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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0072.PDF
AIRBUS AT THIRTY share options, but they have been allowed to retain their BAE pensions. "What we have created [with die new Airbus] is a matrix organisation," says Airbus UK man aging director Tom Williams. "We will have challenges to change the thinking on how tilings used to be done. We have to change the mind-set to that of a single company." Williams warns, however, that the company must remain focused on its operational perfor mance: "It would be easy to get distracted by try ing to create the perfect organisational model." The Filton and Broughton sites are now stand-alone from their former parent in every sense; even the old "BAE Systems" signs have come down at the plants' entrances. Managers now refer to the Airbus partners as "the share holders", and swear allegiance to Toulouse rather than BAE's headquarters in Farnborough. "Lots of work has been done over the last 12 months to see clarity on all our contracts with other BAE plants," says Williams. "We have restructured all the inter-company trading agreements so that we now have proper 'arms- length' trading relationships." COST-SAVING OPPORTUNITIES Cost savings is one of the AIC's key goals, and Williams says national fiefdoms that were "ring-fenced" by various partners to protect their position should now be opened up. "We are looking at areas where we can redistribute to remove non-added value - there are lots of opportunities here for cost savings." So-called "value-creation savings" are target ed, which Williams says will result from a rethink on how work will be distributed. "We will look at the most sensible way to act. It has in the past been dictated by workshare. It will now be decided by business case analysis." Airbus UK's engineering director, Iain Gray, excellence, but 25 years on, that's what we are," says Gray. With the Airbus sites across Europe now having clearly defined roles. "WhatAirbus must try to do is replicate the benefits of the competitive bid process, without the duplica tion that the old method had," says Gray. Airbus UK's director of manufacturing, Brian Fleet, says: "When the A300 programme began in the early 1970s, Broughton was a jack of all trades." At that time, the plant's primary task was to produce the HS12 5 business jet, and the A3 00 wing work was tucked away in a cor ner. "We've gone from being a cottage industry with low production rates to a massive high- tech plant built upon key skills, producing upwards of 400 units annually," says Fleet. Airbus' two UK plants manufacture wing skins, spars ribs and stringers. "Filton is the 'powerhouse' behind Broughton - it is the fab rication shop - a centre of excellence for wing manufacturing," says Fleet. Two policies have been adopted for the UK's share of the wing manufacturing. Wings for the widebodied types (A300,A310andA330/A3 40) are assembled at Broughton and flown by Beluga to the EADS Airbus plant in Bremen for equipping with control surfaces, before travel ling to the assembly line in Toulouse. Wings for the single-aisle models (A319, A320, A321) are fully equipped by Broughton and despatched straight to the assembly line in Toulouse or Hamburg. Since the A330/A340, BAE has also been responsible for programme management of landing gear systems. WINGSETS FROM THE UK The A380's wing will be designed, builtand par tially equipped by Airbus UK. Broughton will install hydraulic, air and electrical systems on the wing, and it will go direcdy to Toulouse (by ship to the port of Bordeaux and then by barge I"We are now all pulling in the same direction, as opposed to fighting against each other because of national interests" - Iain Gray, Airbus UK engineering director adds: "We are now all pulling in the same direc tion, as opposed to fighting against each other because of national interests." A common procurement policy across all of its European plants is one of the "new" Airbus' priorities - as it should be, according to some of its suppliers. Williams' predecessor, Ray Wilson, has been appointed to head that department in Toulouse. There was a technical design competition among the various partners on all new Airbus aircraft until the A3 80, says Gray. This resulted in competing teams undertaking unilateral studies of new wing designs. This competition ensured that the best possible design was adopt ed for each new Airbus, but it also saw the UK's position on wing design threatened. "We didn't set out to be the wing centre of and truck). Flying-control surfaces will be installed on the final assembly line in Toulouse. The foundations for Broughton's 8ha (20 acre) A3 80 wing-assembly hall will be laid in the third quarter of this year. The building, which will be 500m long, will be up and running by 2003 and will eventually be able to produce 48 wingsets a year. A more immediate challenge for Airbus UK is managing the ramp-up of A3 2 0 family wings as it increases to a record 30 a month by next year. This has required investment in addition al jigs at Broughton, but Williams says: "The real issue is to make sure that the supply chain can come up to speed on time." Some wing fabrication has been sub contracted to Chinese suppliers and Williams says he would like to see their participation Williams: Challenges to change the thinking increase. There has been talk that China could eventually produce entire Airbus wings. "We have enough capacity between ourselves and our suppliers for A320 wings," says BAE Systems chief operating officer Mike Turner. "What matters is how much we keep in-house and how much we put out. It's important we only keep in-house what we think we can sus tain through a downturn. We don't want a hire and fire cycle - we want stability," he adds. "China is taking some of the A320 wings but that will be a long slow build-up, which will take many years and has set milestones - that's agreed," says Turner who adds that former Airbus UK MD Ray Wilson recendy complet ed the negotiations of the the next stage of the deal. "We are not going to get the Chinese to order Airbus aircraft unless we are in there, like Boeing," says Turner. At Broughton, contractors represent about 1,700 of the 4,300 employees, which gives Airbus UK some flexibility in managing the boom-bust cycle. The company is in the process of switching a number of its contractors on to permanent contracts, which will see the tally reduced to around 1,100 contractors: "We will retain around 10 % of our workforce as contrac tors, to hedge against a softening of the market," says Williams. OFF THE AGENDA In the early days of the single-aisle programme, there was some talk of a UK final assembly line. Such a development is now clearly off the agen da - while assembly is arguably the most glam orous part of aircraft production, the Airbus manufacturing technique of supplying fully equipped sub-assemblies to the line means that it represents just 5% of the entire process in man-hour terms. As such, BAE has no wish to make the huge investment needed simply to have the prestige of a final assembly line. -I 70 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001
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