RTA Ireland Becomes First Self-Starter to Reach Gold Award
RTA Ireland based in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland, has been recognised with its first Gold performance award as part of the 21st Century Supply Chains (SC21) Operational Excellence (OE) programme.
RTA is the first self-starter company to take on the programme to be recognised with a Gold performance award.
The programme helps small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), who supply major manufacturers in the aerospace and defence sectors, to make operational improvements, reduce overheads and improve their potential to grow. This in turn helps the whole of the UK’s aerospace and defence industries raise their ability to compete in international markets.
ADS Chief Executive Paul Everitt said:
“It is fantastic to see yet another Northern Ireland supply chain company being award Gold as part of the SC21 OE programme, helping contribute to the nation’s exemplary record in supply chain excellence.
“In achieving their first gold award, RTA have shown great determination to improve their standards to the highest possible level. As the first self-starter to achieve a Gold award through the programme, it is a testament to the commitment of their leadership team and their employees to drive results and it is an incredible achievement.
“Congratulations to all of those at RTA who have worked so hard to achieve these results, we hope this is the first of many Gold awards for the company.”
Dominic Hannon, Director of Quality at RTA Ireland said:
“Since 2014 our SC21 journey through Bronze and Silver has helped us to steadily reduce waste, become more competitive, and assure quality and delivery. Recognition through Bronze and Silver provided visibility of our SC21 journey and reinforced focus and belief for all employees. What none of us could foresee was COVID-19. The extreme adverse effects of the pandemic on the aerospace sector makes customer processes and production needs more sensitive than ever to variation in delivery and quality performance. Our reaction was to accelerate our CSIP and direct additional investment in our people, processes and infrastructure. Additional and refurbished facilities with an expanded AS9120 several site certification provides immediate global support, and we continue to listen to our customers to coordinate investment to ensure we are able to deliver products and services where and when they are needed.
“The structured approach of SC21 has been instrumental in RTA’s ability to effectively deliver this strategy and get closer to our vision; “To remove the thought between purchase order and part usage for every customer”. Recognition to Gold is a wonderful accolade, and as a team we are incredibly proud that this has been driven from the inside out, but more importantly for us is the ultimate reassurance this brings for our customers, that we remain there for them during this time of uncertainty, and into the future.”
Founded in 1989, RTA is an aerospace supply chain harmonisation partner that provides supply chain and part number consolidation services with an emphasis on safety, quality, delivery, traceability and efficiency into the aerospace sector. “Plug & Play value streams” allow customers to scale support to balance with capacity and production needs to maximise bottom line benefits.
To achieve a Gold performance award, in a 12-month rolling performance indicator, companies need to consecutively deliver at least 99.00% of the products or services on time and to the required quality, for a minimum of 99.99% compliant products or services.
RTA joined the SC21 OE programme back in 2014 because of a need to promote RTA’s capabilities amongst potential customers. SC21 provided a perfect opportunity for RTA to illustrate capability and performance using an industry recognised standard. Through the programme, RTA improved on time delivery to an average of 99.7% and the quality of their products continues to be maintained at over 99.5% for all customers. SC21 has also driven down the cost of waste by more than 80% since the journey started. These improvements and participation in programme have attracted new customers and resulted in greater engagement at trade shows.
The SC21 OE programme is coordinated and governed by ADS, the UK trade association for the aerospace, defence, security and space sectors.