DOORS at HAL Casestudy - IMB 305 U DINESH KUMAR ARUN MANOHAR AND G N SRIPRIYA DELIVERING DOORS IN A WINDOW SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT HINDUSTAN

IMB 305 U. Dinesh Kumar, Arun Manohar and G. N. Sripriya prepared this case for class discussion. This case is not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data, or to show effective or inefficient handling of decision or business processes. Copyright © 2010 by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means ± electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (including Internet) ± without the permission of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. U DINESH KUMAR, ARUN MANOHAR AND G N SRIPRIYA DELIVERING DOORS IN A WINDOW: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LTD. Yogindra, Deputy General Manager (Exports), responsible for the aircraft door export project to leading aircraft manufacturers, knew that this project initiated in the early 1990s was a significant milestone for Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL). In June 2009, HAL bagged an order from the Airbus Industries for supply of 2,000 door sets for its single aisle family of aircraft. The order worth around $150 million involved supply of 2,000 ship sets of forward passenger doors for the A-318, A-319, A-320, and A-321 aircraft. He replayed in his mind what Chandrasekharan /#*HQHUDO#0DQDJHU#RI#WKH#$LUFUDIW#'LYLVLRQ#RI#+$1/#KDG#WROG#KLP#MXVW#WKDW#PRUQLQJ/#³7KLV#SURJUDP# is critical for the division because it will be our stepping stone into the area of global exports. Once we get recognized as a reliable supplier in terms of quality, on-time delivery, flexibility and cost, we will be able to get more such export projects. ´#<RJLQGUD#XQGHUVWRRG#WKH#LPSRUWDQFH#RI#WKLV#SURMHFW#IRU#WKH#IXWXUH#JURZWK#RI#+$1#DQG# realized that he had the formidable task of turning this vision into reality. He had to ensure that delivery schedules were met in the most cost-effective manner without compromising on quality. In fact, Chandrasekharan had reiterated the importance of establishing a good reputation saying: Word-of-mouth spreads quickly among the few players in the aerospace industry. Hence we would like to improve our reputation for on-time delivery and gain a greater share of the global aircraft parts manufacturing business. The effectiveness of the word-of-mouth can be gauged by the fact that we have been awarded the contract for manufacturing doors for a new Embraer jet purely on the basis of our reputation for delivering quality parts to Airbus and Boeing. The assembly of aircraft doors is labor intensive and involves long procurement lead time for parts used in the process. Each aircraft door has around 1,200 parts to be assembled using complex manufacturing and assembling processes. Manufacturing cycle times are random because of the uncertainty associated with the availability of manpower, parts and machines. Aircraft manufacturers practise lean manufacturing and try to eliminate any wastage from their manufacturing process. Delays in delivery of aircraft can result in a huge loss to the aircraft manufacturers and hence they expect all their suppliers to adhere to a strict delivery schedule. The aircraft