more Canadian content
When Tom Enders, then the chief executive officer of Airbus, announced in October 2017 that Canada would become the company's fifth home country and first outside of Europe, following a deal with Bombardier to acquire a majority stake in the C Series passenger jet, small- and medium-sized Canadian aerospace companies had reason to be optimistic.
Canada has typically ranked eighth or ninth among Airbus suppliers. But with the C Series now firmly under the Airbus tent (it was renamed the A220 in July), a contract award in 2016 to provide the Royal Canadian Air Force with 16 C295W fixed-wing search and rescue (FWSAR) aircraft, and looming competitions for a future fighter jet and strategic tanker and transport aircraft, Airbus is aggressively sourcing more Canadian content.
Before you make your pitch, however, Ruben Tauste Caro, responsible for Airbus's strategic procurement in North America, has a few words of advice: no bashing the competition, no me-too products, and go easy on the wonders of your new shop floor machinery.
“I want you to tell me that you work in a very, very dedicated frequency. And in that frequency, I want you to tell me that you are the expert in a very specific niche. Then you've got me,” he told the Abbotsford Aerospace, Defence and Security Expo in August.
Airbus routinely conducts in-person assessments of its prospective suppliers and, while cost, quality, and on-time production are obvious baseline requirements, what interests Tauste Caro are signs of continuous improvement and true innovation. He said companies that claim to build a better mouse trap or be a one-stop shop for all his supply needs are quickly dismissed.
“Tell me what you are really, really good at, and if I have an opportunity in the future, that will be yours,” he said.
Continuous improvement need not involve large investments. A dashboard with measurable targets will suffice if it clearly shows progress, said Tauste Caro. “Show me your KPIs [key performance indicators]. If you don't [meet] a target that month, do you have an action behind it?”
A clear ability to set and reach targets is important, he emphasized, because if there is ever an issue with product quality, “The question is, will you overcome that issue? Do you have the right procedures, the right way of working? Is your workforce engaged?”
That's why he also asks questions about innovation. Most companies have a tendency to highlight their shop floor. While new machines and robotics are important, he always looks beyond to the people operating them.
“Innovation is people,” he said. “{They] are the key parameters in the innovation equation...[D]on't waste time on machines, tell me your way of working.” In particular, how do ideas move from the shop floor to the C-suite?
For suppliers eyeing opportunities with Airbus's commercial aircraft production, an ability to ramp up production and deliver at high rates is critical. “This is extremely important,” he stressed. “We cannot afford to have one aircraft system stopped in the warehouse.”
Tauste Caro heads a small four-person team responsible for supplier identification and development throughout North America, so he encouraged companies to call or “knock on the door,” to keep him apprised of product changes, expansion plans, new strategies, and contract awards.
“Feed me with that information. That is the daily bread and butter of my job within strategic procurement,” he said, explaining that if he's asked to recommend a supplier, “I have to be able to answer right away.”
While ramp-up of A220 production this year and delivery of the first FWSAR aircraft in 2019 might mean more opportunities for Canadian suppliers, Airbus is particularly focused on the value proposition it can offer in a future fighter jet and air-to-air refuelling aircraft competition.
“We need to work with you right now,” he told executives at the Abbotsford trade show, to identify industrial and technological benefits (ITBs) proposals for both programs and meet FWSAR obligations.
There is a “huge requirement” for ITBs within the fighter jet program, he noted. “We need to be creative, we need the suppliers.”
https://www.skiesmag.com/news/airbus-aggressively-sourcing-more-canadian-content
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30 novembre 2018 | Local, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité
Why can't Ottawa get military procurement right?
