_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Ashton & Moore
As you can imagine however , where aircraft are concerned , it ’ s very difficult to change legacy processes quickly
take over from me and my fellow director , Mark . After 25 years or so of being immersed in the organization , it ’ s a new experience to be thinking about winding down and stepping back from day-to-day operations .
“ We ’ re constantly trying to maintain and enhance our capabilities to keep up with our clients ’ requirements . In terms of supplier partnerships , we ’ re often dictated by our customers ’ needs for specific finishes . While we invest in modernizing our equipment , we tend to deliver low-volume , high-quality or niche processes , so many of our services are labor intensive . As such , we try to offer enhanced value . Our non-destructive testing for example , when combined with our finishing capabilities , offers aerospace , defense and other specialist manufacturers the opportunity of single source procurement .
“ Looking to the future , alongside succession planning , we will continue to focus on improving operational efficiencies . As I mentioned briefly , our operations are weighted towards manual processes ; so much so that labor amounts to approximately 50 percent of our overall operational costs . With the cost of labor increasing , it ’ s becoming ever more evident that we need to focus on what we ’ re good at , where we make a profit , and where we ’ re most efficient . The pandemic really reinforced this for us . Turnover is vanity , profit is sanity , but cash is king . It ’ s not all about profit ; it ’ s about being efficient and keeping the company viable and sustainable .
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