Web Streamlines Aerospace Supply Chains - quality assurcance blog
Few industries require a more robust supply chain than aerospace: Lead times are long and the requirements for quality are absolute. And unlike the auto industry, aerospace is relatively new to the concept of a global supply chain -- a situation made more complex because of time zone, culture, language, and quality differences. So it's no surprise that changing conditions in the industry and the complications of aerospace design and manufacture render supply chain perfection an elusive pursuit.
"The task is daunting,” says one Seattle-based aerospace manufacturing engineer. “Change orders flow constantly when design engineering or purchasing either discovers a new source for parts, or we encounter a quality problem here on the floor. It is not simply a case of changing out parts. The impact is also felt in documentation and in quality assurance in our internal processes. Someone has to communicate through the master schedule of our parts orders that there has been a part substitution -- and we have to ensure that, going forward, the appropriate parts are being sourced through our supply chain to ensure that manufacturing stays on schedule.”
It was just this past August, for example, that Boeing discovered microscopic wrinkles in the skin of its new 787’s fuselage, prompting questions about a supplier, as well as a halt to production and a manufacturing delay. In a development in 2006, Airbus, as well, learned hard lessons when a design software upgrade didn’t work out, preventing the company from adding vital changes in electrical wiring to three-dimensional drawings needed to complete the project. The snafu culminated in the grounding of the Airbus A380. Via: www.internetevolution.com
