––– THE 2011 AWARDS PROCESS HAS BEGUN! –––
Nominations are NOW OPEN and are open to suppliers whether member of SEA or not. You are encouraged to nominate your customers, suppliers, and your own company. Nominations will CLOSE on August 12, 2011.
Why Participate?
- Nominating your suppliers shows goodwill and helps to improve your relationship and build trust
- Nominating your customers can open doors and permit dialogue that sometimes isn’t easy to generate
- Nominating your own company helps you to get national recognition for all the good things you’ve accomplished
––– UPCOMING EVENTS –––
SEA SUPPLIER CEO CONFERENCE
June 7 - 8, 2011
INDUSTRY KEYNOTES:
“Operational Excellence Pays for Itself”
Art Smalley
Principal, Art of Lean, Inc.
Faculty, Lean Enterprise Institute
Author: “Creating Level Pull”
Co-Author: “A3 Thinking” and
"Toyota's Kaizen Method: Six Steps to Improvement"
“Operational Excellence and Company Value”
William H. Alderman
Founder and President
Alderman & Company Capital, LLC
SIGN UP TODAY!
Event: SAC Meeting, Supply Chain Summit, Reception and Conference
Event Location: Hyatt Regency, Irvine, CA
About the Conference
In this conference we will be exploring the role of Operational Excellence as a continuous improvement strategy to reduce operating cost, reduce waste and improve quality and delivery. Presenters will share their experiences in implementing Operational Excellence and the results they have achieved.
Who Should Attend
- Aerospace and Defense Industry Contractors and Suppliers
- Companies that has been nominated and has made it as a semi-finalist
- CEOs, company owners, presidents and operations senior leaders
- OEM and Tier One senior supplier development, management and procurement professionals
- DoD, Airlines, and others who depend on the aerospace and defense supply chain
Not a SEA member? JOIN NOW!
––– SEA LEADER WORKSHOP REDESIGN –––
The SEA Leader Workshop has been re-vamped and it is now a 3-day workshop focused specifically in preparing the SEA Roadmap Leader (Champion) within your company to understand the SEA Lean Enterprise System (LES), the SEA Roadmap, and how to prepare the company for the SEA Certification.
The recommended participants are Supplier company executives and managers who will serve as champions for the SEA conversion process in their company. Participants will be expected to learn the steps for SEA implementation and go back to their company and provide facilitation for key workshop activities.
––– PARTNER EVENTS –––
THE RULE GROUP PRESENTS:
Creating a Best Practices Retirement Plan
Webinar
Tuesday, May 24th @ 8:00 a.m. PT
Thursday, May 26th @ 11:00 a.m. PT
RSVP: Mike Lugo at The Rule Group
webinar access instructions will be provided when you RSVP). There is no cost to attend this event (plan sponsors only, please). Questions? Call Mike Lugo at (949) 419‐1604
Have you ever wondered:
- Is your plan prepared for a Department of Labor audit?
- Are we monitoring all plan related parties?
- What pitfalls should we be concerned with?
- What’s the best process for oversight our plan should have implemented?
Join us for a 1-hour educational session as we review the steps required to create a “Best Practices” retirement plan.
If you are a fiduciary for your company's retirement plan, this is one event you won't want to miss!
About Retirement Plan Advisory Group
Retirement Plan Advisory Group is a professional alliance of accomplished advisors that demands and delivers a higher level of strategies, systems and services for qualified and nonqualified plan sponsor clients. As one of the largest independent consulting networks in the U.S., our services – including investment analysis, plan design, fee benchmarking and employee communications – help to enhance investment opportunities for participants, while protecting fiduciaries from liability and loss.
––– SAC MEETINGS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC –––
The Supplier Advisory Council (SAC) is comprised of CEOs and owners of sub-tier supplier companies within the aerospace and defense supply chain. The purpose of the SAC is to ensure SEA is guided by continuous feedback from suppliers participating in the industry conversion -- the SEA Lean Enterprise System (SEA LES). There are three main areas of focus for the SAC: 1) Expand SEA customer Involvement; 2) Advise SEA on strategies to accelerate industry transformation; and 3) Champion SEA Value Streams.
