An Aircraft Manufacturer, AERO LTD Was Facing Delays In Combat Aircraft: Supply Chain Assignment, UCD, Ireland

An aircraft manufacturer, AERO LTD was facing delays in combat aircraft programs. It also has strategic vendors located in different parts of the world. Boeing’s Dreamliner delay alerted the management of AERO LTD that it needs to integrate a risk management process in its development program. AERO LTD CEO, Mr. Billington has hired your team as consultants. He said “There are many uncertainties which make it difficult to monitor the supply chain during new product development. Uncertainties can arise because of contracting with a new supplier, lack of knowledge about supplier’s performance, uniqueness of the product design, novelty of materials used, complexity of manufacturing processes, etc.

These uncertainties might result in the product not meeting its performance criteria or its cost target or might result in the delayed launch of the product. To ensure that the desired objectives of launching the product are on time while meeting its performance and cost targets, it is important to understand the weak links in the supply chain during the early stages of development.

My team is currently grappling with the issue of how to assess the vulnerability of this complex supply chain and that too so early in the development process. Moreover, I believe as risk management is time-consuming, they can tend to spend a lot of time in planning and assessing supply risk. Hence, they need to prioritize and focus their attention on sub-systems and suppliers who are most vulnerable. Your analysis revealed the following sources of risk.

Table 1: Comparison of sub-systems on the degree of supplier involvement

Table 2: Comparison of sub-systems on the degree of process complexity

Table 3: Comparison of sub-systems on the degree of manufacturing process capacity

Table 4: Comparison of sub-systems on the degree of logistical complexity