SupplyChainDigest Editorial Staff

Interesting story in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago on how both Boeing and Airbus are quickly getting supply chain religion in the face of a very tough selling climate and brutal price competition. As with many discrete manufacturers, they’re both taking lessons from Toyota and “lean” concepts.

As the article notes: “The plane makers have recently grasped a big truth pioneered by Toyota Motor Corp: Working hard to keep things simple saves money.”

Though airline manufacturers face a number of unique challenges, including the level of customization for each buyer and safety and other regulatory issues, they are making progress in the lean journey. Steps include:

• More focus on designing parts that can be quickly assembled
• Use of more standards parts
• New factory layout designs that mimic automotive plants
• Fewer customer options
• Squeezing suppliers in auto OEM fashion
  
  

For years, the airlines simply thought they were different. But the article says that thinking has changed. It quotes Boeing commercial aircraft head Alan Mulally as saying: “Well [it turns out], airplanes aren’t different. This is manufacturing.”

The goals are ambitious: Airbus aims to build a smaller plane in just six months, half the time taken just a year ago, and to reduce manufacturing cycle times for larger planes by 20%. Boeing aims to reduce final assembly operations for one model from a month to just three days.

The companies are also starting emulate the supply chain models of the auto OEMs, outsourcing whole sub-systems, the way the auto companies might handle a drive train. Part of that process is also putting more responsibility/ opportunity in the hands of suppliers to improve designs. Some suppliers that service both auto and aerospace industries are moving staff with deep automotive experience into the airline parts businesses to help with the transformation.

The airplane makers are also pushing inventory back onto suppliers and using more just in time delivery techniques – saving them lots in space and inventory costs, and promoting overall efficiency. Boeing has even gone so far as to use a production line system in some of its factories – unheard of in the old days.

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Is it about time the airplane manufacturers started thinking lean? Are there other industry’s that need a similar supply chain awakening? What kind of pressure/financial pain might this put on suppliers to Boeing and Airbus? Let us know your thoughts.