Dylan Aerospace:
How Future Thinking Enables Small Companies to Play David to Aerospace Goliaths
By Fiona McKay, Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance
Dylan Aerospace is a leading aerospace supplier based in Auburn, Washington. While the company currently only has 26 employees, the output, contracts and achievements of this relatively young company( founded in 1999) rival those of many larger organizations— largely due to the adaptation of modern manufacturing technologies and a dynamic approach to management and recruitment.
Fiona McKay
Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance Business Development Director
www. pnaa. net
PNAA SPOTLIGHT
What is Dylan?
Dylan currently manufactures more than 5,000 products for integration into a variety of aircraft platforms manufactured by leading OEMs and Prime aerospace suppliers. They have been a Tier 1 supplier to Boeing for over six years and can boast many achievements that most suppliers can only dream of, including being multi-year winners of Boeing’ s Supplier of the Year Award.
Capabilities and Products
1. Fabrication, machining, finishing, integration
2. Close tolerance aluminum, specialty alloy and sheet metal 3. 23 inches cubed 4. Structural components, assemblies and kits
Automation across the board
Step inside Dylan’ s facility and you’ ll see that automation is intrinsic to their thinking. From how they manage material and process certifications, to their CNC programming code— including their proprietary process driven software applications— to the manner in which they approach building parts and ensure process control, automation is everywhere. Early on Dylan’ s founder recognized that efficiency through automation was key to profitability. As a small shop Dylan was early to recognize and adopt multi-pallet cellular manufacturing systems. In addition to their horizontal Toyoda cell, almost every stand-alone machine tool at Dylan has a pallet changer.
Good use of both traditional programmable( Brown & Sharpe) and portable( Romer) CMMs ensures that the high throughput still meets customer requirements. All of this enables more productivity per employee without the need for the traditionally high headcount. As demand in the industry continues to grow there’ s potential for Dylan to expand production significantly, as described by General Manager Timothy Temple, who shares that,
“ It is a challenge to keep the machines at capacity because with talented programmers and the high spindle availability in cell systems, they yearn for work statement.”
48 NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS