“ Doing the assembly work has opened up many opportunities for us,” said Tim McGillicuddy, AccraFab’ s customer service manager.“ Customers are off-loading their assembly functions to us.”
“ Wherever we can provide the most value,” Coker said.“ Wherever the value makes sense.”
The OEMs are one set of customers that AccraFab doesn’ t serve.
“ We’ re supplying the Tier 1s,” Konkol said.“ The Zodiacs or Cranes or Esterlines – we’ re supplying parts or small assemblies to them.”
Those Tier 1 suppliers are set up to deal with the Boeings and Airbuses of the world, Konkol said, and AccraFab is not.
“ They have the familiarity, the approvals, the systems,” Konkol said. Adding that capacity would mean, for AccraFab, adding a lot of overhead in terms of contract administration.“ We’ re certainly open to doing business with the OEMs directly, if it makes sense,” he added.“ But( by supplying the Tier 1s instead of the OEMs,) we can add a lot more value when we are able focus on the work, instead of the administration.”
While AccraFab has been growing aggressively in aerospace, the company is keeping an eye on developments over the horizon.
The airline industry’ s shift to smaller jets and point-to-point flying means an ongoing shift in supplier product mix, Konkol said. Production rate increases for Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s means more contracts to supply those programs, fewer for jumbo jets.
30 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS