Exclusive-Interview with Minister Sandra Pupatello, Ontario – “Becoming more and more cost competitive”
Innovative capabilities and the marked ability to respond rapidly to new challenges feature among the key strengths of the aerospace industry in Ontario. aerotec editor Christian Klein spoke to Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, about industrial promotional policies and germinating technology transfer.
How is the aerospace industry dealing with the crisis?
We have about 350 Ontario aerospace companies employing some 23, 000 people. Apart from the major assembler Bombardier, most of our companies in Ontario are tier one, two and three that supply the world tier ones and the global assemblers. So we have companies in Ontario supplying Embraer, EADS, Boeing, all the big companies and that results in over 80% of Ontario’s aerospace products being exported around the world. The challenge for any aerospace company today is to find solutions that will make them more cost competitive and more fuel efficient, while ensuring safety on all of those fronts. They are relying on high technology levels throughout the aerospace supply chain, and that’s where Ontario really excels. The lighter the material, the less fuel the aircraft has to use. Engineers, for example, try to find out what components of the landing gear can be made out of composite structures. We now have simulated testing in place to see how much heat and pressure these parts can withstand. With Goodrich, the world’s largest landing gear testing facility is operational here in Ontario. We supply about 70% of the world’s landing gear out of Ontario, so every time you take off or land in an airplane, you should be thinking about Ontario.
So when we do very good work, as in composite structures, for example, in finding ways to make the same types of parts, only make them lighter, that’s what these big companies are looking for. Because they need to find ways in the ever-changing gas pricing scenarios around the world and they are also looking for other features for safety purposes and their communication systems. These are areas where Ontario also excels. We have a very big information, communication, technology cluster in Ontario, it’s the third largest in North America, which means we have the skills in our workforce with exactly the kind of innovative thinking that aerospace communication systems requires.
Drawing on a very high level of innovation, companies are supplying everything from security systems to regular communication systems, such as sensors, for example. We have a company in Ontario that has developed a technology for space applications that is now finding use on earth. This will enable pilots to navigate through sandstorms and snowstorms using the same kind of sensor technology developed for space. And that’s a kind of crossover that we see because the skill set is in place in Ontario.
Aerospace suppliers are becoming more and more involved to the process of development. How can they receive support in meeting these challenges?
The R&D is being pushed down the supply chain, which means our role as a government is to assist our companies in that product development. Therefore, the benefits of Ontario’s R&D tax credit become very important. If you spend a hundred Canadian dollars in Ontario on research and development you will benefit from a refund of up to 60 Canadian dollars, which makes it very lucrative. It’s one of the best R&D tax credits, at least in North America. So people can say, I can do more in Ontario, and therefore they are looking at who can they partner with in R&D to solve their problems and see the benefit of the R&D tax credit at the same time. So that’s a good example of the Ontario government partnering with industry to help move the whole sector forward.
What are companies doing to try to stake out new markets in the face of the global crisis?
Well, opportunities like the Paris Air Show are really important. This year we had twenty-six Ontario companies present there, and we had more companies that were walking the floor to meet their potential clients. Now that they understand what the customers need, it’s much easier to go to them and offer solutions. And the companies are starting to realize how good they are in these niche areas and taking solutions to companies.
We have a couple of programs in Ontario to help our companies, as well as outside companies coming in to invest in Ontario. One of them is a loan program called the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy AMIS, offering a thirty percent loan on investments. So when they make an investment the government is prepared to give them a loan of thirty percent of the total investment to help them. And we have another program, which is a grant program, the Next Generation of Jobs Fund, and some of our companies have used these funds to invest in their own company, in new innovations that they can now sell to their clientele.
When you are talking to these companies, can you see that they are trying to transfer technologies from automotive to aerospace or maybe medtec?
In some cases, yes. Take MDA, for example, one of Ontario’s best aerospace companies that has developed the so-called Dexter technology. Dexter is the name of one of their programs, and it refers to their dexterous arm that is capable of unprecedented precision motion. They’ve taken this technology and applied it in robotic brain surgery for example. So the neuron surgeon is in one place and the patient is over there. And this dexterous technology is being applied in medical settings of a very complicated nature. Thanks to the exceptional precision achieved, they are taking the technology to microscopic applications. So that’s one instance where MDA developed something for space that is now also being used here on earth in very good ways – and in this case, in surgery. They actually have the technology where the doctor is managing the surgery internally and isn’t any way near the patient. And it’s the precision that’s required, where only a robot can achieve superior precision to what physicians are capable of. So it’s a very good application and that other story about that camera sensor I was telling you about, is being put to use in Hollywood in making movies, for example. In fact, people are hardly aware of how many aerospace developments are applied in other parts of our lives.
What can the aerospace industry learn from the automotive industry?
What I think will be the best thing that automotive companies will bring to aerospace, is the methodology used in the manufacturing process. Because, just as the supply chain in aerospace is changing, it means that competitiveness and therefore manufacturing processes are just as important as the product they’re manufacturing. So I believe that in Ontario it will give our companies an advantage to harness the same lean manufacturing that has been in place in the automotive industry for many years. It’s generally not in aerospace yet, and when our automotive people walk onto the shop floor in aerospace plants, they can see how they could improve the processes and therefore boost the competitiveness for our companies.
I agree with you, but the process can’t be adopted one by one . . .
Right, it is different in terms of the volumes. But the fab process is applicable. So I expect that we will get better and better in our manufacturing processes because we have a skill set in manufacturing here. It makes up twenty percent of our GDP. And our schools are turning out some nine thousand engineers a year in Ontario. So if people are investing in Ontario today, and it’s usually an investment for many decades, they know that they will have the best skilled workers even in fifteen years. They will be here. And we invested tremendous amounts in education in Ontario, so that we can tell. For example, look at the fact that Microsoft comes to one of our schools each year and wants to take all of the engineers that graduate every year. The very best companies look at our engineers because that’s the kind of thinkers that they want. A total of 58 percent of the workforce in Ontario has post-secondary education. That is the highest level of education in any of the OECD countries and in the aerospace business the skilled workforce is the number one component in building a great product. (german: www.aerotec-online.com)
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