A digital aircraft manufacturing and an assembly line that is no line at all is expected to deliver a substantial jump in Airbus A320 and Airbus A350 production. Robert Coppinger reports.
Too much work is a nice problem to have and for Airbus it presents a challenge to increase productivity at its final assembly lines and throughout the supply chain to meet that demand.
The European aerospace giant is aiming to ramp up the monthly output of its A350 XWB to 10 by 2019 and for its A320 Family add another 10, six months later, for 60 new builds a month. In the first half of 2018, 239 A320 family and 40 A350 XWBs were delivered, out of a total of 303 aircraft. If Airbus achieves its goals, in the first half of 2020 it should be delivering 360 A320 Family and 50 XWB. For the A320 there is also an intention to achieve 70 per month and a feasibility study is underway for that.
Read more: Progress is not straightforward