Finding the collaboration “sweet spot” between OEM, Tier 1 and Sub-Tier design partners has been a struggle and a very expensive proposition during the product development life-cycle. Each set of partners have different, sometimes conflicting, objectives. Process and system constraints from OEM’s can threaten the Tier 1’s ability to be competitive and in turn make collaboration with their sub-tiers difficult. While the goal of all partners is to deliver a product that meets technical specifications, holds to the agreed upon schedule and is profitable for all parties, current collaboration models are often obstacles to achieving these goals. Three collaboration models will be examined for their ability to realize business success from the perspective of the OEM, Tier 1, and Sub-Tier. Each model will be shown to have strengths and weaknesses, but all ultimately fail to promote truly effective and efficient engineering collaboration. A variation of these collaboration models will be discussed as a way to find the “sweet spot” between the control OEM’s need over the configuration of their type design data, the control Tier 1 and Sub-Tiers need around standardizing their processes & tools and the collaboration methods used to exchange product data between all actors.
Mike Voth is a Senior IT Manager for Spirit AeroSystems, responsible for integrating business processes and IT solutions across the Spirit enterprise.
Mike has been with Spirit since it started in June 2005.During that time he served as the IT leader for the Boeing 787 Program, Cessna Columbus Program, Spirit Progresstech Engineering Design Center and Kinston North Carolina and St. Nazaire France site development focused on the Airbus A350 Program.Prior to joining Spirit, Mike was employed with the Boeing Company in WichitaKansas for 22 years.
Mike has more than 25 years of experience in the aerospace industry in the areas of project and program management and business process & IT systems architecture and integration.
