When they embarked on the Airbus adventure 40 years ago, it was clear in the Airbus pioneers’ mind that it was not just about developing one aircraft in cooperation. That had already been done before. What was at the top of their agenda was to break the US domination in commercial aviation and to build a new force in Europe able to compete on the world market for decades to come. To reach their goal, they had no benchmark on which they could build. They had no other choice than to invent their own way. It is what they did.
To be competitive in the commercial aviation market they had to offer a highly innovative product. What they offered had never been done before – a highly efficient, twin-engine wide-body tailored for short and medium haul routes, the A300B. But to be really competitive they had to build a robust industrial system able to produce that aircraft – and its followers – on time, quality and cost. That was as challenging as conceiving a new aircraft. In fact, at the time – the early 1970s – many observers thought it was “mission impossible.”
No efficient and stable Europe-wide industrial system had ever been developed. The cooperative programmes had built themselves the reputation of accumulating costs and delays. However, Roger Béteille and Felix Kracht, respectively technical and industrial directors of the newly formed Airbus, made it work. The A300B was launched in 1969, performed its first flight in 1972 and entered into service in 1974. It took five years from the launch of the aircraft to its entry into service.
To get such a remarkable result, Roger Béteille and Felix Kracht used very simple but innovative methods. “Most of the time, the difficulties come from the interface when there are more than two partners on the same border,” said Roger Béteille. “So, I had the idea to ask Sud-Aviation (the French partner at the time) to build the central node – the section of the fuselage where the wings and the front and rear part are attached. That way we had no triple interface.”
Another key idea was to convince the partners to specialise in the design and manufacture of certain elements of the aircraft in order to avoid costly duplications and to gather experience faster. That was not an easy task, but Béteille and Kracht, extensively using the “management by persuasion” method, established a sharing that is still in place today. For example, since the beginning, the wings have been made in the UK, the fuselage in Germany and the cockpits in France.
At the time, the final assembly line represented between 20 and 22 per cent of the man-hours. “That was unthinkable in a multinational partnership,” said Felix Kracht. “Each partner would have fought to get the final assembly line.” So, he decided to dispatch the work up front in the manufacturing process. The partners had to produce complete sub-assemblies. At the end of the day, the final assembly line represented only five percent of the total man-hours. Thanks to that wise decision, the partners accepted working together on one single assembly line in Toulouse close to the flight test centre.
To closely link the flight test department to the final assembly line was also something new. Béteille and Kracht often said that they considered the flight test department as the link between all the industrial and technical knowledge of the “Airbus club,” as well as the privileged interface between the consortium and its customers.
Bringing together people around Europe in France, Germany, Spain and the UK was one thing, but a major problem remained to be solved – how to move the large aircraft components produced all over Europe to the Final Assembly Line in Toulouse? Once again the Airbus pioneers had to innovate. None of the options used by the other major manufacturers was satisfactory. In the US, the components were carried by rail, road, river or sea – but in Europe, because of the geography and the generally old design of all surface transportation infrastructures, it was almost impossible to build a rapid and efficient transport system. Only one option remained – to fly the components to Toulouse.
Felix Kracht reviewed all existing cargo aircraft, including the Galaxy and the huge Antonov. They were all too small. He had the idea to ask a small US company, Aero Spaceline – which had already built a cargo plane with an enormous fuselage to carry sections of Saturn rockets for NASA, the Super Guppy, in the mid-1960s. Even that monster, derived from the Boeing Stratocruiser, was too small. Felix Kracht said, “I need an even bigger one. If you build one with an internal fuselage diameter of 25 feet (7.62 m), I’ll buy it.”
The result was two enlarged Super Guppy with swing noses which were built in the early 1970s. They carried large Airbus aircraft components for three decades. At the beginning of the 1980s, two other units were built and joined the fleet to cope with the success of Airbus and the development of its range of products. Today they have been replaced by Airbus A300-600ST “Belugas” that feature the most voluminous cargo hold of any aircraft in the world.
