Rolls Royce Annual »Strategic Supplier Award« goes to HYDRO
Every year Rolls-Royce holds the Strategic Supplier Award given for outstanding work and performance in their supply chain. Rolls-Royce has more than 6,000 suppliers globally, several hundred of which they deem as a “strategic supplier”. Only two suppliers each year are awarded with the Strategic Supplier Award.
Putting the customer in focus
Rolls-Royce has defined a new level of quality with their suppliers. To meet this new level of tooling quality standard HYDRO started a strategy program scheduled to run for several years and implemented throughout the whole business. Incorporating the Kaizen ideology was one of the success factors in raising the engine tooling results to the next level. This strategy has made Communication, Transparency and Motivation priorities throughout the business. A key tool in implementing these priorities has been Visual Management.
HYDRO identified inefficiencies and waste in the tooling delivery process using standard tools such as Root Cause Analysis, DMAIC and the five Whys. By incorporating organised learning along the entire value stream, problem solving was improved. Daily cross-functional and multi-location calls are now held to ensure all tools at risk of failing are identified early and actions are agreed to recover the position. HYDRO also now provides their supply chain with additional information at order placement to avoid technical questions during manufacture which delay tooling delivery.
The results: Records of 94% on-time delivery and no quality complaints upheld
HYDRO globally performed very well during 2019. The average delivery score is now over 93%, with a record of 100% in the past 3 months.
The time saved through improved efficiency has enabled the company to expand its service into special projects, optimising overheads and resources. This resulted in giving Rolls-Royce an enhanced service with even faster turnaround in tooling.
The feedback from Rolls-Royce during quarterly reviews has been positive and confirmed HYDRO as its premium vendor for tooling.
HYDRO’s performance is mission critical to Rolls-Royce’s delivery of aircraft engines
On 29th January 2020 Dean Fell, Head of Group Category Management Rolls-Royce, formally presented the award to HYDRO. He pointed out HYDRO’s importance to Rolls-Royce and how the performance is considered “mission critical” to Rolls-Royce’s delivery of aircraft engines. The recent improvements have enabled the company to deliver above and beyond the expected KPIs within the various contracts and business interfaces with Rolls-Royce.