"SEA is intended to represent the A&D supply chain. In order to do this, SEA captures feedback using surveys that are completed by customers and suppliers. SEA also creates dialogue between customers and suppliers using the Supply Chain Summit forums. SEA needs to increase involvement and interaction among aerospace suppliers so that the SAC can truly represent the needs and interests of A&D suppliers across the industry. We believe that opening our quarterly meetings to include public participation and comment provides us with a more direct way of obtaining feedback that can be incorporated in to the work SEA is doing to improve the entire supply chain." - said Marzel Neckien, Chairman of SEA's Supplier Advisory Council.
The next Supplier Advisory Council Meeting is scheduled for June 7, 2011 in Irvine, CA and will be held in conjunction with the Supply Chain Summit and reception and followed by the CEO Conference on June 8.
––– SEA ROADMAP –––
Implementing the SEA Roadmap
Just Got Easier
Have you visited the SEA Webcasts Tab lately?
We’re making it easier to implement the roadmap with a series of one-hour webcasts that help you accelerate your improvement.
Get started today with the "GETTING STARTED WITH SEA" webcast – you’ll quickly learn about the steps and how easy it can be to get started on your path.
Basic Members will need to upgrade to the Performing Membership to participate in Process Owner Forums, Quarterly Performance Review, and SEA Leader Workshop – and the time was never better to make the investment.
The webcasts are free to every member so get started and register today
Thinking about putting it off until later?
Every day…
- Suppliers are surprised by losing business they’ve held for years
- Suppliers are being placed on the customer “phase-out” list without even knowing it
- Suppliers are being told that their scorecard is “red” and they have to improve or lose business
- Suppliers are being asked to make things at less than their cost and then losing to a competitor
who says he can do it and still make a profit- Suppliers are losing business to another supplier who is consolidating business for 20 suppliers
- Surprise after surprise after surprise – the message? BE PREPARED!
We recommend you don’t wait but get started today. We’re in a position to see what’s coming in our industry and we believe you have less time than you think.
––– PROCESS OWNER FORUMS –––
Benchmarking from Your Laptop! What if you could spend one hour and never leave your office while you listened to suppliers present their experience in implementing each process of the SEA Roadmap? What would it be worth to you to spend an hour and gain a wealth of information and best practices?
Well you can find out...just use our DAY PASS – pick the session you would like to attend here and then click on the “sign up” link and register. There will be no cost and you’ll receive the information you need to participation by phone and webcast. Just have your computer in front of you and you’ll be amazed at the value you can receive in one hour.
Our DAY PASS is for Basic members who do not currently subscribe to the Process Owner Forums.
Go to the Webcasts Link to sign up!
––– ABOUT SEA –––
Did you know…?
SEA is an unprecedented aerospace and defense alliance led by sub-tier suppliers committed to accelerating supply chain performance. SEA is a non-profit 501c6 funded by supplier memberships and sponsorships that provides...
- a proven turnkey system for supplier development targeted to mid-tier aerospace and defense customers.
- a platform for supplier visibility, performance improvement and collaboration.
- an industry voice for suppliers on issues affecting supply chain performance.
SEA partners and alliances include Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), and California Space Authority.
Contact Information
For further information and answers to your questions about SEA, please contact:
Headquarters:
2062 Business Center Drive, Suite 225, Irvine, CA 92612
SEA Website
Main telephone: (949) 476-1144
Executive Director: Mickey Wiebe, Ext 307
Director, Operations: Hilda Pacheco-Taylor, Ext 316
Director, Outreach: Kimberly Hawkins, Ext 332
Director, Sponsorships: Mickey Wiebe, Ext 307
Director of Project Management: Jeff Hawley, Ext 319
Other Important Links
What’s New on the SEA Website?
Miss some important news? Here are the most recent additions to the SEA Website:
Check out our new EVENTS TAB where you can access the following information:
CEO Conferences* (for everyone) Suppliers share their success stories and collaborate on integrated supply chain projects.
