Assessment of an emerging aerospace manufacturing cluster and its dependence on the mature global clusters (original) (raw)
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AEROSPACE CLUSTERS: World's Best Practice and Future Perspectives
The following report provides an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of clusters in the aerospace sector, with particular attention to those that have greater emphasis on the space segment. Aerospace clusters differ consistently from other high-tech clusters, particularly with respect to the geographical dimension of their economic impact and the related knowledge spillovers. As a result of the sector’s unique features – namely the global dimension of the value chain, the average size of the investment, the length of the development process of a new product/service, the strategic importance of the aerospace industry for the national economy, and the very nature of the products and services delivered – aerospace clusters exhibit higher levels of internationalisation. The common practice of collaboration among clusters in international aerospace programs creates wide and deep networks for commercial relations and knowledge transfer that cross the traditional regional dimension, acquiring stronger international connotations. The analysis carried out on an heterogeneous sample of clusters - in terms of location, geomorphological features, governance, date of establishment, government support, extension of the value chain – clearly points out the presence of common elements that are vital in determining the success of the world’s best practice. The clusters considered are: the Aerospace Valley of Tolouse, the BavAIRia Aerospace Cluster, the Luft- und Raumfahrt Baden-Württemberg cluster, the Bangalore Aerospace Cluster, the Lombardia Aerospace Cluster, the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, and the US aerospace clusters of Colorado and New Mexico. The results of the comparison of the best practice analysed highlight the elements that are paramount in determining the competitiveness and innovativeness of an aerospace cluster, for each one of the four dimensions of the Porter’s Diamond Model: the Factor Conditions; the Context for Strategy and Rivalry; the Related and Supporting Industries; and the Demand Conditions. As for the Factor Conditions, there is clear evidence that universities and research institutions provide significant impetus to aerospace clusters, thanks to their ability to provide both support to R&D activities and highly skilled human capital, essential in high value added industries and in particular in aerospace. In addition, adequate infrastructure is essential to guarantee that concentration (of people, firms, institutions, etc.) produces beneficial effects and does not create congestion, which would eventually hamper the cluster’s activity. The comparison of the clusters’ Contexts for Strategy and Rivalry underlines the pivotal role played by Institutions For Collaboration (IFCs) in promoting interaction between the cluster’s members and between the cluster as a whole and external partners. In this respect, IFCs foster the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment, which brings international companies (and thus expertise) to the cluster. A key element for the development of a network of industrial players is the presence in the area of one or more anchor firms, usually multinational companies, prime, tier 1 and 2 contractors, able to attract a wide array of specialised suppliers at different levels of the value chain. Finally, the context for strategy and rivalry is believed to benefit from the participation in international programs, and evidence indicates that an adequate level of public involvement (mainly through fiscal incentives that encourage innovation) leverages the cluster’s potential for innovation and competitiveness on the international landscape. With respect to the Related and Supporting Industries, the common features exhibited by the clusters analysed are: high levels of interconnection both with other aerospace clusters and with clusters in other sectors, a high degree of internationalisation (from the multidimensional perspective of 7 Matteo Paone, Nicola Sasanelli AEROSPACE CLUSTERS - World’s Best Practice and Future Perspectives commercial linkages, cooperation in R&D, attraction and retention of talent), and specialisation in highly innovative segments of the value chain as a source of competitive advantage. Evidence shows that the support from the research sector is of the utmost importance. The analysis of the Demand Conditions illustrates how, given the strong international connotations of aerospace clusters in general, each one of them is expected to benefit from the forecasted long-term growth in the global demand for aerospace-related products and services, as well as from the constantly increasing level of integration between aerospace and other sectors (such as security, telecommunications, environmental monitoring, agriculture, healthcare, etc.). Those clusters that exhibit stronger internationalisation are likely to draw higher benefits from these trends. On the other hand, they all face the increased competition from the emerging players from the Asia-Pacific region: since a large share of the future demand is expected to originate from this area, the proximity of such competitors would foster the match between demand and supply, relegating the clusters taken as world’s best practice to a marginal role in the future. For this reason it is essential for the clusters to be supported by a significant domestic demand, originating from both the civil and the defence sectors.
