Airbus honours best-performing suppliers

BY A CORRESPONDENT
May 23, 2006

Airbus highlights its top performing suppliers in its annual Supplier Support survey, which reflects the results of the 2005 customer satisfaction, and Supplier Support performances evaluation.

The survey for which Airbus received more than 5,000 questionnaires from 83 customers is conducted this year for 43 suppliers. Airbus designed this survey to recognise best performance and commitment to customer satisfaction, as well as identifying areas for support improvement.

The major equipment suppliers to the Airbus family of aircraft are rated on the following criteria: ability to demonstrate reliable equipment & systems; ability to ensure effective support services; and ability to provide competitive direct maintenance costs.

The top 10 suppliers of the "2005 annual Supplier Support survey" are: Airbus Avionics, Airbus KID Systeme, Diehl Avionik Systeme, Air Cruisers, AOA/LGG, Vibrometer, Rockwell Collins Avionics, Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems (APIC), Technofan, and SAGEM.

This year Airbus is also pleased to present an award to Monogram Systems as the most improved supplier, as they have gained 13 places in the ranking and finished eleventh place overall.

The Airbus rating system has established the way of working for the industry for evaluating the in-service support performance of suppliers in terms of products, services and costs. Further, the rating has evolved as new standards have been defined to measure suppliers' performance and therefore help customers to achieve the best performance for their aircraft.

"In an industry where support performance is becoming evermore important, Airbus would like to recognise the efforts and achievements of the benchmark suppliers during 2005," says Patrick Gavin, Airbus Executive Vice President Customer Services. "Only by working together and driving continuous improvement process, we can provide the quality and flexibility of support requested from our client operators."

"The supplier support rating provides an opportunity to develop and reward performance simultaneously. Through analysis of the feedback and results Airbus can work with suppliers to implement and drive improvement plans whilst acknowledging those suppliers employing best practice and setting benchmark standards," he concludes.

Airbus is an EADS joint company with BAE Systems.