It’s always an uphill task for an aerospace original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to choose the right aircraft components manufacturer. Besides the expectancy for high-level precision, the OEMs always seek a component manufacturer that can continually evolve with the changing market demands and trends. For instance, trends such as additive and composites manufacturing are rapidly changing the way aircraft are manufactured. And most aerospace OEMs want to stay at the helm of these tech trends with the help of innovative components manufacturers. But, in that pursuit, OEMs also cannot undermine the cost factors to ensure their optimal productivity. Thus, it is crucial for the OEMs to choose a component manufacturing partner that is reliable, inventive, and cost-effective.

Founded in 1948, Senior Aerospace Weston has grown organically over the years from a family-owned firm to one of the leading suppliers of complex precision machined components and sub-assemblies

Enter Senior Aerospace Weston – a proven tier-one supplier of complex precision machined components and sub-assemblies for OEMs, predominately in the commercial aviation market. The company boasts decades of expertise in the domain and provides a diverse range of reasonably priced aerospace components tailored to the requirements of OEMs.

Tailor-Making Manufacturing Assembly Solutions

Founded in 1948, Senior Aerospace Weston has grown organically over the years from a family-owned firm to one of the leading suppliers of complex precision machined components and sub-assemblies. Leaning on this vast expertise and technological competency, they offer trailblazing services in the aerospace components manufacturing space. The company is a partner of choice for some of the world’s leading aerospace companies and puts forth a wide range of precision components and assemblies for aero engines, aerostructures, aircraft interiors, and power generation.

What steers Senior Aerospace Weston ahead of its competition in the aerospace components manufacturing space is indeed its ability to offer tailored design and manufacturing processes that could meet the unique requirements of aerospace manufacturers. To achieve this, Senior Aerospace Weston leverages leading-edge software, such as CATIA V5-6-24, NCL, and Vericut.

Alongside, Senior Aerospace Weston employs an expansive range of computer numerical control (CNC) machining types and sizes to deliver highly sophisticated products. Along with the top-of-the-line design and workflow software and state-of-the-art inspection processes, it allows the company to manufacture a wide range of customised aerospace components.
Taking Cellular Manufacturing to the Next Level

One of the crown jewels of Senior Aerospace Weston’s capabilities is its flexible method of cellular manufacturing. Usually, cellular manufacturing involves the usage of multiple cells, with each cell composed of single or multiple machines that accomplishes a certain task. The product moves from one cell to the next, every one of them completing a part of the manufacturing process. This type of manufacturing reduces set-up times and boosts the utilisation of dedicated machinery, consequently improving efficiencies and driving down operational costs.

However, Senior Aerospace Weston has taken cellular manufacturing to the next level with its innovative approach. At Senior Aerospace Weston, each cell’s performance is monitored weekly, corresponding to overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) that measures machine availability, performance, and quality levels. This process can highlight the areas for potential improvement and identify the areas of wastages. By perfecting this working practice, the supply chain teams can develop an almost intuitive understanding of client requirements.

Putting Forth an End-to-End Solution

Such proficiencies have enabled Senior Aerospace Weston to provide a wholesome solution that includes supply chain management and line-side kits delivery. The dedicated and experienced supply chain management team ensures seamless streamlining of raw materials and external treatments—to ascertain that the delivery of finished components and kitted assemblies concord with the customer schedule.

This same zeal for excellence is also reflected in the company’s other offerings, like processing, programme management, and product assembly. For processing, Senior Aerospace Weston has deployed a limited range of in-house processing and coating methods, such as non-destructive testing (NDT), chemical processing, surface enhancement, glass bead peening, and heat treatment.

The company also has strategic tie-ups with other specialist processing and coating suppliers as well. Adjacently, Senior Aerospace Weston holds proficiency in managing new and existing manufacturing programmes, like multi-tier supply base management. And when it comes to assembly, Senior Aerospace Weston offers detailed assembly of a range of products by highly trained staff, under Airbus and Rolls Royce approved systems and processes. The dedicated assembly jigs and fixtures allow consistent manufacturing at completely scheduled rates across all engine and airframe platforms.

Equally impressive is Senior Aerospace Weston’s revolutionary hard-metal cutting concepts that it has introduced in the aerospace manufacturing space by leveraging its membership in Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC)—a network of world-leading research and innovation centres in manufacturing. This feat has enabled the company to offer industrial-grade manufacturing solutions for structured and aerofoil aircraft components.

And even while staying at the cutting-edge of aerospace component manufacturing, Senior Aerospace Weston has always adopted a low-risk, low-cost manufacturing approach, enabling the company to be the lowest-cost provider in many niche aerospace component markets. To facilitate this, Senior Aerospace Weston has set up facilities in the UK and Thailand. While high complexity projects are being manufactured predominately in the UK, lower complexity components are supplied from the Thai facility under expert guidance from the former.

Such competencies have been garnering Senior Aerospace Weston much acclaim and accolades in the aerospace components manufacturing domain, including the “Machinery” award for advanced design and application of the most innovative technology in manufacturing processes and the first IBM market-driven quality award in the UK.

Riding on the coattails of such expertise and recognition, Senior Aerospace Weston has carved a niche for itself in the aerospace components manufacturing sector. Today, their precision components and sub-assemblies are featured on several international aerospace manufacturing projects, including each of the Airbus family A320, A330, A350, and A380 platforms, either on the engines or the aircraft structure itself. With a business operating model operating on Japanese Gemba Kaizen principles of continuous improvement and “change for the better,” Senior Aerospace Weston is continually improving the space of aerospace components manufacturing with its inventive solutions.