Airbus has cemented closer relationships with its suppliers, “most of which cannot be easily replaced” during the its latest output ramp up, says Mr Butschek, who stepped up to the COO job in June from Airbus head of operations.
In response to the all families order backlog, Airbus has introduced joint improvement programmes with its main suppliers which have technical capacity constraints. Specialists form joint project teams with suppliers, to explore the details of a project to seek “sustainable improved delivery performance”.
A more severe intervention is called a transformation project. “This is launched if we identify major constraints in the supplier’s capacity to respond to ramp up,” said Mr Butschek. “Deeper levels of operational support are provided, and we do make our support mandatory if required. It’s part of risk mitigation.”
There is usually no direct financial support, Mr Butschek said, “because the base assumption is that our suppliers are in a stable financial condition. They are normally in a position to fund their running operations and capacity increase independently.”
But he did not categorically rule out any financial support to key suppliers.
Based on the article “Ramp up is a challenge but recruitment is no problem, says Airbus boss” published in The Manufacturer
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