Precision Engineering

Still family-owned, Marand has evolved to meet the challenges posed by the disappearing local automotive manufacturing sector. It has now positioned itself as a leading supplier of aerostructures, tooling and ground support equipment to such companies as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Boeing, among others.

The highest profile of the company’s aircraft component catalogue is doubtless its F-35product line, namely the tooling, vertical tails and engine trolleys that it manufactures onsite in Moorabbin.

The company is now increasingly export-focused, with offshore sales accounting for approximately 60 per cent of its annual $70 million turnover.

“We started work prior to the very initial decision to get on board. We didn’t have a purchase order, but were involved with Lockheed Martin, engaging and responding prior to the government signing up for the systems development and demonstration phase in 2002,” CEO Rohan Stocker explained of how Marand secured its place in the F-35 global supply chain.

Rule of three

Marand’s contribution to the gargantuan F-35 program centres on three products: tooling, engine removal and installation trailers and vertical tails.

Since 2005, the company has been designing and supplying tooling to Lockheed Martin, and has thus far delivered 800 production tools including a growing number of cure and trim tools used in the manufacture of very accurate carbon fibre composite components for the aircraft’s control surfaces.

Marand’s exemplary performance in designing and delivering over $25 million in tooling for the F-35 program saw it, with the active encouragement of LM and BAE Systems, expand beyond its core business and into high‑end manufacturing of aerostructures.

“It would be fair to say that the program always intended to put a decent ‘flying chunk’ of the plane into the country. And they had some engagement in the early days with local aerostructures suppliers, but it never came to fruition,” Stocker explained.

“Lockheed and BAE Systems approached us about five yearsago, at which time we’d become BAE Systems’ largest suppliers of finished tools to the UK and had won several awards from Lockheed for our supplier and quality performance. So we had big ticks around our tooling and ground support equipment, so they approached us and indicated that they would like to manufacture vertical tails in Australia, and asked if Marand would consider investing and being part of the journey.

“They were aware that we were not [then] an aerostructures business, but in what they saw in our ability to design the trailer, the tooling, and to manage those projects, they believed we could take that step to become a supplier of the vertical tails. At the same time we were still supplying Boeing locally with tooling and with automation and capital equipment to help them produce carbon fibre parts. We went through an evaluation process, thought a lot about it, asked ‘Is it the right investment?, How exposed are we? Should we get in further? Can we afford it? Are the repayments right?’”

The opportunity is for 722 shipsets, worth $790 million in total revenue.

Satisfied with the business case, Marand then committed $20 million investing in technology transfer and training and began assembling a team before it began assembling tails.

“The opportunity is for 722 shipsets, worth $790 million in total revenue. So, we decided to get involved and start the journey. We sat down with BAE Systems, who were fantastic, did our gap analysis [comparing of actual performance with potential or desired performance], worked out what we were capable of, not capable of and started to build our team. Once we’d identified how big the hurdle was, we had to figure out what to do from a people point of view and where to invest in training. We sent people to the UK for some training and then recruited the right mix of people. ” Marand currently assembles vertical tails made up of 18 individual parts, including skins, spars and fairings manufactured by Quickstep in Bankstown, which has signed a long‑term agreement with Marand to supply 700 sets of carbon fibre composite parts over 14 years.

Trailers

“It’s a remarkable bit of equipment,” offers Marand’s CEO, describing the PW F135 engine removal and installation trailer, which was designed, and is built, at the company facility in Melbourne.

Composed of over 12,000 individual parts, the trailer must accommodate the three versions of the F-35 powerplant ( -100, -400 and -600), and their varying lengths (the STOVL engine and associated fan is 9. 37m long). At the time of Australian Aviation’s visit, there were 19 trailers on the production line, with 42 having been delivered. Of note is the fact that Marand was the first company in the world to be awarded a contract for the design and development of groundsupport equipment (GSE) for the JSF program.

“When we started, the design had to cope with two engines on three variants. Then that progressively changed over time. Even there it’s slightly more complicated because of the STOVL plane with the nozzle on the back, even now it’s one engine and three variants, the actual combination of things you have to design for and test for are slightly more complicated because of the different characteristics of the STOVL engine. ” Currently, Marand intends to manufacture every trailer required by the program, a total that could be over 3,000 units.

“The current design is the third iteration, so those performance requirements have changed as the program has evolved. So if you imagine you make the first trailer, it’s a development program, so the plane itself has changed, bulkheads have moved so now they need a modified trailer, now it’s out with 10 jets and they realised ‘we should have asked for this, this and this’ and we’ve had to modify it a third time. This current design was a two to three year development – we designed the process for the qualification and that involved simulated engine changes, load tests, and taking the trailer into different environmental conditions – it was quite challenging. ”

A bumpy ride

As is well known, the ambitious attempt to produce one aircraft in three variants to replace a disparate collection of combat types has produced more than a few hurdles. Marand, whose involvement in the JSF goes back to 2002, has ridden the vicissitudes of the program accordingly.

“We’ve always felt confident inthe program. We seek our advice from Canberra as well as Lockheed Martin. A lot of companies have struggled because of long ramp up and low production but I like to look at it as a balanced portfolio. The tooling is right up front on the job, so we’re able to build up with that. The ground support equipment is needed right up front, and so we’re making it for about the first third of the program then it will die away. Then, the vertical tails have come along at the right time and will ramp up as those other two are dying out. So, from a personal and Marand perspective, we’ve ridden it fairly well because it’s matched what we’re doing in our business. In terms of the program, we always had confidence it would get there. ”

Bride’s nighty

For any export‑oriented business, managing currency fluctuations is paramount. Over the course of Australia’s involvement in the F-35, the dollar has oscillated greatly, at times exceeding parity with the greenback. A lower dollar brings costs and benefits to any exporter, with foreign‑sourced inputs rising in cost while at the same time making a given product more competitive. Stocker described how export‑exposed businesses such as Marand negotiate the effects of currency movements.

“They almost match each other, but not quite. For example, the materials on the trailer became a lot more affordable, but our labour became a lot less affordable. The high dollar was a time that was tougher for us, but it made us get into innovation, drove us to think how we make these parts, what costs can we take out, and we took a lot out. The companies that survived and kept exporting through thattime innovated – we invested in machines, tooling, people and we did all that to get the recurring costs down and out of the product. ” So far we’ve been robust enough to work our way through all of those currency challenges. I think a lot of that’s come down to how well we’ve been supported by LM and BAE. Sometimes we’ve had to suffer some pain, other times it’s worked well for all of us. ”

A tale of tails

In 2002, 90 per cent of Marand’s business was derived from the automotive sector. Over a decade later, the company sees itself completing the bulk of Australia’s industrial contribution to the F-35 while continuing to supply precision tooling for the Airbus A380 and Boeing 737, 777, 787 and F-15. The company continues to develop its software design and robotics applications and is looking ahead to growing the aerostructures side of its activities both in Moorabbin and at its newly acquired Geelong facility.

With the success of its vertical tail venture, CEO Stocker believes the company’s involvement with the Joint Strike Fighter will benefit the company, the client and the country. As for a future expansion of sub-assembly manufacture, and even repairs, he stated: “If you think about qualifications around aerostructures, approvals for tooling, approvals for GSE, we’ll expand the whole lot now. We believe the whole program will be here for 30, 40, 50 years. We weren’t an aerostructures suppliers at the start, who knows what we’ll be by the end of the program?”