There will be a renewed emphasis on customers’ interests. Airbus aims to serve its clients with higher levels of reliability and quality, as well as better customer service.

Development time for new aircraft will be reduced from seven and a half years to six. Robust development processes will be established with risk-sharing partners to secure these cycle time reductions, as well as the required aircraft maturity at entry into service. The module also aims to improve engineering productivity by 15%.

Through smart buying, Airbus will reduce the supply cost base. It will reshape and consolidate the supply base by building a network of risk-sharing partners and streamlining its logistics organisation.

Airbus will further integrate manufacturing and associated engineering and will ensure the deployment of consistent, lean production principles across all plants. Management targets a 16% productivity increase by 2010.

The Airbus management proposes a progressive headcount reduction of 10,000 positions over four years, comprising 3,200 in France, 3,700 in Germany, 400 in Spain, 1,600 in the United Kingdom and 1,100 in the Airbus central entity in Toulouse. Approximately 5,000 of these positions are temporary or on-site sub-contractors, where reductions have already begun. The remaining 5,000 are Airbus employees, where reductions will be achieved through both natural attrition and negotiated voluntary severance and schemes in each country concerned. At this stage, no forced redundancies are considered.

This module targets the reduction of financial working capital and the tight control of cash in all operations.

In line with the goal of focusing on its core business, Airbus will reorganise its industrial structure. Airbus is considering industrial partnerships at its plants in Filton, Meaulte and Nordenham, in order to facilitate their transition from metallic to composite design and manufacturing technology. With respect to its sites in Laupheim, St. Nazaire-Ville and Varel, Airbus will consider several options, including their sale to key suppliers, management buy-outs or combinations with nearby sites.

A number of measures are being implemented to further increase the efficiency of the Final Assembly Lines (FAL). Toulouse will see a further capacity enhancement of the long-range FAL, as the A350XWB will be assembled and will receive its interior furnishing in Toulouse. In Hamburg, a third A320 Family FAL is being set up with immediate effect. It will have full “type” flexibility, and be able to cope with additional demand for A320s when production exceeds 14 per month. Hamburg will also perform final assembly of the New Single-Aisle Family. Furthermore, in order to allow parts to be fitted in the most logical place to optimise the overall cycle time, some upstream preparatory cabin installation work for the A380 and the A320 assembled in Toulouse will be transferred from Hamburg to Toulouse. Nevertheless, cabin installation remains in Hamburg and A380 deliveries will be performed both from Hamburg and Toulouse.

On the engineering and manufacturing side, Airbus will focus on business activities that are either critical for the integrity and safety of the aircraft or vital for technological and commercial differentiation. These activities include overall aircraft and cabin architecture, systems integration, as well as the design, assembly, installation, equipping, customisation and testing of major and complex components, or manufacturing of new technology parts.