Farnborough: Executives from manufacturers and airlines that received Aviation Week & Space Technology's "Best-Managed Companies Awards" shared some of their strategies as they picked up their awards at a ceremony here.

Their secrets of success blended use of innovative techniques, exploration of e-business and use of traditional business tools such as tight financial controls.
The winners were:

• Bombardier Inc., for best-managed large aerospace company.
  
• Howmet International Inc. for medium-size aerospace company
  
• UMECO PLC for small aerospace company
  
• Swissair parent SAir Group for major airline
  
• Ryanair Holdings PLC for national airlines
  
• Skywest Inc. for regional airlines

Skywest Chairman, President and CEO Jerry C. Atkin said the carrier's small size makes it easy to understand the challenges it faces and respond. Skywest operates about 250 flights per day as a Delta Connection carrier and is the exclusive United Express carrier on the U.S. West Coast with more than 700 flights per day.

UMECO CEO Clive Snowden said his company's small size is an advantage, allowing it to easily understand the challenges facing it. UMECO, which won the small aerospace category for the second straight year, is a provider of value-added distribution services to the aerospace and defense industry. It supplied aerospace components, composite materials and chemicals. UMECO also outsources direct line feed systems, kitting and stock supplier management systems. Its annual revenues are about 150 million pounds.

Howmet has relied on lean manufacturing techniques while also developing new manufacturing technologies. Howmet is the largest manufacturer of precision investment superalloy castings for jet aircraft and industrial gas turbines. It has developed and refined technologies for investment and die castings. Howmet is also the largest producer of aluminum castings for the commercial aerospace and defense electronics industries. Howmet is a "fast-follow" company on e-business. President and Chief Operating Officer James R. Stanley. "We're being led, obviously, by our customers."

Ryanair Finance Director Howard Miller said the company has a growth goal of 20-25% per year. The Irish airline patterned its business model after Southwest Airlines but has bested the U.S. low-fare carrier's return in recent years. Too much growth also could be dangerous, he cautioned, putting a company at risk of losing financial discipline. Ryanair sells a large proportion of its tickets electronically and is starting to use electronic procurement, but the latter will take years to become dominant, Miller said.

Bombardier watches capital costs closely and revisits all of its projects annually, President and CEO Robert E. Brown said. "We are innovators. We are entrepreneurs," Brown said. "Entrepreneurs are people who basically take risks, but they understand the risks. They love taking the risks. They love looking forward. They love to grow." Bombardier has maintained that entrepreneurial spirit, introducing one new aircraft annually since 1992 even as its workforce grew to 56,000 worldwide.

SAir's new chairman, Eric Honneger, said the Swissair parent is striving to build a European network that compares with the best in the business, while also building companion businesses in maintenance, repair and overhaul, as well as ground services.

By Mike Lavitt