China's - Orient Aviation

COVER STORYEXTREME MOVEFromsingle-aisleto the A380Heinen literally has one of the biggest, and probably the toughest jobs, in AirbusBy Charles AndersonTh e m a n o n w h o s e b r o a dshoulders the A380 programmenow rests is Mario Heinen.Formerly head of Airbus’ssingle-aisle programme, hesucceeded Charles Champion * as head ofthe programme after Champion, who had runthe show since 2001, was one of a number ofexecutives replaced in the production delayfall-out.“It was a big, new experience to swap fromone extreme to the other almost overnight,”said Heinen who moved from a programmethat produces some 400 relatively simpleaircraft a year to one which, even at its peak,will turn out many fewer, but considerablymore complex machines.“It was very hard work at the beginning toget a grip on all the loose ends. But we had astrong team, which we pulled together fromother areas. Ultimately, we managed to setup the right battle plan to bring this undercontrol,” he said.At the root of the delays was the designand fitting of electrical harness systems. Thecomplexity of their installation, already liableto be altered after testing, increased throughvariations in the customisation programmesrequired by airlines keen to steal a marketlead on rivals with ambitious cabin designs.A lack of coordination between Airbusteams in Hamburg and Toulouse was alsoa factor.That is no longer a problem, saidHeinen. “From my perspective there areno distinctions any more, not betweennations or between functions. We areworking in a concurrent way. One of thebest demonstrations of this is that engineersare placed right at the docks of the aircraftrather than in special buildings. That is nowtheir daily life,” he said.The programme revamp came beforethe implementation of Airbus’s Power8restructuring plan, which reduces overheadsby job cuts and outsourcing, while alsotargeting structural inefficiencies.‘The challenges are to makesure this ramp-up is fullysupported by the supply chain’Mario HeinenExecutive Vice-PresidentA380 ProgrammeExperience gleaned from the A380became par t of the bigger picture.“Power8 comes out of the lessons learnedand understandings [gained] from theweaknesses of Airbus as specifically seenon the A380. But they were launched in alarger, broader sense,” said Heinen.As for the delivery programme, theconfidence is there that full productioncapability will be reached by 2010. “Withevery milestone we pass, it gets stronger,”he said. “The challenges are to make sureSIA planes on the production linethis ramp-up is fully supported by the supplychain.”Suppliers big and small were affectedby the delays – Rolls-Royce suspendedmanufacturing of its A380 engine, theTrent 900, for 12 months. Now companiesare gearing up with guidance from a groupset up by Airbus to deliver the quantitiesneeded to produce 45 aircraft a year.“When we announced the delays, it meanta lot of suppliers had to slow down extremely.Some, most prominently Rolls-Royce, eveninterrupted activities for a period. They haveall resumed again,” said Heinen.Production now won’t include the cargoversion. It was put on hold after FedEx andUPS cancelled their orders, citing the delaysas the main factor in their decisions. Airbusstill sees the freighter as a viable proposition.But it won’t be revived for deliveries until2015 at the earliest, if the demand is there.“Everything has been properly conservedand we will be ready and prepared to rampit up, but coincidentally it was a good thing.We could focus on the passenger programmeto make sure it was running flawlessly,” saidHeinen.The delays also gave test teams andmarketing men more opportunities to takea development aircraft – one with a fulla commercial cabin – around the world,ironing out any final kinks and showingthe public what they were missing. Routeproving for the Engine Alliance GP720020 ORIENT AVIATION NOVEMBER 2007