Vanguard Magazine

t teCHnology WATCH www.vanguardcanada.com DECEMBER 2015/JANUARY 2016 37 coast to coast – we are rich in ISS Cana- dian Content. The more obvious players: Cascade, IMP, Vector Aerospace, CAE, Kelowna Flight Craft all come to mind quickly. Beyond the most obvious players in Ca- nadian ISS, we found numerous SMEs as well. Total Outsource Canada for instance, which is based in Ottawa, is a "one-stop solution provider" for Integrated Logis- tics Support (ILS) including supply chain, technical publications, design and training services. Racerocks, a Western Canadian tech SME, recently signed a long term contract with Davie Shipyard to provide all of the training and development of maintenance programming for its Resolve project. Ra- ceRocks mapped out their SMB partners across Canada including Modest Tree 3D, ACCU Translations, Instruction, Royal Roads University, and Camosun College. Racerocks CEO, Scott Dewis refers to all Canadian SMEs as Canada's "innova- tors and the economic engine". If you ask Sam Mouallem, he will shower you with the same passion for leveraging the Canadian supply chain, particularly SMEs in the process. Simex defense pro- vides a "direct link" to Canadian manufac- turers for OEM MRO needs, leveraging OMX as one of their key tools. Personally, we love what Serge and his team are up to. HCL Logistics, an SME based in Lon- don, ON, provides services to manufac- turer's to lean out their material handling requirements and focus on the production of their products. HCL provides a low cost supply chain, warehousing and distri- bution service connecting our customer's product with their end users whether that is through production, spare parts distri- bution or working with customer to track and supply government furnished assets. The company's material storage methods, equipment and technology allow us to ensure our customers can focus on what they do best; production and spares parts support. Our electronic integration with our customers allows them to view their inventory while giving us flexibility to control the storage and delivery of that material to their end users. Truth be told, Vanguard couldn't give us enough page space to include all the SMEs we run into that have benefited and are par- ticipating in ISS. It really is amazing. Beyond SMEs, we found a lot of action in academia as well. In colleges in particu- lar, there is significant maintenance and op- eration training happening in air, land and sea. Andrew Petrou, Director of Strategic Initiatives and External Relations of Cen- tennial College and Executive Director of DAIR (Downsview Aerospace Innovation and Research) weighed in on his organiza- tion's involvement in ISS confirming that "Centennial College plays a vital role in shaping the future of aircraft manufactur- ing and maintenance. We welcome the op- portunity to assist OEMs - both domestic and foreign - in helping their skilled em- ployees meet ISS and MRO requirements with an ever-evolving knowledge base that serves this dynamic industry." I also spent some significant time dis- cussing ISS training on shipbuilding with Holland College based in PEI as well as the Saskatchewan Aviation Learning Cen- ter is operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies. The Center houses both the Aircraft Maintenance En- gineering Program and the Commercial Pilot Program and benefits the Aboriginal community, which is great. One of the benefits of Canadian compa- nies working with large foreign OEMs in ISS is access to global value chains across potentially multiple disciplines. For in- stance, Boeing offers indirect work oppor- tunities across almost all of the company's markets, including space, military and commercial platforms. Boeing offers an industrial benefits pro- gram that includes long-term export con- tracts as well as opportunities for growth in developing fields. The focus is on maxi- mizing regional benefits distribution while concentrating on small- and medium-sized enterprise since the belief is that this ap- proach will have the greatest positive im- pact on Canada's aerospace industry. Gillespie from Harris Canada empha- sized the positive impacts to International exports: "Aside from the obvious advan- tages that the government gets by having services provided by Canadian companies, the less obvious benefit is the opportunity for the individual companies to grow their business internationally. For example, as the US Navy draws down the size of their F/A-18 fleet, the depots and US based companies tend to drop support for the fleet. The international F/A-18 com- munity will operate much longer than the USN, so they will need continued support. As a result, Canadian companies that are supporting the CF-18 have the opportuni- ty to provide the same service to all other F/A-18 operating nations." Lockheed Martin's involvement in Canada brings similar benefits as Cana- dian companies such as Cascade, IMP and Standard Aero for instance are all licensed to provide ISS/MRO services for world fleets of the C-130J, C-130, L-100 and P-3, which represents over 2,100 aircraft alone around the world. It is clear benefits to Canada increase sig- nificantly when their markets expand beyond Canadian coasts. But we all know that. the way forward I am clearly not the first person to empha- size the importance of Canadian IP and content in ISS work. Both presidents of our national trade associations highlighted this in comments to me for this article. Jim Quick, president of AIAC emphasized that: "As the defence industry evolves in response to shifting procurement pro- cesses, budgets and equipment lifespan requirements, AIAC is committed to en- suring that future ISS work continues to be done here in Canada in support of the jobs and capabilities we have worked so hard to build." While Christyn Cianfarani, president of CADSI emphasized the fact that "When the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) uses its kit for as long as it does, ISS and MRO are key to maintaining those capabilities and the CAF's operational readiness." Furthermore, she homed in on the importance of ISS driving exports for Canadian industry saying that "several companies have leveraged their Canadian experience by winning contracts in the ex- port markets." There are a ton of major ISS procure- ments coming up. I am confident this is a great opportunity for Canadian industry to get involved with long term programs early on, gain access to global markets and allow us to maintain critical IP in country. one of the benefits of Canadian companies working with large foreign oeMs in ISS is access to global value chains across potentially multiple disciplines.

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