Supplier Benchmark Site Visits (for non-members) Non-SEA suppliers visit benchmark sites and determine how best to participate in SEA.
Process Owner Forums** (for members only) Process Owners study best practices and compare notes on implementation of the SEA LES.
Webcasts (for members only) Members learn how to prepare a quarterly report, how to implement the roadmap, and how to prepare for SEA certification.
Certification Workshops* (for everyone) Members and Qualified Associates learn to implement the SEA Lean Enterprise System.
*fees apply ** subscription required
Not a SEA member? JOIN NOW!
––– SILVER SPONSORS –––
––– CLIENT NOTE –––
Oil Price Volatility and Aircraft Orders
By William H. Alderman
On February 15, 2011, West Texas Intermediate (“WTI”) closed at $83.13 per barrel.1 Less than three months later, on April 29, 2011, it had risen 36 percent to $113.39 per barrel.2 In the past 6 days, WTI has retreated by 10 percent, down to $102.55 per barrel as of the close of May 9, 2011.3 Given the recent volatility in oil prices, Alderman & Company is taking an historical look at the relationship between oil prices and commercial aircraft orders to see what this might mean for future demand.
We have looked at the data going back 20 years. First, we would like to comment on how we calculated the data. To calculate changes in oil prices, we used historical spot prices for WTI as published by the United States Energy Information Administration for the fiscal years ending 1990 through 2010. We then adjusted for inflation. We used Consumer Price data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics to convert all historical prices into constant 2010 dollars4. The commercial aircraft orders data is from statistics published by Airbus and Boeing.5
It might seem logical that commercial aircraft orders would decline when oil prices rise, because airlines tend to be less profitable when this happens. However, the data does not support this view. As shown in the table below, the data for the past 20-years shows that aircraft orders tend to increase when oil prices rise. Unfortunately, like most things in the real world, ‘it’s never that simple’. For those who like to evaluate data in statistical terms, the R-square for this data set is 37 percent, which can be interpreted to mean: ‘changes in oil prices explain only 37 percent of the changes in new aircraft orders from year to year’. In other words, there is a lot going on here and oil prices by themselves are not necessarily a good predictor of aircraft orders.
We believe commercial aircraft deliveries tend to increase when oil prices rise because older aircraft are typically less fuel-efficient than newer models. This fact tends to accelerate the rate of aircraft retirements and replacements. Complicating this potential positive trend is the elasticity of demand for air travel, which is negatively correlated to oil prices. As prices for air travel rise, airlines increase fares to recoup lost profits, and those price increases tend to dampen demand, which then results in reduced orders and accelerates the grounding of older aircraft without replacement, to reduce capacity.
As shown above, commercial aircraft orders cannot be accurately predicted solely based on the price of oil. However, we have no doubt that highly volatile oil prices make it difficult for members of the commercial aviation supply chain to predict future demand. Accordingly, for the benefit of our clients in the commercial aviation industry, we remain hopeful that world events will lead to more stability in oil prices in the months ahead.
1 United States Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/hist/
LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=RWTC&f=D
2 IBID
3 Bloomberg, LP; http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities
4 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
5 www.airbus.com/company/market/orders-deliveries/ and active.boeing.com/commercial/orders
Investment advice offered through Alderman & Company Advisors, LLC; Securities offered through Alderman & Company Capital, LLC.
JOIN SEA!
SEA is the premiere supply chain organization for the aerospace and defense supply chain. We’re in our 7th year and we’re a group of suppliers who have taken charge of our destiny and we're helping our members to meet three important needs:
- Increasing performance by following a step-by-step process called the roadmap designed for small companies from 10 to 500 employees.
- Increasing visibility and creating opportunities for new business by using the SEA Supplier brand to distinguish ourselves to our peers and customers.
- Increasing collaboration to work on what our customers really want - an integrated supply chain where we work together to solve industry and customer problems.
We invite you to join SEA today.
Let’s work together to build a competitive aerospace and defense supply chain!
Watch the SEA Video
"Join SEA"