Airbus Gets DSO “Religion”

Most likely, you’ve already read the news about the A380, the Airbus flagship super-jumbo jet.  The plane will now be ready for delivery another year later than originally planned. 

That delay could cost Airbus’ parent company, EADS, $6.1 billion in lost revenue over four years.  And today it cost Airbus CEO, Christian Streiff, his job.

Ouch!

Now I won’t go into the gory details about the root cause of this delay (you can read IET’s story about it; or if you want more on the technical challenges of building one of these babies, read Paul Parkinson’s recent blog).   

But there’s a bigger story here, and it’s not about possible fallout like order cancellations or management changes.

The bigger story is a Device Software Optimization (DSO) story.

One of the key tenets of DSO is standardization.  That means standardized tools, standardized development practices, and standardized training deployed globally across an enterprise.

The Airbus delay resulted from the late implementation of tools, used by engineers who weren’t fully up to speed on how to use those tools. Consequently, moving forward, Airbus has ordered implementation of the same proven, standardized tools at all sites, as well as standardized training for all employees using those tools.

Of course, this delay is painful for Airbus.  But if it means that the company is adopting DSO, it’s the best thing that could ever happen to them.