The past several years has taught the global aerospace industry one hard lesson: supply chains that depend on single sources, single regions, or insufficient geographic diversity are fragile. Disruptions have come from unexpected directions, such as pandemic lockdowns in Asia, disrupted semiconductor and issues with composite supply. Geopolitical events created unexpected constraints on materials and logistics while raw material price volatility affected cost structures.
Natural disasters and industrial accidents affected production capacity and, in each case, companies that had invested in geographic diversification weathered the disruptions better than those that hadn’t. This is the operational reality that MRO operators and airline purchasing teams understand intimately because when their supply chains face disruption, their aircraft don’t fly, so they lose revenue. This creates intense focus on supplier reliability and supply chain redundancy.
The New Calculus
Purchasing decisions in aerospace have traditionally been dominated by three factors: price, technical capability, and established relationships. Increasingly, a fourth factor has become critical: supply chain resilience. An MRO operator evaluating bearing suppliers isn’t just asking whether the supplier can provide the required component. They’re asking: if this supplier faces disruption, what’s my fallback? Do they have alternative sourcing locations? Do they have geographic redundancy? Can they serve me reliably from multiple production facilities?
This creates an advantage for suppliers who have deliberately invested in geographic diversification. A supplier with production capacity in Europe, North America, and Asia can weather regional disruptions better than a supplier concentrated in one location. A supplier positioned strategically in growing markets, like the Middle East, can serve customers there directly, reducing dependence on long supply chains.
The Middle East as a Resilience Node
The Middle East’s role in aerospace supply chains has evolved from primarily a market to an increasingly important logistics and sourcing hub. The region’s sophisticated airline operations, growing MRO infrastructure, and strategic geographic position make it an ideal location for regional supply chain management.
For precision bearing suppliers, establishing presence in the Middle East, whether through direct operations, strategic inventory positioning, or partnership with regional distributors creates tangible supply chain advantages. This means customers in the region have direct access to components and supply chains serving the Middle East aren’t entirely dependent on long-distance logistics. It means if disruptions affect other regions, customers in the Middle East can still be served reliably. This has become increasingly important because when an aircraft is in maintenance and needs a bearing to return to service, the MRO operator needs that component available quickly. If all inventory is in Europe, and European logistics are disrupted, the aircraft remains grounded. However, if bearing inventory is available regionally, the aircraft is back in service much faster.
Designing for Resilience
Supply chain resilience doesn’t happen accidentally, it requires deliberate design and consistent investment and for precision bearing suppliers, this means:
Geographic production capacity. Having manufacturing facilities in multiple regions provides redundancy. If one facility faces disruption, whether due to natural disaster, pandemic, industrial accident, or other causes, production can shift to other locations. This requires investment in multiple production sites, so it’s increasingly a competitive necessity.
Strategic inventory positioning. Holding safety stock in key markets allows rapid fulfilment when demand spikes or when long supply chains are disrupted. This involves capital investment in inventory and working capital and provides resilience and customer service advantages.
Supplier diversification. Relying on single suppliers for critical materials creates cascading vulnerabilities. Developing relationships with multiple suppliers for critical inputs ensures that material disruptions in one supply chain can be compensated through others.
Logistics redundancy. Depending on single logistics providers or single supply routes creates vulnerability. Developing relationships with multiple logistics providers and maintaining flexibility in routing provides insurance against logistics disruptions.
Partnership with strategic distributors. In regions where direct operations aren’t feasible, partnerships with knowledgeable, capable distributors who maintain regional inventory provide the supply chain resilience benefits of local presence without requiring direct capital investment.
Carter Manufacturing’s Approach
At Carter Manufacturing, we’ve deliberately invested in geographic resilience to maintain manufacturing capacity in the UK, production partnerships in Spain, and operations in the United States. This geographic distribution allows us to serve customers globally whilst maintaining supply chain redundancy.
Our approach to the Middle East reflects this same philosophy. We’re evaluating how best to serve customers in the region reliably, whether through direct operations, strategic inventory positioning with regional partners, or other arrangements. The goal is simple: ensure that customers in the Middle East can source precision bearings reliably, even when global supply chains face disruption elsewhere.
Customers appreciate and reward suppliers who demonstrate reliability when supply chains face pressure. They develop loyalty to suppliers they can depend on and over time, they source preferentially from suppliers who have proven resilient when challenges arise.
The Competitive Advantage
Supply chain resilience is becoming a competitive differentiator in aerospace supply with customers actively evaluating it when making sourcing decisions. A supplier who can credibly demonstrate geographic diversification, supply chain redundancy, and regional presence has a genuine advantage over competitors who haven’t made these investments.
This advantage is particularly pronounced in speciality supply categories like precision bearings, where technical capability is a given customers assume suppliers are technically competent. The competitive advantage then accrues to suppliers who combine technical capability with supply chain excellence.
For MRO operators in the Middle East, a precision bearing supplier who maintains regional presence, understands their specific operational context and can support them reliably even when global conditions are disrupted, is genuinely valuable. These operators will preferentially source from such suppliers, often at prices that reflect the value that reliability provides.
The Strategic Implication
The age of just-in-time supply is becoming more carefully managed. Supply chains that depend on perfect execution, where any disruption cascades into operational failures, are increasingly understood as risky. Customers are actively looking for suppliers who have built resilience into their operations. For precision bearing suppliers, this creates clear strategic imperatives: invest in geographic diversification, maintain strategic inventory positioning, develop relationships with multiple suppliers and logistics providers, whilst establishing a presence in key customer markets like the Middle East.
Events like MRO Middle East provide the forum to demonstrate these capabilities to customers who are actively evaluating them. Suppliers who engage at these events, explaining their approach to geographic resilience and demonstrating commitment to serving the region reliably, will develop customer relationships that are stronger and more resilient than those built on price alone.
Supply chain resilience is the competitive advantage of the next decade in aerospace supply and suppliers who understand this and invest accordingly will prosper.
The Author:
Karl Brundell, Managing Director, Carter Manufacturing
Contact:
Carter Manufacturing Ltd,
Unit 7 Isis Court, Abingdon Business Park, Oxon OX14 1DZ
Email: sales@carterbearings.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 821 720
