PDF6.76 MB - Wyższa Szkoła Komunikacji i ZarzÄ dzania

The Re-organisation of Value Chain Systems and Creativity: The Case of Aeronautics 103Muller, Zenker, 2001; Grabher, 2004). This task requires creativity and opennesstowards new problem solutions.For decades, Airbus was no company like other multinational firms. With itsspecific legal constitution based on an agreement between four governments andthe obligation to allocate work-shares between the single locations according tonational engagements, Airbus had to adjust to political requirements. Furthermore,the sector of aeronautics has been influenced by the culture of military productionand aerospace, where secrecy and national epistemic communities playa bigger role than in international markets. Airbus tried to make the best out ofits political role and obligations towards different national locations by defininga decentralised structure of “centres of excellence” (CoE) in 2004 with their ownresponsibilities and decision-making processes. The CoE mainly refer to the operationalparts. So far, six CoE have been defined:–– on wings at Filton and Broughton, UK,–– on forward and aft fuselage at Nordenham, Varel, Bremen and Hamburg,Germany,–– on nose and centre fuselage at Toulouse, Saint Nazaire, Nantes andMéaulte, France,–– on vertical tailplanes at Stade, Germany,–– on pylon and nacelle at Saint Eloi, France,–– on horizontal tailplanes at Getafe, Illescas and Puerto Real, Spain.Additional CoE on cabin and customisation (Toulouse, Hamburg) and electronics(Toulouse) have been established.This specialisation offers the opportunity of concentrating all knowledge onspecific elements for aircraft innovation processes by still having the option ofusing competition between the locations as an innovation driver. For example, thewing producers in the UK have been challenged by the achievements of the Germanand Spanish locations in Stade and Getafe to increase the share of compositesas an alternative to metals with less weight and more flexibility. Due to thesechallenges, new R&D investments have been attracted in the UK to overcomethe deficits in composites. Specialisation also means the challenge to coordinatebetween the single CoE. As a consequence, Airbus introduced a “concurrent engineering”program to enable engineers at all locations to work simultaneouslyat joint projects. These joint and simultaneous works help to manage interfaceproblems as well as to develop common technological solutions for core systemsof the aircraft. Further efforts have been made to improve the level of interactionbetween the different locations by staff exchange programs and support for interregionalcooperation between public authorities or private associations at thelocations.These processes, however, are still characterised by a relatively high levelof integration within the firm. Looking at the references from other industrial