Murray Brewster · CBC News The last couple of weeks may go down in the Trudeau government's public record as the point when the desires of deliverology met the drawbacks of defence procurement. Remember 'deliverology'? That lofty concept — measuring a government's progress in delivering on its promises — was the vogue in policy circles at the beginning of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's administration. While it's sometimes derided as an empty concept, deliverology must have seemed tailor-made for a new government inheriting a troubled defence procurement system. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal's decision Tuesday to step into the brawl over which multinational consortium will design and support the construction of the navy's new frigates is another lesson in how (apologies to Robert Burns) the best laid plans of mice and men go awry. The tribunal's decision to order Ottawa to put the frigate project on hold pending the completion of their probe into a complaint by a failed bidder comes at a politically awkward time for the Liberals. One week ago, Auditor General Michael Ferguson delivered an ugly report on the Liberals' handling of fighter jet procurement — specifically, the plan to buy interim warplanes to cover the gap until the current CF-18 fleet can be replaced with new aircraft. Self-inflicted wounds A cynic's reflex (given the checkered history of defence purchasing over the last decade) might be to consider these two events as just another day at the office for the troubled government procurement system. That might not be entirely fair. Still, experts were saying Wednesday that the government is suffering from numerous self-inflicted political and administrative wounds on this file. With a federal election on the horizon, and in a climate of growing geopolitical instability, the question of what the government has actually managed to deliver on military procurement is an important one to ask, said Rob Huebert, an analyst in strategic studies at the University of Calgary. While the system, as the Trudeau Liberals and previous governments have constructed it, seems to be the perfect model of the "evidence based" policy making promised by the champions of deliverology, it's also not built for speed. Some would suggest the deliverology model was followed to the letter in the design competition now tied up before the trade tribunal and in Federal Court. What seemed like endless consultations with the bidders took two years. The government made up to 88 amendments to the tender. And in the end, the preferred bid was challenged by a competitor that claims not all of the navy's criteria were met. Alion Science and Technology Corp. and its subsidiary, Alion Canada, argue the warship Lockheed Martin Canada and BAE System Inc. want to sell to Ottawa cannot meet the speed requirements set by the tender without a substantial overhaul. It does not, the company claims, meet the government's demand for a proven, largely off-the-shelf design. Michael Armstrong, who teaches at Brock University and holds a doctorate in management science, said the government could have avoided the challenges and accompanying slowdowns had it been more precise in its language. "They could have been more clear and firm when they use the words 'proven design'," he said. "Did they literally mean we won't buy ships unless they're floating in the water? Or did they mean that British one that doesn't quite exist yet is close enough? "If they would have been more firm and said, 'We want a ship that actually exists,' that might have simplified things at this stage." Huebert described the auditor general's report on the purchase of interim fighters as an all-out assault on evidence-based policy making. "It is just so damning," he said. A break with reality The Conservatives have accused the Liberals of avoiding the purchase of the F-35 stealth jet through manufacturing a crisis by claiming the air force doesn't have enough fighters to meet its international commitments. The auditor found that the military could not meet the government's new policy commitment and even ignored advice that one of its proposed solutions — buying brand-new Super Hornets to fill the capability gap —would actually make their problems worse, not better. That statement, said Huebert, suggested a jaw-dropping break with reality on the government's part. "They [the Liberals] were just making things up," he said. It might have been too optimistic to expect the Liberals to fix the system, said Armstrong, given the short four years between elections. But Huebert said Ottawa can't carry on with business as usual — that the government now must deliver on procurement, instead of doubling down on rhetoric. The problem, he said, is that governments haven't really paid a price in the past for botched military procurement projects. There was "no political pain for the agony of the Sea King replacement, as an example," he said, referring to the two-decade long process to retire the air force's maritime helicopters. "The thing that makes me so concerned, even outraged, is that we are heading into a so much more dangerous international environment," said Huebert, citing last weekend's clash between Russia and Ukraine over the Kerch Strait and ongoing tension with Beijing in the South China Sea. "When things get nasty, we have to be ready." https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/why-can-t-ottawa-get-military-procurement-right-1.4924800
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6 octobre 2022 | Local, Terrestre
Military personnel shortage will get worse before it gets better, top soldier says | CBC News
The country's top military commander said Thursday that the Canadian Armed Forces' (CAF) problems with recruiting and retaining soldiers, sailors and air crew are going are get worse before they get better.