Early supplier involvement in new product development within the UK aerospace industry

Abstract

Preliminary findings from survey and casework on the UK Lean Aerospace Initiative (LAI) programme have revealed strong collaboration and integration between customers and preferred suppliers in the area of new product development. The paper highlights not only some of the practices and methodologies that aerospace manufacturers have developed and adopted in integrating preferred suppliers in the product development process but, also, the potential benefits from closer integration at an early stage of the design cycle.