Coway Engineering: Finding a niche

IDENTIFYING a service gap early on was Coway Engineering & Marketing's gateway into the aerospace industry in 1996. The company observed that most precision engineering companies in the 1990s were supplying to the semiconductor sector, while aero-space companies in Singapore had to source for parts manufactured in the US and Europe.

Coway Engineering seized the opportunity to provide niche precision machining and engineering services to aerospace companies, focusing on maintenance tooling, jig and fixtures, and ground support equipment design and fabrication. Since then, it has gone on to manufacture aerospace articles starting in 2001, and has received approvals from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in 2017 and the US Federal Aviation Administration in 2018.

Today, the company offers a full suite of services to the aerospace industry, and provides precision manufacturing and engineering support services to the oil and gas and defence industries in addition to aerospace.

Said managing director Lien Whai Cheng: "Even today, plans are being worked on to further strengthen our infrastructure and upgrade our capability so as to move up the value chain to provide higher value-added engineering services to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and MRO operators."

One challenge that Coway Engineering faces is balancing day-to-day needs with the costs of strengthening infrastructure and upgrading capabilities.

"We have to be very focused on important business areas. For example, building an effective, reliable and responsible team is important," Mr Lien said, noting that the management and operational teams have to be regularly trained and work closely to ensure that all products are of good quality and safe to use in aircraft.

The company also invested in a robust quality management system to raise the quality of its products and processes.

And while being part of the aerospace industry offers SMEs global reach, it also means global competition, with competitors often based in countries with lower operating costs. SMEs should therefore consider working together and pooling their resources in order to stand stronger on the global stage, Mr Lien said.