LE BOURGET—Boeing has revealed at the Paris Air Show that it started meeting with Tier 1 aviation companies about a month ago to mitigate supply chain risks for production aircraft and the aftermarket.
“This is not a finger-pointing exercise,” but rather collectively working together because “we’re only as strong as our weakest link,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal says.
The group—which includes C-suite, quality assurance and engineering executives from around the world—meets monthly.
He says the group will “collectively focus on coming back, re-institutionalizing the industry around the quality management system” and using “best practices in training." The aviation sector lost a significant portion of its workforce during the pandemic, Deal says, and “this industry still depends on labor to get to its net efficiency output."
“I expect this to be a great collective exercise in Boeing working with the supply chain to get better and faster together,” Deal says.
As Boeing ramps up aircraft production, Deal says that “until we get to our max, we will probably encounter some type of instability that we will have to work together as an industry and a team" to solve. However, he does not think it will be as big of a disruption as experienced in the 2021-22 timeframe.
Deal says that overall, he thinks the supply chain performance is improving and he sees increased cooperation between companies as a positive to drive improvements “as fast as we can.”
On the aftermarket side, Boeing is investing in inventory “to prevent shortages where possible,” Boeing Global Services (BGS) President and CEO Stephanie Pope says.
Approximately 70% of BGS’s business is based in parts and distribution.
“From an opportunity perspective, I would say it’s all about digital enablement,” including working with suppliers to be more predictable, Pope adds.
