The quiet revolution that sped through the airliner supply industry over the past decade has become mainstream doctrine: no longer can subsystems suppliers rely on the lead OEM to assume the design and integration responsibility for their products, at least according to the companies that occupy the upper tiers of the supply chain.
“If you’re talking to a company that provides components only, they’ll probably tell you, ‘No, nothing has changed.’ But if you’re talking to companies higher up the food chain that do provide subsystems, as we do, there’s no question in my mind that there’s been a fundamental shift,” said Doug Wright, head of Curtiss-Wright Controls Engineered Systems (Hall 3 Stand B18).
“It used to be that the Boeings and the Airbuses would control the systems integration level quite closely. Now, as I see it, the systems integration is the complete responsibility of the integrator, for the life cycle of the airplane,” said Wright. “The integrators have to step up to that challenge and provide the complete package. As a subsystem partner to the integrators, we must also be ready for the challenge.”
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