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Weekly UpdatesBoeing set the ball rolling, it could be said, with its decision to outsource most of its aircraft production activities, symbolised by the divestment of its Wichita factories, now doing business (very successfully) as Spirit AeroSystems. Boeing's new production philosophy was also applied to its military aircraft programmes, resulting in the sale of some of its St Louis production units to GKN Aerospace of the UK. At the same time, the US firm--hither-to famous for its "proprietary-minded" approach to every part of its commercial aircraft revised its strategy for buying major systems and subassemblies. Boeing decided to retain only the core business in-house, focusing on its role as a "systems integrator" and giving suppliers full design and development responsibility for their workshare.
The 717/MD-95 programme may have played a decisive role in this respect. The programme inherited from McDonnell Douglas featured unprecedented levels of outsourcing from foreign firms, and the same strategy was applied to the 787. France's Labinal, who is responsible for wiring installation design, certification and manufacture on the 787. is convinced of the advantages of this approach, especially in light of the A380 production shambles, where several wiring suppliers are working alongside each other.
The situation confronting Airbus as it embarks on the A350 XWB programme is rather different from its US competitor. Faced with the problem of the unfavourable dollar/euro exchange rate and a need to reduce production costs, the European company launched its Power8 programme, which includes the partial or total divestment of some of its production sites--Filton (UK), Saint-Nazaire Ville and Meaulte (France), and Varel, Nordenham and Laupheim (Germany). However, this process, which is currently in progress, has proved to be more difficult to implement than expected. Negotiations with potential aerostructures partners will involve workshare arrangements on the XWB programme, though partners will be free to diversify their customer base as they wish
New Systems Policy
A350 XWB programme director Didier Evrard explains that Airbus' objective in introducing what it calls the New Systems Policy (NSP) is to receive systems at an earlier stage in the production cycle and with a greater degree of maturity, having already been tested by the supplier. A key goal is to achieve first flight with a greater degree of maturity than on previous programmes. Evrard says it is important to limit changes during the rampup on the final assembly line--which is why the two NSP catchwords are "'earlier" and "wider".
According to Evrard. by tightening discipline during the upstream stages, the flight test phase will be more effective ... and of shorter duration. The objective is 14 months for the A350. The company also expects costs to come down as global system development responsibility is delegated to suppliers, since delegation will also include management of the supplier's supply chain. Airbus will thus be relieved of the need to micro-manage companies at the lower tiers of the supply chain, enabling it to focus more on its integration role.
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Potential for weight redaction
Another upshot of the new system is an increased potential for weight reduction. Evrard explains that the scope of the system managed by each major supplier has been expanded to include a greater number of functions, with a global performance requirement. This means that the supplier can achieve tradeoffs between the different building blocks, each of which performs a function. He can allocate performance as a function of his knowledge of the system. Freed of the constraints that Airbus imposed on each building block in previous programmes, he will be able to determine allocations in a different way from what Airbus would have done and in a manner that is better adapted to equipment he can use off the shelf or the technologies that he has at his disposal. Evrard readily acknowledges that the supplier is better placed to do this than Airbus.
Domingo Urena-Raso, the man who heads the Airbus Power8 cost-cutting programme, says that Airbus has to refocus its engineering activities on architecture, systems integration and getting the specifications right in order to get as close as possible to the functional design. This applies not only to systems and equipment but also to aerostructures. In the case of the A350 XWB, around 50% of production work packages have already been defined, representing a total of 10 packages. These will be attributed to a smaller number of suppliers than on previous programmes, selected according to their capacity to share the programme risk.
The programme partners, including those participating in the ongoing Airbus factory divestment procedure, will perform an increasing share of integration work before final assembly by Airbus. They will participate in integrated teams, working closely with Airbus engineers. They will also communicate directly with the equipment suppliers selected to develop system packages
Tier 1 suppliers are selected according to their overall capability, including performance, cost and weight objectives and the ability to meet commitments. Following selection, the supplier enters the Joint Definition Phase (JDP) where teams work together on a common design "plateau" over a six-to-nine month period. After this period of close collaboration, explains Evrard, individual partner companies can pursue development work at their home facilities, delivering their equipment two years later for bench testing.
AIRBUS EXPECTS COSTS TO COME DOWN AS MORE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT RESPONSIBILITY IS DELEGATED TO SUPPLIERS
On 12 September, Honeywell officially became the first supplier to sign up for the A350 XWB programme. The development contact covers not only the APU, for which it had already been selected on the initial version of the A350, but also the entire cockpit and passenger cabin air management function. The two systems are linked as the bleed air will be taken from the APU. Portions of the air management system will be integrated by the individual aerostructures partners, Evrard explains, but the overall system functions will undergo validation and functional pre-integration by the subcontractor. This, he notes, is one of the advantages of contracting for larger functional packages. He adds that the maturity of each building block will thus be enhanced, as the supplier will be able to perform the integration earlier than Airbus would have.
On top of its qualifications as a systems supplier, Honeywell offers the additional advantage of being a dollar zone supplier, thus eliminating the dollar/euro exchange risk for that system over the lifetime of the programme. The US firm says the value of its A350 work package has quadrupled, compared with the work that was to have been performed on the original version of the aircraft.
The second officially-confirmed supplier is Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg of Germany, which will supply the A350's nose landing gear. Though the nosegear for the A350 XWB will be the largest gear set that the company has ever developed, Evrard underlines the synergy between the landing gear systems that the German firm has traditionally developed for smaller aircraft and the A350 system. Liebherr-Aerospace states that the new gear will make extensive use of highstrength steel and will utilise new surface treatment methods that have been specified for reasons of cost-effectiveness and due to ecological considerations.
Messier landing gear
Messier Dowty was recently selected to supply the main landing gear for reasons that include the size of the gear and, probably, workload considerations. The company's selection for the initial version of the A350 had always seemed secure, though the design has had to be reworked in the light of the new airframe specifications.
The fuselage has evolved from an initial hybrid concept combining aluminium-lithium frames and composite skin panels to a mostly-composite design, in which all but a selected number of frames will also be of carbon fibre construction. The remaining frames will be built from titanium. The nose section will also be of metallic construction to improve bird strike resistance.
These changes in the airframe materials of construction have a direct impact on the landing gear, which is anchored to the airframe structure. Airbus expects to have selected around 70% of its system suppliers by the end of 2007, including suppliers for the fuel, electrical and flight control systems. Among the suppliers selected for the original version of the A350, Goodrich is expected to be confirmed as the nacelle supplier for the XWB. Evrard is confident that the engine offering, currently limited to the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB, will eventually be extended to include an engine from GE.
That said, there is an emerging trend in the new Airbus procurement strategy in favour of single-source suppliers--a trend that should be welcomed by the airlines. The new policy has been applied to the wheels and brakes, tyres, inertial platforms, radars and other equipment. The reason for the new policy is to be found in the high cost of certificating multiple equipment options.
In addition, alongside the extended development times and increased costs in the case of multiple systems, airlines are demanding competitive aircraft, so that supplier strategy has to be based on the volume of production of a given equipment, the development of which will be amortised not only as an OEM-supplied item, but also throughout the service life of the aircraft, including proposals for exchanges and services which are now integrated into the specifications at an increasingly early stage.
THALES GEARS UP FOR NEW AIRBUS OUTSOURCING STRATEGY
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