Q: How does Quasar106’s value proposition complement Chihuahua’s aerospace industry?

JL: Quasar106 was created to develop tailored solutions and to optimize the equipment that manufacturers were already using. Many companies were adapting existing equipment to their needs but store-bought equipment often lacks essential characteristics. We can work with a wide range of materials to provide precise solutions.

RE: The aerospace industry requires extremely specialized products and materials. We built our own workshop because we realized we could manufacture 80 percent of our best-selling products by ourselves, which allowed us to optimize costs. Aerospace companies frequently employ milling and machining experts but are often unable to provide personalized solutions because of the time and focus it requires. Local shops seek serial manufacturing contracts instead of work that requires personalized attention, making it harder for companies that use advanced manufacturing techniques to find partners. As Quasar106 has all these processes and advanced knowledge in materials, engineering and design, we can bridge this gap.

Q: How has Quasar106 tackled the reluctance of companies to incorporate new suppliers?

JL: It has been hard to approach new companies but our former clients’ recommendations have allowed us to expand. We believe our competitive advantage is our specialization in the aerospace industry, which was a happy accident because the industry happened to be in need of our help at the time we began targeting them. Design and formal documentation of tailored solutions is vastly needed in all levels of aircraft production and we are here to help.

Q: What is the company’s share of the market?

EM: At this point it represents 70 percent of our market. Our goal is to be the middle ground between the high-cost state of the art technology of foreign aerospace companies and the lower-cost outdated processes of smaller Mexican companies. We provide quality at reasonable prices and keep strict documentation of processes to ensure accountability and transparency. Our design process gives clients an idea of the final product to reduce manufacturing errors.

When foreign aerospace companies bring their manufacturing to Mexico, they bring their most important equipment but they often forget minor support pieces such as racks, conveyors and workstations, so they buy them locally from major retailers. These products are not tailored to their needs and more often than not reduce efficiency and thus competitiveness because most local manufacturers lack a design department. Our digital design process enables us to provide perfect finished products the first time, while other suppliers may have to return several times to make adjustments, resulting in lost time for the final client. This process is complex as our racks can have upward of 50 parts and all of them fit to specification.

Q: What steps is Quasar106 taking to consolidate while remaining competitive?

JL: Having begun as a design center, we had not invested greatly in manufacturing. However, we are entering partnerships to begin manufacturing different pieces. We are undergoing the ISO 9100 certification process, which we expect to complete by mid-2017. To optimize our internal processes, we are developing internal Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and implementing quality standards that have to be in place for at least a year for to get the ISO 9100. Our next step is to be ISO 9100 and 14000 certified and to acquire the Nadcap certification that will allow us to manufacture aircraft parts.

RE: We plan to expand our personnel and equipment, acquiring CNC machines and a 3-D printer, while increasing our capacity to work with metals that are more specific to the aerospace industry, such as titanium. Our goal is to eventually manufacture aerospace parts as a Tier 3.