Barden recognised for consistently high quality and delivery performance

Super-precision bearings supplier The Barden Corporation has been awarded a ‘Supply Chain Excellence Bronze Award’ from SELEX GALILEO, a Finmeccanica Company.

The Award was given to Barden in recognition of the company’s excellent quality and delivery performance over the last 12 months. On-time deliveries over the period were higher than 95% and quality targets were higher than 98%. Barden is the only bearing supplier to have been formally recognised in this way by SELEX GALILEO, the UK’s largest defence electronics company.

Chris Lines, Head of Procurement at SELEX GALILEO based in Basildon said: “This is an outstanding achievement by Barden and demonstrates the company’s total commitment to our supply chain improvement programme. We’ve had a very good working relationship with the people at Barden for more than 10 years now and like the company’s whole organisational approach. Barden is valued as a strategic supplier.”

SELEX GALILEO introduced its Supply Chain Excellence Awards in 2000. Since that time, only seven suppliers (including Barden) have been formally recognised by the company, each having received a Bronze Award. To achieve a Gold Award, suppliers must achieve in excess of a 99% rating in both quality and on-time deliveries.

The Awards programme helped form the foundation for the UK Aerospace and Defence industry’s 21st Century Supply Chains (SC21) programme, hence Barden are now well positioned to achieve SC21 awards within their membership. Overseen by the Society of British Aerospace Companies’ (SBAC) Enterprise Excellence Board, SC21 aims to accelerate the competitiveness of the UK aerospace and defence industry. With international competition increasing, the participation of companies of all sizes throughout the UK supply chain is crucial to delivering real results from this modernisation programme.

Chris Lines continues: “We developed the Supply Chain Excellence programme to help us share best practice and work in partnership with our strategic suppliers, in order to improve delivery, cost, quality, management systems and reduce waste. Suppliers achieving and maintaining high performance against our excellence standards receive formal recognition through our Bronze, Silver and Gold Supply Chain Excellence Awards.”

Across air, land, sea and space, SELEX GALILEO offers integrated sensor solutions for defence systems and homeland security applications. The company is part of the Finmeccanica defence electronics sector and employs over 7,000 people in the UK, Italy and the United States.

Barden has been working closely with SELEX GALILEO (formerly SELEX Sensors & Airborne Systems UK) since 2002, when it was selected as a strategic supplier of super-precision bearings for SELEX GALILEO’s new Storm Shadow smart missile project.

Strom Shadow is a conventionally armed stand-off cruise missile (CASOM), a high precision weapon that can be utilised both day and night in almost all weather and operational conditions. Its primary use is to attack high value, heavily protected targets or those deep inside enemy airspace, reducing the risk to the delivery aircraft.

Since 2002, Barden has supplied more than 400 super-precision, custom-designed stainless steel ball bearings, which are used in the missile’s seeker system, an imaging camera and optics system used to guide the warhead to the target. Each missile uses four sets of bearings that have dimensional tolerances of within 5 microns and geometrical tolerances (run out and roundness) of between 1 and 2 microns.

Matt Stirling, Sales Manager at Barden comments: “We’re very proud to receive such an accolade. It shows our total commitment as a company to SELEX GALILEO’s supply chain programme and demonstrates our commitment to improve the quality, cost and delivery of our bearings. We already have a very good, close working relationship with SELEX GALILEO and the award will further strengthen this partnership into 2008 and beyond.”