Dynamatic Technologies Grows UK Business

Neelam Mathews
July17, 2018
#FIA18

With three manufacturing facilities in the UK and sister plants around the globe, India-listed Dynamatic Technologies (Hall 1, Booth 1340) has “turned the industry on its head,” Udayant Malhoutra, managing director and CEO, lightheartedly suggested to AIN. His company has taken a revolutionary path and in a decade become a tier 1 sole supplier to the Airbus A320 family. Dynamaticrecently delivered the first commercial set of A330 flap track beams produced jointly in the UK and India. The facility has one of the largest and most flexible automated cells in Europe with robot loading and unloading of 5-axis machine tools producing monolithic components.

Boeing's co-production partnership with Dynamatic includes the manufacture of aft pylon and cargo ramp assemblies for the CH-47F Chinook and the P8-I Poseidon. The company also produces the fuselage for the Bell 407.

“We are investing and growing business in the UK, which is unique in some ways," said Malhoutra. "Bristol, which is the center of design production, is also the sweet spot of precision engineering. By putting robots there, we have trebled the headcount into artificial intelligence and advanced robotics since we invested. We are not shipping products back to India for assembly."

While most companies in India venturing into aerospace start at the lowest rung of the manufacturing ladder, Dynamatic chose the hybrid path. “We started with a clean sheet to see what operations were cost-effective and where,” he said. India was identified as offering the best value in 3D engineering at Bangalore with “a young class of talent that provided world-class artisanal skills.” Europe was chosen for its machining skills, “which are not cost-effective in India.” The company has also entered into a partnership with Germany's ThyssenKrupp Aerospace for raw materials, global logistics, and supply chain management. The service center stores an entire range of materials used in the aviation industry: aluminum, titanium, and steel, speeding delivery of products cut and machined precisely to customer specifications.

While companies in India are increasingly acquiring western aerospace companies mainly for access to customers for sales, Malhoutra said, “We bought business in Europe that feeds into our supply chain as we have to now grow this business dramatically on a global scale.” One of the partnerships has been with tool manufacturer DMG Mori. The company has invested heavily with DMG and has two of the largest machines that DMG manufactures, with one in Bangalore. “We are provided materials at speeds our competitors cannot dream of," he said. "We are networking with the best rather than becoming a big industrial monolith.

“This is just the beginning. It is a transformation. One can choose to grow or change. We decided to change first,” said Malhoutra.