Firm secures prestigious accreditation

One of Shropshire’s fastest-growing manufacturers is targeting more opportunities in the aerospace sector after it secured a prestigious quality accreditation.

Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE), which employs 70 people at its state-of-the-art factory in Telford, now holds AS9100 for the first time after it successfully completed its audit in less than five months from the initial gap audit.

Led by quality manager Ian Radford, the process involved every member of the company and involved fine tuning its quality management system and introducing problem solving teams to encourage continuous improvement across all the different engineering disciplines.

This has seen the business consistently achieve more than 97% on time delivery and 99.5% right first time across its customer base of primes and tier 1s.

With the quality certification now in place, ACE is planning to increase its work in this sector by an additional £1m of turnover.

“AS9100 is one of the most demanding quality accreditations in industry, so we’re delighted to have secured it within a few months and with such an impressive result,” said Chris Ball, executive director at Advanced Chemical Etching.

“It has been a real collective effort with pretty much every member of the team involved in the planning, execution and then the eight-day audit. No stone is left unturned during this process, and it really means you are at the top of your game.

“Importantly, it will also open new doors for us as we will now be able to tender for additional work with clients both at home and abroad.”

Advanced Chemical Etching supplies precision components to 25 companies involved in the aerospace industry. This includes producing parts for the undercarriage, interiors and in engines, with recent ‘wins’ ranging from heat exchangers and actuators to ice protection and components used in galley trolleys.

All share high performance properties and often are manufactured to the tightest of tolerances to achieve significant weight savings.

Ian said “You can’t rest on your laurels when it comes to quality, so we’ve decided to build on the AS9100 accreditation by appointing Ryan Williams as assistant quality manager.

“Ryan has significant knowledge of ‘lean manufacturing’ and will play a key role in our ongoing internal auditing, providing day-to-day support that will allow me to focus on the business strategy and how we can embed continuous improvement even more in the business.

"Quality clinics have been important in changing the culture of ACE and people are now encouraged to identify mistakes we can learn from and areas we can do things better. This openness has already led to us achieving considerable cost savings.”

The scope of ACE’s activities is far and wide outside of aerospace, spanning into Formula One, electronics and the medical industry.

This sees the company produce anything from simple washers to highly complex precision components for a wide variety of applications, including battery interconnects, fuel cell bi-polar plates, battery grids, cooling plates and heating components.

All parts are developed and manufactured at its main site in Telford and at the company’s dedicated sister business, ACE Forming Limited, in Kingswinford.

Sales for this year expect to touch £9m and, with a growing pipeline of interest, the firm is keen to recruit more staff to boost its workforce.

Pictured: from left, Chris Ball, Ryan Williams, Ian Radford and Ian Whately