Aéro Montréal 2019 Annual General Meeting

Québec's aerospace cluster champions innovation

MONTRÉAL, May 17, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - Aéro Montréal, Quebec's aerospace cluster, today announced excellent results for 2018 during its annual general meeting, held at MILA Québec, the new artificial intelligence campus. The meeting brought together some 150 senior leaders from Quebec's aerospace industry.

A new strategic plan that focuses on the convergence of knowledge

To remain competitive, our SMEs have to invest in innovation. Our role is to support them in this process. Digital transformation and, more specifically, artificial intelligence, constitute a set of technologies that can no longer be neglected and which must quickly be integrated into the manufacturing processes of our entrepreneurs.

"With this in mind, we adopted a new 2019-2022 strategic plan, developed with our corporate members and industry experts," says Suzanne M. Benoît, President of Aéro Montréal. "The success of the aerospace cluster depends on greater convergence with sectors related to ours, including artificial intelligence (AI). We must take advantage of the opportunity Montréal provides in terms of having a network of companies, researchers and research institutes that are advanced in AI to create synergies with our companies and thus offer ever more innovative solutions."

The 4.0 revolution has the potential to generate new economic value. Productivity and quality gains, as well as adapting to new customer needs will be achieved thanks to the new methods resulting from 4.0. "The aerospace industry, which is an industry where innovation is a constant and which has the highest standards of quality and regulatory requirements in the world, must move more rapidly in shifting to 4.0," says Ms. Benoît.

With its new vision of becoming the most innovative cluster in the world, Aéro Montréal is looking to the future with optimism, confident that Québec's aerospace industry will maintain its place at the forefront of international aerospace capitals.

2018 Highlights:

• The MACH FAB 4.0 Initiative was launched in 2017 and aims to implement digital technologies and advanced manufacturing in participating SMEs. In 2018, two calls for projects for MACH FAB 4.0 were launched and 15 additional companies were recruited. In addition, Aéro Montréal worked with Hamburg Aviation to develop a new maturity scale for digital technologies that will enhance the features of this program.
  
  
• Two new initiatives were launched in 2018 to propel our SMEs into new markets:
  
  
• Accélérateuror360?: This initiative is designed to support growth and foster collaboration among SMEs in international markets by assisting commercialization within global supply chains.
  
  
• StartAéro360?: This initiative's goal is to support Québec aerospace technology SMEs in the pre-commercialization phase of their innovative products.
  
  
• We hold in 2018 the sixth edition of the Aerospace Innovation Forum during International Aerospace Week - Montréal. More than 1,000 Canadian and international aerospace decision-makers participated in this event held under the theme "Aerospace in the era of disruptive technologies."
  
  
• Two new committees ? Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and MROs ? were established. These working committees underscore the importance of these sectors to Québec. Our SMEs need to position themselves now to diversify their offerings in these emerging markets.
  
  
• In the next 10 years, nearly 37,000 positions will have to be filled. In 2018, the Rise to the Future campaign enabled Aéro Montréal and its partners to launch public relations and media relations initiatives, as well as develop communication tools to reach young people and encourage them to focus on careers in aerospace. Following the various campaigns, participation nearly doubled at open doors events at the École nationale d'aérotechnique and the École des métiers de l'aérospatiale de Montréal.
  
  
• Our recruitment tool, the AéroPortail, was leveraged as part of the recruitment campaign with the development of a careers section where companies can submit their job postings. To date, the AéroPortail has posted nearly 900 jobs.
  
  
• In 2018, APN received the Aerospace SME of the Year grand prize at the 2018 Gilles-Demers Awards. Every two years, the Gilles-Demers Awards recognize aerospace SMEs who have distinguished themselves in various categories.

All these actions were made possible thanks to the tremendous involvement of industry members in the various working groups and committees and the financial support of the three levels of government as well as our institutional partners. This involvement represents more than 490 hours of work for an estimated total of nearly $1 million worth of in-kind contributions.

About Aéro Montréal
Created in 2006, Aéro Montréal is a strategic think tank that groups all major decision makers in Québec's aerospace sector, including companies, educational and research institutions, as well as associations and unions.

The activities of Aéro Montréal are made possible thanks to the participation of the governments of Québec and Canada, the Montréal Metropolitan Community, as well as  company members of the cluster.

SOURCE Aéro Montréal