era sains, teknologi & inovasi - Portal Rasmi Akademi Sains Malaysia

11
Oktober
2012
do in cultivating public awareness and
budding curiosity towards creative and
innovative aerospace product design,
exhibition of military might, and acrobatic
performances. After all, as they say, the
aerospace design and technology is iconic
and symbolic of the scientific, technological
and innovative competency of those in
ownership of it.
Changing The Landscape: The Pure Play
Engineering
Whilst it is widely known that there are only
a handful of OEMs truly qualified as global
suppliers of commercial or military aircraft
and engines, avionics and systems, there are
but less known and certainly in much greater
numbers of second and third tier suppliers of
parts, components, systems and specialised
services.
The US, Canada, France, Germany, Britain
and the rest of G7 countries pride themselves
as leaders in cutting edge aerospace
technologies with a sustained introduction of
new products into the market. They enjoy the
status accorded and the revenue generated,
to the point they found it that close proximity
of suppliers is no more material. Rather, it’s
the cost and reliability of supply that define
competitiveness, practically global
outsourcing. Of greater preference is risksharing
partnership between the OEMs and
its suppliers in the overall value chain. The
global market forecasted for these
engineering services will be worth about
RM3.2 trillion in 2020. The outsourcing
services are normally confined to traditional
countries like India and China.
Malaysia is positioning itself to capture the
tremendous deal flows of global outsourcing,
traditionally in MRO, but of late in design and
analysis. This is an interesting emerging field
of engineering that will change the landscape
of Malaysiaís aerospace industry. The
Government is embarking on initiatives and
projects as entry points to capture these
opportunities.
With the recent establishment of the
Economic Transformation Programme (ETP),
the pure play engineering services for
aerospace industry is enhanced through the
implementation of the Entry Point Project
(EPP) number five within the Business
Services National Key Economic Area (NKEA)
known as Growing Large Pure Play
Engineering Services. Indeed in these few
years, there is an emergence of competency
and capacity in Malaysia for the pure play
engineering which refers to the use of people
and resources for design and analysis
engineering work via the computer, for
aerospace design and analysis services.
Possibly, the redefining landscape of the
aerospace industry in Malaysia under
PEMANDU, MIDA, and MiGHT has given rise
to and encouraged new upcoming industries
to challenge to core engineering companies in
Malaysia; a prime example being Strand
Aerospace Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., a company
that provides analysis and design for aircraft
primary structure.
The Strand Aerospace was built with it, a
classic example of personnel that had
experiences working abroad, gaining
experiences and exposure of international
business, quality standards, together with the
trick of the trade in the cutting edge
technology industry, who are very keen and
inspired to bring the technology back into
Malaysia. With encouragement from the
positive landscape towards high-value
engineering services in Malaysia, they are
now reshaping their own business outlook to
enhance their competitiveness in the
international arena.
There are generally three parts in designing
an aircraft, starting from the general concept
paper, which will then be followed by a
detailed prototype design and finally the
certification stage. This final stage is where
the services from a company like Strand
Aerospace are required. During this stage,
computer aided analysis and testing is
imperatives to identify and rectify any
inaccuracies occurred in the earlier design
stage. The company has established track
record with its exclusive clientele in delivering
high value design and analysis engineering for
Airbus U.K and first-tier companies such as
Atkins Aerospace, GKN Aerospace, Assystem
and Messier Dowty. Other companies that
engage its services are namely Ferchau
Engineering from Germany and Spirit
Aerosystem of the United Kingdom.
Companies like Strand will draw upon
synergy with universities and technology
institutions in the country. Various programme
are currently under development
with the Ministry of Higher Education in
developing pool of world class aerospace
engineers, to ensure the presence of critical
talent for the high technology-based industry.
It is widely opinionated that much of the
aerospace industry development for Malaysia
is attributable to the ‘blueprint’ that was
incepted about 15 years ago. Perhaps, with
the expanding scope and depth of the
industry, together with major changes in
policies and constant industrial reviews
undertaken, it is about time for the relevant
authorities to bring about a new ‘blueprint’ to
accommodate the new dimension and
convergence in the industry beyond 2015, the
year in which the first ‘blueprint’ targeted for
Malaysia to gain full competencies in aircraft
development.
DATUK Dr. AHMAD TASIR
LOPE PIHIE FASc. is a Fellow of the
Academy Science Malaysia.