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A3XX: FINAL ASSEMBLY SITE A CRUCIAL ISSUE

All aircraft manufacturers are obsessed with the final assembly line, which at times is elevated almost to the status of sacred cow. As the birthplace of the aircraft, it carries a kudos which no one would willingly forego.

But in reality final assembly is only a small part of the total manufacturing process involved in building an aircraft. For example, final assembly comprises only around 5% of the work of producing an airliner and, compared with former times, final assembly is no longer proof of a company's system competence, since it entails fitting together subassemblies that have already been fully tested.

A meeting scheduled for 26 May, at which Airbus's Supervisory Board was to have granted the company authority to offer the ultra-large A3XX to airliner customers, was postponed at short notice. Insiders are speculating that the meeting was postponed because agreement could not be reached on where final assembly should take place. And, rather than risk a loss of image from postponing the start of official marketing of the A3XX once more, it was deemed preferable that the Supervisory Board should not meet. It is clear to all those involved that only Hamburg and Toulouse are still in the running for winning the final assembly work.

In reality it is difficult, if not impossible, to correctly calculate the production costs for the mega-Airbus if one does not know where final assembly will take place. Postponement of the Supervisory Board's meeting only makes sense in the circumstances. The logistical expense of transporting subassemblies and subsystems to the final assembly site is a considerable cost factor which has to be taken into account in the overall budget.

Even though Airbus Industrie is a single legal entity as opposed to a consortium, it is still by no means easy for the Airbus partners to arrive at a reasonably fair division of the A3XX final assembly work. National sensitivities, which can still have a lingering effect on the success of the company after 30 years of Airbus experience, are too strong and hence rule out the possibility of co-locating final assembly and equipping of the interior.

One possible solution to this problem would be to locate final assembly and internal fitting of the A3XX in different sites. Fitting out the interior of a 550-seat aircraft is a labour-intensive and complex production stage. Toulouse is a candidate centre for final assembly of the Airbus widebodies and Hamburg a possible centre for the interior fitting work (as well as for final assembly of narrowbody aircraft). The giant airliners could then fly from France to Germany as "green" aircraft using their own engines.

Whereas the first Airbus widebodies underwent final assembly in Toulouse, were fitted in Hamburg and then flown back to Toulouse for handover to the customer, the French have since become used to customers taking delivery of the A321 and A319 in Hamburg. This experience suggests a solution whereby final assembly of the A3XX is performed in Toulouse and fitting of the interior and handover to customers in Hamburg. This division of the work would also justify mounting the engines early on even though that would mean tying up capital, provided that the aircraft are handed over to the airlines in Hamburg, thus avoiding the expense of being flown back to France. This would serve everyone's interests, and it would be brought home to customers that the Airbus A3XX is a truly international aircraft. The decision to go down this path would also give out the importance signal that Airbus Industrie is committed to seeking the most-cost effective solutions and, in the interest of its customers, will not allow national sensitivities to deflect it from this goal.

From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 7/2000