6
aerospace industry l institution l agencies
in being able to meet a potential customer directly at minimal expense in terms
of both time and money. The cluster aids
in this effort in several ways: by supporting participation in B2B events, by organising targeted missions, and by negotiating on behalf of individual member companies. B2B contracting exchange events are organised all around the
globe, making for a very efficient method of coming into direct contact with
the purchasing officers and decision makers of major aircraft manufacturers.
With the events lasting only two days,
the companies get to use their time efficiently and can discuss specific inquiries
and contract offers. MAC has decided to
focus on supporting these events in particular and also takes an active part in
them; we collect contacts and inquiries
and offer the abilities of our members to
specific customers. The aerospace industry is specific in its system of supplier
qualification. Most customers want to take at least a brief look at the company
and its production before further negotiations. MAC therefore tries to organise
so-called incoming missions where companies can present themselves directly
on their own premises. This also has the
added benefit of eliminating costs for
travel and so on. The cluster has already
organised a number of these missions
with delegations from countries such as
Italy, Canada, Brazil, Poland, etc. We have achieved great results by cooperating
with state institutions such as CzechInvest and CzechTrade, as well as embassies. These organisations are capable of
providing the necessary funds and organisational support these events require.
We are glad to report that the majority of
foreign participants in these missions have been very pleasantly surprised by the
quality of production and the technological advancement of Czech companies.
Working with embassies and foreign representatives of CzechInvest and CzechTrade, the cluster also organises targeted missions directly to customers. These
events are difficult in terms of organisation and it takes a great deal of time to arrange meetings with key individuals at
the selected companies. However, the
fact that a company is willing to invest time and money into a personal meeting
directly at the customer's facility helps negotiations progress much more quickly.
These targeted missions will be one of the
cluster's priorities for upcoming years.
When organising these missions (both foreign and incoming), the cluster also
draws on its membership of EACP (European Aerospace Cluster Partnership), a
collective of 45 European aerospace clusters. EACP represents a network of over
4,500 companies and 450 research organisations in the aerospace industry. The
partnership thus reaches almost every
company in Europe and organising missions becomes much easier through collaboration with individual clusters.
CONFERENCES
AND SEMINARS
special 2020
T+T Technika a trh
Through its activities and network of
contacts, MAC gains access to a great
deal of information about current trends
and developments in aviation. We try to
share this information with our
members and help them keep pace with
the competition. The hottest topics are
currently additive production, Industry
4.0, electrification, etc. We have organised or helped organise conferences and
meetings on these topics. Examples of
these are the conferences "Cooperation
of Aerospace Companies on the
3DEXPERIENCE Platform" and "Additive
Production in Aviation". As was mentioned before, the cluster organises an internal "Quality Working Group" which
creates a platform for quality managers
to exchange experience. The group deals with the implementation and sustainability of aerospace certifications such
as AS9100, NADCAP and OEM Approvals. Through this, we try to maintain a
standard of quality of development and
production across member companies
and work to increase their competitiveness.
CLUSTER PROJECTS
The cluster itself works on several international projects. These projects are generally focused on supporting cluster
members through internationalisation
and by working on innovative projects.
MAC is currently a partner in two such
projects, namely EACP-EUROSME and
PIMAP+. The former is a project initiated
by a consortium of 6 clusters from Italy
(Naples), Germany (Hamburg), France
(Toulouse), the UK (Preston) and the
Czech Republic (Zlín). The goal is to create at least 4 innovative projects worth a
total of at least EUR 20 million. The partners have created a long-term strategy
for interconnecting companies from these countries with regard to the RIS3 strategies used in individual regions. By analysing common trends and RIS3 strategies, the partners identified 4 strategic topics with potential for creating innovative projects. The topics are "Aircraft of
the Future", "Industry 4.0", "Earth Observation" and "UAV technologies". MAC
is responsible for the topic "Aircraft of
the Future". Analysis of the capabilities
of individual companies in these regions
and the subsequent interlinking of these
companies has helped find suitable topics for joint projects, such as "Development of certification-ready, fully electric/hybrid propulsion for aircraft" or
"Unmanned cargo aircraft". These activities make the work of innovative companies much easier, since we are able to
find and recommend specific partners
with exactly the right kind of technological know-how. The consortium also
helps companies with project planning
and preparation (creation of feasibility
studies or business plans) but also with
securing funding. Funds can come from
either public financing (Horizon 2020
programmes, in particular) or from private investors.
The latter project, PIMAP+, is also run by
6 partners, this time from France (Bordeaux), Sweden
(Falun), Portugal (Porto), Italy (Milan),
Finland (Joensuu) and the Czech Republic (Zlín). The project is focused on the
internationalisation of companies on
markets outside of Europe. 4 key countries were selected: Canada, the USA, Japan and China. The consortium is crossdisciplinary, i.e. does not consist of solely aerospace clusters. The project will
help find strategic partners in the key
countries, resulting in the conclusion of
an agreement on future cooperation on
specific projects. Emphasis is again placed on finding partners and customers
in the selected countries and applying