November 2010
SDC wins Bronze Recognition Award
SDC were presented with the prestigious Bronze Recognition Award, in the 21^st Century Supply Chains (SC21) programme, designed to accelerate improvements in the competitiveness of the UK 's aerospace and defence industry by raising the performance of its supply chain.

(L-R) Mark Millan of SDC accepting the award from Judith Eastwood of BAE, Peter Hogg also of BAE and Tim Walker and Keith Swain both from SDC

Against the SC21 scoring criteria, SDC performed particularly well in the areas of; policy and strategy, leadership, partnerships and resources.  Other key strengths identified by the scoring matrix included; excellent working practises such as strong financial controls, a flexible and innovative approach to the market sectorrequirements and strong processes in place for capturing customer specific requirements both in terms of design and product

This is the second awards nomination in as many months awards, in October SDC were also awarded for their collaborative work on their Turret seats for the Warrior armoured vehicle by BAE Land Systems

October 2010
SDC wins award for Military Seating

The Turret seats designed and developed by SDC in close collaboration with BAE Land Systems for the Warrior armoured vehicle have been officially recognised as exceptional.

Pictured are BAE's Phil Richards and David Smith presenting the 2010 Chairman's Bronze Award to SDC's own David Smith (centre).

In accepting the award on behalf of the design team at SDC David said he was "extremely pleased that all the hard work by the staff at SDC  has been recognised in this way"

May 2010
SDC signs up to SC21 - the military programme for preferred suppliers

At the invitation of BAE Systems SDC is fully engaged in SC21 (Supply Chain 21^st Century) the initiative which is rapidly gaining recognition within the military supply base.

SD21 is the umbrella for a number of interesting initiatives, tools and techniques, not unlike those used in the automotive arena.

We are now partnered with the Midlands Aerospace Alliance, our lead implementation organisation is BAE Systems and our practical guidance will come from TEC.

Our objective is to further improve our key business processes, building on the work we have already done to become a tier 1 seating supplier in the automotive sector and to clearly demonstrate our commitment and competence to the military community.

SC21 should be a great opportunity for SDC to demonstrate our specialist seating knowledge in providing robust, cost effective and innovative seating solutions, therefore addressing the increasing needs of military seating in areas such as increased function, occupant demographic adjustment, and legal requirements.     
 

February 2010
Lightweight Seating Collaboration

In close collaboration with Corus (soon to be Tata Steel), SDC has taken the first significant steps to designing a seating system which is considerably lighter than the current conventional construction.

"Initially we considered a variety of alternative materials such as composites, carbon fibre and aluminium. However in order to optimise recyclability, strength and manufacturing we have, perhaps surprisingly, found that ultra high strength steel provides all the characteristics we were looking for" said Graham Schofield, SDC Engineering Director.