It’s a little-known fact that Philippine-based companies produce parts for some of the world’s biggest players in the aerospace industry. In fact, major aerospace manufacturers in Europe and the United States have long been sourcing their parts from the Philippines, recognizing the country’s strong competencies in the sector. One of these local firms is Applied Machining Corporation. Journey into aerospace Applied Machining is part of the bigger Nito Seiki Manufacturing Corporation, a Quezon City-based company with a diverse portfolio — motorcycle, automotive, industrial parts, electronics, and semiconductors. The company’s name is derived from founder Benito’s name and the Japanese word for precision, “seiki.” When it was established in 1994, Nito Seiki was only producing parts for automobiles and trucks. The company hit a turning point in the early 2000s when the aftermarket faced a slowdown. To cope with the changes in the industry, Nito Seiki ventured into other manufacturing fields, including aerospace. They expanded their product line and upscaled their operations, investing in better facilities and equipment, particularly strengthening their computer numerical control (CNC) machining. CNC is a high-tech automated factory tool that uses computer programming for manufacturing tasks. Recognizing the potential of the aerospace industry, Nito Seiki established Applied Machining in 2010, a business unit focused on serving the growing demand of aerospace Industry. Like any business, Applied Machining faced their own share of challenges. In the beginning, they only had nine CNC machines and 30 employees. To serve global customers, they had to earn their AS9100 certification, which is the international quality standard for aerospace manufacturing. This involved heavy testing, satisfying stringent quality requirements and traceability of parts, components, and assemblies.After successfully accomplishing this, Applied Machining earned the trust of big clients locally and internationally. Two of their earliest customers were an aircraft cabin interior manufacturer in Batangas and a manufacturer of precision products in Canada. Applied Machining has certainly come a long way. Today, the company has over 400 employees and exports between 100 to 200 different types of machined parts every day. They create precision interior parts for clients in Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US. They also produce and export performance racing parts to Australia. While the global market paved the way for tremendous growth, Applied Machining was also unprepared for the new challenges cross-border trade presented. The company operates in a time-bound environment defined by the grueling schedule of a global aerospace industry where the clock never stops. Thus, a primary concern is receiving and delivering products consistently at the right time. Applied Machining imports raw materials and other supplies from other countries — any delay in this part of the process could jeopardize the entire production. In addition, aerospace is known for requiring extremely high levels of accuracy, so Applied Machining places a premium on consistently delivering high-quality products on time. Since their product mix are of a high variety, what they create are different sets of parts that have varying volumes as well. They need to deliver products that are accurate to the last millimeter, or else risk rejection. Delivering their products not only on time but also in perfect condition to their clients is a must. “Today, what we really have to address is meeting the demand of the thriving market outside the Philippines. Aerospace is what people would call a ‘sunrise industry’ and there’s still so much to be done as both travel and trade grow,” said Rolly Tan, General Manager at Applied Machining. Applied Machining also needs to manage its workload and shipping costs as it receives orders round the clock, even during weekends and holidays. All these require a reliable logistics partner that fully understands their needs. Optimizing with UPS UPS is a global logistics leader with over 100 years of experience, operating in more than 220 countries and territories around the world. “We started our partnership with UPS three years ago. It has eased the headache of having to worry over who’s going to ship our raw materials and products, when our items will be picked up, and where our packages are located at any given inquiry time. I no longer have to deal with these things because UPS takes care of it,” said Rolly.