The unique air transportation system put in place by Airbus proved not only to be rapid and reliable but very cost effective. During rail transportation of aircraft components such as fuselage sections, the risks of voluntary or accidental deterioration were such that the manufacturers had a specific repair shop to rework the components upon arrival. Airbus never needed one.
The foundations of the Airbus industrial system having been set up, each partner developed advanced manufacturing technologies to the benefit of all – the company and its customers. The number of manufacturing “firsts” accumulated by Airbus in 40 years is impossible to tell, but we will mention some of them.
The A310 was the first aircraft with components produced by the super plastic diffusion-bonding process. Of course, it was also the first to use CFRP in primary structures such as the fin box. Airbus was the first to introduce laser beam welding on a civil aircraft with the A318. This technology is used for joining structures instead of traditional riveting for reducing weight, corrosion and manufacturing costs – and it is extensively used on the A380. Airbus was also the first to introduce friction stir welding, in which a high-speed tool is used to create heat through friction to join surfaces. Then, Airbus used electron beam welding for joining thick, high-loaded structures, such as pylons for the A340-500/600 and on titanium components of the A380 pylons. This process enables cost and weight savings.
However, what is certainly more important today is the way Airbus is innovating again by creating a global company and by extending throughout its complete global chain the principle that has been at the root of its success: to leverage skills and know-how.
The advances in information processing and communication have been such that today distances are no longer an obstacle. Airbus now has a long experience of CAD/CAM techniques and has developed a host of tools using the digital mock-up and e-technology that are extending the enterprise to its supply chain worldwide – far beyond its original European boundaries – while maintaining its values.
Of course, Airbus later introduced Lean Manufacturing in its factories. Lean is about reducing complexity whilst improving efficiency and quality. The whole working processes had to be re-organised in order to shorten lead-times (up to 35 per cent in Nantes) and reduce inventories (up to 30 per cent in Puerto Real), improve efficiency of products and processes and eliminate non-quality as early as possible. This approach enables Airbus’ highly-skilled people to continuously improve their way of working. Lean at Airbus has been applied from design to manufacture – that led to standardisation of parts and components and to ease the definition of structure and system interfaces. Airbus will leverage its experience to drastically optimise the design, manufacturing and assembly of its new generation aircraft, the A350 XWB. The A350 XWB Final Assembly Line should reach 30 percent of lead-time reduction compared to the A330/A340 FAL.
The transformation of Airbus into an integrated company in 2001 has permitted it to rationalise the industrial system even more and to take full advantage of the competencies and capacities spread all over Europe and around the world. Thanks to years of experience and constant innovation in manufacturing processes, Airbus implemented a new organisation between 2004 and 2007. Airbus created larger, trans-national and cross-functional organisational units that are fully responsible for substantial work packages and that leverage the know-how, skills, best practices and talents of all Airbus sites. Airbus applied to its production streamlined and harmonised processes, an optimised organisation as well as methods and tools derived from the best practices shared across the company. The A350 program will fully benefit from the streamlined and harmonised organisation and processes. Thanks to the implementation of standardisation and modularisation principles, design will be fully adapted to the manufacturing requirements.
The multinational aspect of the system that was long considered by the sceptics as a problem is now clearly a key asset. The best example is the Final Assembly Line China in Tianjin, the first ever FAL outside Europe and outside of home country. Airbus will continue to develop strong partnerships outside Europe to reinforce its global industrial footprint around the world, attract new talent, and benefit from resources and a qualified workforce.
Deploying its production system was a challenge for Airbus pioneers but it turned out to become its strength. Thanks to its innovative approach and its constant improvement, Airbus has been able to build a strong production system that has secured its leadership position. In 2008, Airbus delivered 483 aircraft, a company record and the highest in the history of commercial aviation. This was only possible because Airbus set new standards. Together.
