In recent weeks, three of the largest US aerospace manufacturers announced initiatives to improve the effectiveness of their supplier and subcontractor bases, stressing the need to reduce costs and prices while improving effectiveness. We reproduce below
DALLAS--- Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector (ISA) presented its integrated enterprise strategy during a supplier conference held here today. The audience consisted of approximately 500 representatives from domestic and international companies. "This is the first supplier conference since we reorganized the Materiel organization into a shared service to support all four business areas of ISA,'' said Ralph D. Crosby Jr., corporate vice president and ISA sector president. "We are working together to become even more competitive through a Materiel strategy that is agile and lean.'' "The ISA integrated enterprise strategy focuses on processes that enhance agility in our supplier base. There are many components to our strategy -- e-commerce, single process initiatives, integrated sourcing and commodity procurement aggregation,'' said Judy Northup, sector vice president-Materiel. "The purpose of today's conference is to communicate how we will conduct business with our supplier base.'' Chris Cool, vice president-Manufacturing, Quality and Lean, noted that the Materiel lean strategy addresses initiatives not only at ISA but also with the supplier base by identifying opportunities, offering ideas and sharing successes. "One of the keys to success is the implementation of lean throughout the value chain for each product. A major effort now underway is bringing key suppliers more deeply into integrated product teams by aligning capabilities to a product family. In addition, the aggregation of commodity requirements across the sector and the focus on national commodity agreements offer high leverage for cost reduction and competitiveness,'' said Mr. Cool. "The real overall goal is to have all the purchasing, logistics and materiels management in place that will create winning opportunities for ISA, our suppliers and customers,'' said Ms. Northup in closing the conference. Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector, headquartered in Dallas, is a premier aerospace systems integration enterprise. ISA has the capabilities to design, develop, integrate, produce and support complete systems, as well as airframe subsystems, for airborne surveillance and battle management aircraft, early warning aircraft, airborne electronic warfare aircraft, air combat aircraft, and commercial aerostructures. (ends)
In recent weeks, three of the largest US aerospace manufacturers announced initiatives to improve the effectiveness of their supplier and subcontractor bases, stressing the need to reduce costs and prices while improving effectiveness. We reproduce below the statements recently issued by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on this increasingly important subject, allowing a direct comparison of the three companies' respective approaches to vendor and supplier relations.--Editor. Northrop Grumman Supplier Conference Highlights Integrated Enterprise Strategy