Auditing Welsh Industry: A Clusters-Based Approach – Aerospace
• This research tests and examines the clusters approach to the Aerospace industry. Using a cluster analysis framework developed further from previous work for the Welsh Assembly Government, the framework is aimed at providing information on how businesses in Wales fit into increasingly globalised production systems of goods and services and how they link together in clusters and networks of varying sizes. • Aerospace has been chosen because of its importance to the Welsh economy and the prospects for substantial future economic benefits from three component elements within Wales, namely manufacture; maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO); and research, development and training (RDT), and also because of the challenges posed by the introduction of new materials, such as composites, that could devalue the existing metal expertise of many existing Welsh aerospace companies. • The report seeks to rectify a dearth of information on current aerospace competencies in Wales and on the opportunities for cluster and network arrangements that could improve the position of firms in the region occupying the three sectors listed above. • A two stage process has been followed involving a general quantitative, statistical audit of the Welsh aerospace sector, drawing on a wide range of economic and employment data, and a second survey based stage which relies on expert opinions, split into three sections, examining industry capacity, risk and trade. This is supplemented by interviews with a small number of keystone firms and organisations to elicit their views on the industry's future in Wales and the issues facing it.
European Planning Studies
Commercial aerospace is a key sector in the Welsh economy, engaged in complex overlapping activities from aircraft manufacture (AM), through maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), to research, development and training (RDT). Defining and operationalizing a framework for analysis using both qualitative and quantitative data, this paper examines the actual and potential roles of the relationships in Wales between commercial aerospace firms, industry, government and institutional stakeholders, at both local and non-local levels. Concentrations of manufacturing in North Wales, and MRO in South Wales along with RDT operate as distinct constituent parts of aerospace clusters in neighbouring regions of England and beyond. The results, however, highlight links between the location of AM, MRO and RDT in Wales, emphasizing their (partially) geographically symbiotic relationships. Moreover, there are key inter-linkages that need consideration if the long-term health of Welsh aerospace is to be secured. Simultaneously, all three sub-sectors in Wales exhibit weaknesses which could render them vulnerable to greater external competition, particularly from developing countries. This emphasizes a need to alter the current governance arrangements and utilize different clustering characteristics that currently exist, with government, as a major sponsor of the industry, having a strong (but changing) role to play in encouraging these more balanced industry structures and decision-making processes.
IAEME PUBLICATION, 2019
Our study made it possible to analyse the cumulative effect of foreign direct investments represented by the principals installed on the structure, the density of its actors and the integration of the new trades in the local aeronautical Supply chain. Indeed, we have seen the birth of an industrial platform made up of several capabilities and industrial capacities that have been able to respond to a first request for subcontracting at lower cost in the manufacture of the elementary part to complex subsets for the (OEM) Original Equipment Manufacturer tier 1 and tier 2. Through a benchmark model of the cluster performance that we had built, we are able to verify these influential parameters across a benchmark and define the level of maturity of an industrial ecosystem in a global supply chain compared to its competing countries. The goal is to deduce the success factors that would maximize the performance of an industrial cluster, in particular the technological and, the entrepreneurial spin-offs.
Regional clusters are a pervasive phenomenon. Yet, clusters evolve and exhibit different forms in different places. Clusters are defined by interconnections of geographically concentrated firms in a particular field. This chapter will describe how these interconnections affect the propensity and shape of clusters. First, it describes the particularity of interconnections between geographically clustered firms and showed how firms substitute permanent co-location by temporarily generated proximity. Secondly, the chapter describes how these processes are connected to the emergence and decline of clusters. Thirdly, the chapter analyzes how socio-economic contexts affect these interconnections, resulting in variegated clusters.
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