Analysis of delivery guarantees in the aerospace industry: A queuing theory approach

Abstract

Aircraft manufacturing companies have one of the most complex supply chains across industries. For example, B777 has more than 4 million parts and over 300,000 individual items. Any delay in delivery of aircraft can be very expensive. Aircraft manufacturers follow multiindenture design philosophy in which the systems are designed into three or four hierarchy of engineering parts. Many of these parts are designed and manufactured by suppliers across the world and is assembled at the original aircraft manufacture’s facility. One such supplier is Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) located in Bangalore. The delivery of the forward passenger door for one of its clients is one among the many projects that HAL is undertaking. The contract for this project was signed in 1990, according to which, 600 ship sets will be delivered by HAL. A ship set consists of a left side door and a right side door. After the delivery of 460 ship sets by 2004, the client and HAL signed another contract for supply of 1000 ship sets.