In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, OEM’s in the aerospace and defense sector have experienced production disruptions throughout their supply chains. In some instances, scarcity has resulted in increases in demand for raw materials and components, while in other cases the lower product demands have resulted in the rescheduling or push-out of orders. Not all producers were able to cope with the associated financial pressure resulting in 20% fewer material suppliers throughout the globe. As the pandemic-induced market disruptions appear to be long-lived, OEM’s in this market need to find financially strong and agile suppliers to build their systems and components.

One such company, Auto Valve Inc. (AVI), has stood the test of time to meet the short-term and long-term requirements for their clients in all manner of market dynamics. For over 70 years, AVI has been providing economical and reliable fluidic sub-systems and components for aviation applications, but the capabilities have greater reach.

The contract machining and build-to-print capabilities have expanded to design-to-spec engineered products including structural and electro-mechanically actuated hardware.

Ever driven to satisfy industry demand, AVI’s state-of-the-art rapid prototype and CNC machining capabilities unite with in-house test capabilities and over 100 years of active engineering expertise to meet the requirements of today’s complex aerospace components. Moreover, AVI’s management team is open to strategic investments that will satisfy the evolving customer and market needs and ensure AVI will remain a nimble and agile supplier-of-choice for years to come.

In keeping with their customer-first approach, AVI reinvented its customer engagement structure; it replaced non-technical customer support agents with technically proficient project and program managers who could more quickly comprehend the customer’s needs. The positive effect was shorter product development turn-around times and increased customer satisfaction. AVI’s customer-centric nature stems from the family-like company culture. Tim Claude, President at AVI stated, “We believe the major difference between successful and unsuccessful companies is its culture and people. Having a good culture and a team of dedicated people who are highly skilled and radiate positivity is what sets us apart.”

Serving as a testament to AVI’s leadership model, the company received an award in 2017 from one of its customers for exhibiting outstanding values and transparency. More recently, AVI’s commitment to excellence was felt by a government agency when the same product was competitively sourced by two separate divisions. AVI proactively contacted the central procurement group to emphasize the value in aggregating the quantities into a single purchase for which AVI was awarded the order – a significant savings for the government.

Since its inception, AVI’s core values have helped the company become a sought-after supply chain partner for discriminating customers and agencies. This catalyst had the company on-track for 20% more growth than the previous year. Today all indicators suggest that AVI will double in size by 2025 so the company is actively optimizing its manufacturing floorspace and plans on expanding operations to satisfy the increasing demand while remaining true to the foundational values and agility that their customers have come to depend upon and respect.