Strengthening procurement across the aerospace & defence industry

Background

BAE Systems is a global defence, aerospace and security company. The company operates in five home markets - Australia, India, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the USA - and is the original funder of the CIPS Corporate Academy for Aerospace and Defence. 

The Brief

BAE Systems was looking for a learning and development programme which would help overcome industry-specific procurement and supply issues.

BAE worked with CIPS to design the CIPS Aerospace and Defence Academy, a procurement training programme tailored specifically to address the learning and development needs of companies across the industry’s supply chain. With the industry’s supply chain key to the value of a contract, it was vital to establish a training programme that could deliver results, eliminate waste and remove non-value-added activity.

Why CIPS Corporate Academy?

With bigger and fewer products, high capital costs and long-term projects, procurement in the aerospace and defence industry tends to be different to other industries. BAE Systems was seeking tailored training as around 30 percent of its procurement is particular to the industry.

BAE Systems concluded that adopting MCIPS as their de facto qualification would strengthen their procurement function for the future. The CIPS Corporate Academy was selected as the best way to integrate distance learning, e-learning and face-to-face workshops.

In its inaugural phase, three cohorts of students took training at various levels of the CIPS programme, helping to upskill procurement right across the industry.

Benefits of CIPS Corporate Academy

Competitiveness: Encourages positive performance by equipping individuals with the right skill sets.

Collaboration: Strengthens relationship between participating companies, giving them the chance to share best practice and strengthening the profile of procurement in the industry.

Flexibility: Training accommodates diverse cultures and languages, including online capability with tutor intervention, discussion groups, webinars and web learning tools, plus course books, study aids and workshops.

Innovation: Focuses on a ‘get it right first time’ approach, as opposed to learning through mistakes.

Efficiency: Reduces time away from the office (20 days down to 6 days per level) and programme management costs.

Savings: Academy delegate costs have saved BAE Systems in excess of £200,000 to date.

Reputation: Academy and MCIPS membership demonstrates growth in procurement professionalism and builds reputation.

Highlights

So far, the programme has produced a number of tangible benefits including:

• Raised professional procurement standards across a whole sector;
• £200,000 saved in delegate fees to date;
• Reduced time away from the office for training;
• Decreased project management costs.