Career opportunity within Aernnova

ANNnews: Javier, first of all, thank you for your collaboration. We believe it is important to give visibility to the possibilities of professional development within Aernnova Group. Having said that, if you like, let’s take a look at your career. How many years have you been working at Aernnova?

JAVIER IRIARTE: My beginnings related to Aernnova date back to when I started working at Fibertecnic when I was 19 years old, with a temporary contract of 3 months as an operator in the cutting machine, in 1990, but finally I was there until the beginning of 1994.

In that year, Aernnova as such did not exist, but together with other colleagues, many of whom are currently part of our Company, we were referred to take a one-year course in Aeronautical Assembly at the INEM (public employment service) in Vitoria, a group of approximately 40 people, with another 40 who were selected from outside and that helped us to enter in a staggered manner between 94 and 95 to what was then Gamesa Producciones Aeronáuticas.

I officially joined the company in October 1995, having previously spent two months of training in the assembly line of Embraer together with other colleagues.

ANNnews: What has been your career within the company?

JAVIER IRIARTE: My initial trajectory was in production as an operator in the assembly plant that was in Miñano, where Aernnova Aircfract Services (AAS) is currently located. We started with the first wings of the EMB ERJ-145 aircraft, together with Embraer personnel who served as support during the beginnings.

I worked as a sealant, later became Team Leader of the Sealing and Painting Section, and then Production Supervisor of the Assembly Cell. I remember those years with great affection.

The best friendships arose there, because the teamwork and self-improvement of a group of young people very motivated, in an environment of increasing demands, with the little knowledge we had, made us work hard as a team and learn all of us by leaps and bounds.

It was weeks, months and years of tremendous pressure. We learned to deal with constant surges in demand.

This stage was interrupted approximately around 2005, due to Company needs, I was assigned for 2 years to an Aernnova supplier (Metraltec) to lead a Project of recovery of deliveries that directly affected our Customer and Aernnova itself, we had no parts to assemble.

In Metraltec I lived another reality, that of the supplier at that time smaller than it is today, with similar levels of demand and with more limited resources, but I keep it with great affection, there you learn to value what you have, and in turn you also learn to manage a group of people and situations from which I learned a lot, a lot.

Two years later and with the project completed, I became Production Manager for about 2 years in the factory that was then called Moasa, where Burulan Miñano is currently located, until the transfer and reunification of plants in Berantevilla, the current Aernnova Aerostructures Alava (AAA).

In 2009 I was offered the opportunity to become part of the Lean Implementation of Continuous Improvement in Aernnova Group as Lean Leader and later as Responsible and Coordinator. The LEAN model started in three factories of the Group and today it is implemented in practically all the companies and departments of the Group through Lean Cycles. And this is where I am today.

ANNnews: What do you like most about working here?

JAVIER IRIARTE: To be honest, what fulfills me is working as a team to achieve a goal. I liked it in production and I like it in quality, working with people enriches you, because you learn from almost everyone, at least I do.

I like to live the factories mainly, I consider that they are our internal customer for all the support departments of Aernnova, and I also consider that you have to be in them and live them to know what their needs are and always keep in mind the importance they have for the achievement of the business, without them history is not written.

Sometimes it is not easy, sometimes the environments of pressure or contrast of interests do not accompany, and the only way to solve them is to determine clearly what is the objective and the scope of what you have to do and try to transmit it trying to be as systematic as possible. Where there is no communication, there is no progress. At all levels.

In my particular position, I have to interact with countless people from all the Group’s companies, from different countries and cultures, and each one of them with their own company history, which also counts a lot.

I always draw the same conclusion: those who work as a team with a common goal end up achieving not only results, but also more motivation with less effort.

ANNnews: Have you come across any difficulties when you have changed positions within the organization?

JAVIER IRIARTE: Of course I have. But those related to the day to day of the new change. If not fear, you always have respect. I have always thought something that is a reality, I started working young, not at all with the same level of knowledge as many of my colleagues, and when you are offered something new, you always have that personal doubt of knowing if you are going to be up to it. But on the other hand, you think that when they offer it to you, it’s because they think you’re capable of taking it on, and also, if the normal conditions are right, you have someone by your side who will show you the way to do it.

Situations such as now, where we are in an environment of creating new opportunities internally and with a future of growing demand, I believe are appropriate for change.

ANNnews: Do you think the company takes full advantage of your skills and knowledge?

JAVIER IRIARTE: I personally have to thank very much certain direct managers I have come across in all these years who have had me in their charge and have bet on me and have dared to do so.

I believe that opportunities can come or not, you need to be at the right time and in the right place.

Not only in my case, I believe that in many cases you can get more out of knowledge and skills of many people; The best way to trust someone is trusting, only with control you can not get everything.

I know of an infinite amount of talent within Aernnova in all companies and areas of the Group that may still be hidden.

There are true references at all levels of the organization, those people that when you go to a place you rely on them because you know that their day-to-day knowledge and predisposition are unquestionable. You don’t have to look for them, they appear by themselves.

It is the eighth waste, which is not talked about much, not using people’s intellect.

ANNnews: What makes you want to work here?

JAVIER IRIARTE: For me, Aernnova gives me job stability, that’s for sure, and I value the professional and personal growth above all, even though sometimes the level of personal effort that I sometimes make in terms of mobility, for example, may seem negative, I see it as an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day to live a lot of experiences and acquire knowledge that, in another situation, you would never be able to get.

Mobility gives you the opportunity to travel, to be and share challenges with people from all walks of life and makes you discover that people and their know-how are often found within the Group, but they have not been given the same opportunity.

ANNnews: What aspects do you value for Aernnova to continue to be your workplace in a few years?

JAVIER IRIARTE: Without a doubt, the richness of working with people from different companies and departments and learning from each and every one of them. Every day there is someone who enriches you and teaches you, no matter how small it may seem to you. I do consider experience to be a degree, and at ANN there is a lot of it.

ANNnews: What do you value most from all these years?

JAVIER IRIARTE: Well, look, not even in the best of dreams did I expect to start working in the same company more than 30 years ago and still continue working there.

I value personal and professional learning above all else.