Pratt & Whitney Works with Federal and State Officials to Highlight Supplier Opportunities
Employees at Manchester, Connecticut's Advanced Composites & Metalforming Technologies, or ACMT, know well there is a ton of work to do.
That's a good thing.
"It took about a three year journey to get where we are today," said Mike Scotto, vice president of Business Development for ACMT. "It's not over, and it's going to continue to grow."
ACMT is one of a nearly a hundred of Connecticut's key product suppliers supporting Pratt & Whitney so the company can supply thousands of new commercial and military engines to waiting customers. The impact of the supply base is not lost on Connecticut's elected officials.
"If you want to buy the best jet engine in the world, you know it's going to have a lot of parts from the state of Connecticut because it's going to be in a Pratt & Whitney engine," said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy.
Both Pratt & Whitney and state and federal leaders want to make sure suppliers have the foundation and tools necessary to consistently deliver, which is why United Technologies recently hosted a resource workshop at Pratt & Whitney's hangar in East Hartford.
"Pratt & Whitney is only as strong as its suppliers. This is a great way for Pratt to come together, UTC to come together with their suppliers to make sure we are going to have the capacity to meet the tsunami of aerospace work that is coming to this country, that is coming to Connecticut," said Sen. Chris Murphy, Connecticut's junior senator.
Malloy agreed.
"Pratt is a great company," Malloy said. "We were able to celebrate its anniversary this past year, but more importantly, is what we are celebrating is the relationship between Pratt and the state of Connecticut, its supply chain, its customers, its workers, directly and indirectly."
For the past few years, Pratt & Whitney has been utilizing ACE tools to bolster supplier development programs. But innovation takes work and sometimes needs a little push. At the workshop, suppliers had the chance to speak with people from the Department of Commerce, Small Business Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, UTC Production Part Approval Process, University of Connecticut, CONNSTEP, Department of Labor, Department of Economic and Community Development, Connecticut Procurement Technical Assistance Program and the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology.
"There's lots of resources, everything from helping you get funding, helping you be a better innovator, helping you export, as your international growth is really growth you are going to find. Ninety-five percent of the world's customers are outside the United States, as Pratt & Whitney knows when selling jet engines," said Anne Evans, district director, U.S. Department of Commerce.
"This is an opportunity for our supply base to understand how there are types of support systems that may be in place for them to capacitize, leverage knowledge and understand how to better recruit people," said Sergio Loureiro, vice president, Global Supply Chain for Pratt & Whitney.
"The defense industry base that provides Pratt & Whitney with the components and parts that go into its engine are vital to our national security. They employ a lot of people," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's senior senator.
More work is coming. Success for suppliers will of course rely on solid quality, communications, and ingenuity. And if help is needed, then it's a comfort to know there is a company, allied with state leaders, ready to spark and support supplier growth.
"Nobody has any patience for us being one minute late. With this massive ramp-up we can't afford it. Many of our suppliers, I walk through every one of their shops, I know them all, and they could use some very needed investment," said Danny Di Perna, senior vice president, Operations for Pratt & Whitney.
"We are expanding our business, we are going to double in size in 2016 and most likely double again 2017. We have big investments in our end, as well Pratt believing in us," said Scotto with ACMT.
