The aerospace and defense industry has an enormous problem. Major airplane programs have been consistently late to market, costing companies billions and, in some cases, tens of billions of dollars in direct costs and lost sales. These delays have also led to deteriorating market values and diminished manufacturer credibility.
Background
A primary reason these problems persist is the extraordinary complexity of today’s major airplane programs. Typically, hundreds of suppliers are involved in these initiatives and their decisions are interwoven with those of a multitude of other suppliers. Compounding this complexity, there is a wide geographic dispersion of suppliers across virtually all regions of the world: Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. Additional byproducts of the rising rate of program delays and higher complexity include fragmented and misaligned product development processes, supply chain miscalculations as well as manufacturing and engineering inefficiencies.
Solving these challenges is strategically and financially critical to the overall health of the industry and essential to drive higher revenues and profits, lower production costs, reduce time to market, and deliver more affordable and reliable flying experiences to airline passengers.
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