“ 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