FUTURED. ZAL Magazin 2025

DLR INSTITUTE OF SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES IN AERONAUTICS
Meeting between Pina
Donelli (DLR) and Cahide
Özkan (Airbus).
38
FAST, FLEXIBLE AND
FUTURE-ORIENTED:
THINK AHEAD, SUPPLY
CHAIN IN MIND
CONTACT
Luca Boggero
luca.boggero@dlr.de
It seems like a mission impossible: future
aircraft must be environmentally sustainable,
affordable to fly, profitable and thus
market competitive all at once. If aircraft is
to meet these demands, novel technologies,
speed, flexibility and security (against
external threats) are crucial. Aircraft largely
consist of components and parts (systems)
bought off specialized suppliers
around the world after the completion of
the aircraft design.
MAKE-OR-BUY
This approach can however lead to unforeseen
production issues, the inability to adapt to possible
market changes, an increase in costs (so
less affordable and profitable) or a less valued
end product (quality decrease). This is why aircraft
manufacturers (OEMs) need to take the
right “make-or-buy” decisions and value vs. cost
trade-offs. Which parts can – or should be – built
in-house, which components or parts should be
bought off (which) suppliers with a specialization
in this field only? But to predict which trade-offs
and decisions will have been the right ones in
hindsight seems impossible.
THREE AT ONCE: SUPPLY CHAIN,
MANUFACTURING AND AIRCRAFT DESIGN
Or maybe not. What if we managed to anticipate
and include already at the beginning those decisions
that are usually taken during the produc-