Je sais où m'arrêter, du moins sur un fil dédié, surtout quand un PB "Personnel" est sous-jacent !
JPRS
ILA: Gallois declares A380 programme under control
By David Kaminski-Morrow
Airbus's A380
programme is officially "under control", EADS
chief executive Louis Gallois insists, although the manufacturer must
turn its attention to cutting costs.
Gallois made the declaration as he recounted the development of EADS
since its creation 10 years ago.
"For the first time the expenses are equal to the forecast," he said,
citing the financial performance of the programme in the first quarter.
"It means the programme is under control."
The next step, he added, would be to decrease Airbus's outlay on the
type. "I hope, progressively, that the costs will be reduced, and not
create more expense than expected," Gallois said.
He said the airframer was "overcoming the problems we had". Over the
course of last year Airbus halved the amount of outstanding
out-of-sequence work at A380 final assembly, and slashed production
drawing backlog and the time to resolve queries.
Emirates' follow-on order for 32 A380s at the show is an "acid test"
for the programme, he pointed out, because the carrier has chosen to
increase its order having operated the type for more than a year.
"We have big respect for the way Emirates is managed," he added.
"We're convinced this company has a future."
EADS chief financial officer Hans-Peter Ring also clarified his
previous forecast that the A380 would break even in around five years'
time.
He said this would be on a "per year" basis. In the current US dollar
environment, he says, EADS "could be in a situationby the middle of the
decade" where the A380 is "no longer weighing" on the company.
Having expressed optimism over the A380, Gallois said that EADS's two
main priorities were to ensure that technical challenges did not
undermine the A350
programme - adding that the company was "staying on its timescale" -
and to avoid any fall-out from cuts to European defence budgets.
EADS wants to protect its research and development capabilities, in
which it has invested €22 billion ($26.3 billion) over the decade, and
prevent a "domino effect" from uncoordinated cuts in the countries
involved.
A380 production revamps drives down out-of-sequence workload
By Max Kingsley-Jones
Airbus is confident that it has put the A380's
production woes behind it after the latest initiatives have seen a
significant improvement in the completion state of subassemblies when
they reach the assembly line, which has dramatically reduced the
out-of-sequence workload.
The airframer struggled to keep output of the superjumbo on track
last year as production issues combined with the complication of having
to manage several customer deferrals caused deliveries to fall well
short of target.
In total, 10 A380s were delivered in 2009 - two fewer than 2008 - but
Airbus is confident that deliveries will more than double this year as
monthly output gradually rises from two to three aircraft over the next
18 months.Alain Flourens, who heads the A380 programme, says that it became
© Airbus
evident last year, as Airbus prepared to deliver the first "Wave 2"
aircraft with redesigned wiring harnesses, that more changes were
needed. These changes are now bearing fruit.
"We realised that a significant amount of additional work was needed
to update the digital mock-ups [DMU], the design activity and the
following manufacturing and engineering activities," he says.
"We enforced a very strict quality gate around the DMU, starting from
the first step at the release of drawings for production - which means
we have more coming out right first time."
The result has been an 80% reduction in the backlog of production
drawings, while out-of-sequence work needed in Hamburg and Toulouse
declined by half during the course of 2009. Airbus says that since the
beginning of 2007, out-of-sequence work has been reduced by a factor of
seven.
Flourens estimates that the A380's production lead time has fallen by
around 40% over the past 12 months, while over the same period the
number of displaced workers on the Toulouse assembly line has been
halved to about 1,000.
A more recent initiative, dubbed "stop and fix", was implemented late
last year. This requires workers to halt production to resolve problems
rather than push them on to the next stage for later rectification.
The result of these initiatives is that, finally, A380 subassemblies
have been arriving in Toulouse at the correct state of readiness,
meaning they are configured for the power-on process when assembly
begins, says Flourens.
Airbus is continuing to drive down outstanding work as the output
level ramps up, which should see the number of displaced workers
progressively reduced during 2010-11, he adds.
The handover process for the 525-seater has also been tightened up,
with acceptance now typically taking around eight days - and sometimes
just five. "This is a good target for such a big aircraft," says
Flourens.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/07/05/343877/a380-production-revamps-drives-down-out-of-sequence.html
Airbus have announced that Lufthansa’s second A380 (MSN041) will be delivered on July 16.
Engine Alliance has been given a boost by Airbus in its battle with Rolls-Royce on the A380 after the airframer officially recognised a further improvement in the GP7200-powered version's fuel burn.
"In April we received a nice boost from Airbus, which gave our fuel burn advantage over the competition further validation when it revised the 'Orange Book' performance handbook to give us an additional 0.5% credit," says Engine Alliance president Mary Ellen Jones.
She says that this was on top of the 1% credit that Engine Alliance already has. "So this puts us 1.5% ahead of our own specification to Airbus. So in our view we are 1.5% ahead of the competition."
Airbus's A380 marketing chief Richard Carcaillet confirms the Orange Book adjustment, saying that the airframer wanted to reflect the improved performance over the original specification that the GP7200-powered aircraft now that sufficient in-service data has been accumulated.