Analysis of the supply chain disruption experienced in the US, published by the TRIGO Group, has estimated that two-thirds of late aircraft delivery events are the responsibility of the supplier while the final third falls on the end customer itself.
Analysis of 18 months of on-time delivery performance from around 500 US suppliers s(calculated from January to July 2023) indicated that change of schedule was the primary cause for delay, followed by engineering changes and manufacturing process changes as requested by the customer. An underlying combination of root causes also shows that these issues cannot be tackled independently.
TRIGO also noted a ‘very interesting correlation between supplier performance and customer discipline,’ concluding that if a supply chain experiences more than 30% of delays caused by the end customer, the on time delivery is unlikely to exceed 85%. ‘By simply improving a customer’s discipline, accountability [and] program management, there’s an opportunity to reduce customer-induced late deliveries’.
The report continues that the use of internal experts ‘can be a strong lever to transform the way both customers and suppliers behave,’ which will in turn greatly improve partnership performance and ultimate on time deliveries. The use of predictive analytics (including AI solutions and machine learning) can also play a vital rule in allowing manufacturers to stay ‘a step ahead’ of any potentially arising issues, highlighting a ‘sweet spot’ of optimisation between human expertise and digital input.
“Given the high improvement potential that lays there and the ever-increasing pressure on production rates, OEMs should tackle these issues and consider starting with a new situation awareness paradigm,” concludes TRIGO.
TRIGO Group: customer behaviour responsible for a third of late deliveries
