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“But the real elephant in the room is the potential
transfer of IP from a prime manufacturing company”

company that has spent years building it In the aviation industry (at present, the orders will continue to flow in as the
up, to a new company that will concentrate at least) the problem has an additional market expands. Or will they?
on that single core competency. The factor that compounds the issue. Both If new players such as Sukhoi, China
outsourced business may then take the the A380 and the 787 were years late in Aviation’s COMAC, Honda, Mitsubishi,
original technology, develop it and then coming to production – but customers Turkey’s THK and Bomdardier all
go on to outstrip the originator (in this who had ordered or registered options on pitch into the market as they say they
case the aircraft builder) and become a the aircraft in the hundreds had nowhere will, Boeing and Airbus’s outsourcing
prime manufacturer in their own right. else to go. The alternative was just that strategies could come back to bite them
This is a valid concern, as expressed – a single alternative at best, and in the quite badly, as they will no longer have
by Dr Stan Sorscher, of the Society for case of the mould-breaking A380, there a stranglehold on the market, but even
Professional Engineering Employees in was no alternative. So no matter what the more critically, they will have outsourced
Aerospace (SPEEA) in an interview with problems were, how they were caused, the crucial technology that gave them an
CIO magazine recently. or how bad the outsourced product, edge, and reduced aircraft building to a
“Boeing developed much of the the problem had to be fixed. There was commodity product exercise. Just like
materials, manufacturing processes, nowhere else to buy such an aircraft. If cars are today: the previously mentioned
tooling, tolerances and allowances and the outsourcers can either go it alone – lesson from Toyota’s outsourcing strategy
other design features, which are then or alternatively band together to form a is plain and clear.
transferred to suppliers in Japan, Italy competitive EADS, then there will be an
and elsewhere,” he said. Some observers alternative for customers.
are concerned that this transfer of The existing “us-or-nothing” approach
corporate IP will lead to the outsourced means that Airbus, Embraer and ABOVE: The original plans for the
suppliers becoming the ones in control Boeing will no doubt continue to pursue Mitsubishi Regional Jet included
of the critical body of knowledge, with outsourcing approaches, as illustrated carbon-fibre parts – a field in which
the result that the aircraft builders by the A380 wing crack issues and 787 Boeing was one of the pioneers
run the risk of becoming out of touch battery fire problems. It is not that OPPOSITE, TOP: Tata consultancy
with the key technical expertise that outsourcing itself causes these problems; Services’ cEO N. chandrasekaran
OPPOSITE, BELOW: Dr Stan
they originally developed. Indeed, the more that the control systems in place Sorscher, of the Society for
promised launch of the Mitsubishi find it impossible to factor in all of the Professional Engineering
Regional Jet (MRJ) using state of the art circumstances, variances and simple Employees in Aerospace, has
composite structures illustrates that the economic production factors that would highlighted that corporate IP issues
sharing of technology could be a case of fly an obvious red flag if all those areas may be a big problem should a big
catching the tiger – but by its tail. were being handled in-house. No matter, company outsource manufacturing
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