Challenging times

According to AIM Aviation's technical sales director, Chris Wenstrom, the effects of high build rates and speed of delivery, combined with ever-tightening legislations are increasing pressure on aircraft interiors suppliers. As air traffic has doubled over the last 15 years, the aviation industry has seen many changes and improvements. The annual growth rate over the next 20 years is anticipated to be 4.7% and the huge increase in demand is set to challenge the sector.

To meet with current demand and to be geared up for future growth, production build rates have been, and are continuing to be, significantly increased. The airframe and engine OEMs have driven major reductions in lead-times and are continually working at removing waste from all their processes.

This high rate and speed of delivery, combined with REACH legislation and more discerning customer requirements, is increasing pressure on aircraft interiors suppliers and the supporting supply chain.

As airframe manufacturers drive to reduce the time lag from customer order to product delivery, the pressure on suppliers is manifested in the need for reduced development cycle lead-times. To meet this challenge, aircraft interiors manufacturers have to deploy Lean through their entire value stream and every function in the organisation, starting with the customer order.

Individual needs

Whilst the commercial aircraft industry is expanding rapidly and demand is high, it is still relatively low volume compared to most consumer products. The interiors industry, therefore, will never be a production line in the conventional way.

The requirements of airline customers vary depending upon their individual business models, from low-cost operators through to the high end, differentiated service providers. Each business model has its own primary drivers, which have to be encapsulated in a certified product-offering from the interiors suppliers. The challenge for the suppliers is how to cover each different requirement within their product offerings, given the need for reduced lead-times.

For some airline operators weight is a key issue, for others, it is aesthetics and the requirement for high-impact signature units. The boundaries of design and material technology are continually being pushed, all against a backdrop of changing legislation and certification requirements.

For the dual purpose of protecting the environment and safeguarding human health, under the REACH legislation, materials and treatments that have traditionally been used in the aerospace and aircraft interiors industry, are being gradually withdrawn.

Airworthiness certification requirements change frequently, generally requiring greater testing and tightening of processes, to make air travel even safer than it is currently.

Between the tick and tock

The desire to reduce lead-times challenges everyone in the supply chain to look at their engineering processes. Organisations need to focus on process improvement and waste reduction in all their forms by regularly reviewing the value-added stages.

During the development phase, supply-chain relationships have to be collegiate, with suppliers being part of the design-and-make process, helping to contribute to the technical proposal at an early stage. Activities that in the past were conducted in series are now being carried out in parallel. This is often termed ‘simultaneous engineering' and has the advantage of compressing the development lead-time, but requires professional programme management to ensure that the activities are coordinated and any issues are resolved quickly. The reduction of timescales means any flaws in processes are highlighted, as there is little time to provide work-around solutions.

Boundaries within and between the supply chains have become blurred. These changes in structure, boundaries and task sequencing can push organisations out of their comfort zone, but offer the advantage of highlighting issues or problems earlier in the project timeline.

The protectors of safety, the environment and human health are there for the wellbeing of all and are taken very seriously by the aircraft interiors industry. The challenge is keeping up with them, and the rate of change seems to be ever increasing. Airworthiness requirements and regulations are driving the demand for new materials and processes, which in turn drives the requirement for certification testing, validation and verification.

The level and frequency of materials testing for FST compliance is also increasing. This, in combination with the fact that new materials and processes are required to replace those phased out by legislation, increases the burden on the suppliers of cabin interiors.

Meeting customer needs

Airlines are driving change in their quest to gain competitive advantage. For some airlines, cost is the main concern. This is forcing interiors companies to search for weight and cost reductions. On the flip side, airlines whose business model is to gain competitive advantage through differentiation are driving interiors companies to develop new materials, new concepts and are pushing the boundaries of current thinking.

For example, how many industry observers would have predicted an aircraft with its own duty-free shop? This was the vision of Korean Air and AIM Aviation was able to develop and nurture the concept into reality. It is the attention to detail that really makes the Sky Shop so successful: the sales items are held in place during flight by magnets; every advertising picture has its colour modified so it appears correct when seen through the coloured flame-resistant ppsu transparency lenses; the video wall has nine monitors, which can display nine individual pictures or one mosaic.

Customer requirements, environmental factors, REACH and developing airworthiness requirements are together contributing to an accelerating cycle. Phenolic-based composites have been prevalent for many decades but they face being phased out by legislation in favour of alternative resin systems that are more environmentally friendly and display better mechanical properties.

Research and development used to be a once-in-a-decade event or the result of a customer request. Now it is becoming a continuous challenge and a pre-requisite to success. In today's airline industry, research and development needs to occur in parallel with commercial programmes, with the latest certified standards incorporated into designs to gain the competitive advantage.

Close relationships between industry and academia are therefore increasingly important, as are those within the supply chain. The challenge now is in developing a combination of relationships with external expertise, tapping into technological advances and collaborating across the supply chain.

There are so many factors that contribute to success in the aircraft interiors industry: staying ahead of the competition; material development; process development; operational effectiveness; responsiveness; tapping into academia; being open to change; energising colleagues to keep searching for something better. The ultimate challenge is to realise that perfection can never be attained but should be constantly sought.

To continue to grow and prosper, the industry demands improved customer responsiveness; better quality of equipment to meet the customers growing aspirations; more testing, to prove, verify, and validate safety; and a continual drive to reduce total cost of acquisition. The nature of business in general, but of aviation specifically, is that lead times will constantly be challenged for improvement. This can only be done by having an open view on an organisation's current performance and capability, by accepting that things can always be improved and that this can only be done by developing closer and more effective internal and external relationships.

www.aim-aviation.com