Insitu hosts supply chain conference | News

“It’s usually a really exciting time and well-received from our suppliers … We’ve got a pretty fun day for them,” Knowles said, including facility tours, demonstrations, as well as presentations and q&a sessions. “So it’ll be interactive and I expect a lot of good exchange with these suppliers.”

Insitu, which is based in Bingen, produces two lines of unmanned aircraft systems, including the ScanEagle and the RQ-21 Blackjack, both of which can provide search and rescue support, surveillance, target identification, and security functions to armed forces at home and abroad, and to commercial customers in a smaller capacity. “This is a really fast paced industry,” Knowles said. “Our customers have a strong appetite for unmanned products … We see a lot of growth in areas such as longer endurance, being more expeditionary, certainly things that make our products more autonomous, or more interconnected, both with manned and unmanned systems. And so the technology growth and potential is staggering.”

Since the last time the conference was held, much has changed in the aerospace defense industry. Insitu has since had to adapt to a changing market due to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic which has put pressure on global supply chains. Knowles said Insitu, as with the entire aerospace industry, has experienced challenges on its own distribution networks. With the conference set to commence this week, Knowles said the past couple of years have highlighted the importance of collaboration between suppliers.

“We want to make sure that our suppliers understand what we see from the customers, and where the industry is going, and then also get feedback from them on what they see downstream in the supply chain, because it is changing rapidly. Especially since its been a couple years since we’ve had a large conference like this, there’s going to be a lot of discussion around that, with regard to what’s changed,” Knowles said.

Insitu takes pride in its local suppliers and “how well we support those businesses and small businesses here in the Gorge … We have roots here in the Columbia Gorge, and are really proud of how we’ve really created an industry here in the Gorge and have served our suppliers well,” Knowles said.

He added that their suppliers have served Insitu well. “They’ve been great partners throughout these last couple of years, especially, and we’re happy to have their support, and in strong partnership, as we’ve managed these pretty dynamic times.”