“Recaro Supplier Award” goes to the Jung company

This year marked the second time Recaro Aircraft Seating officially honored its top suppliers. In recognition of outstanding performance from international suppliers, the “Recaro Supplier Award 2011” was presented to proud representatives of the Jung company. “Jung consistently sets benchmark standards with outstanding flexibility, and adherence to delivery dates. The company impressively demonstrated this again in 2010 in conjunction with the delivery of the BL3520, our current product highlight,” said Dr. Mark Hiller, COO in charge of Research and Development, Purchasing, Production and Quality, speaking at the award ceremony attended by more than 100 representatives from international supply companies. “Jung was tasked with machining forged parts for us. From the feasibility meetings to series production, they handled the job in an extremely short time and once again clearly demonstrated outstanding technical expertise and efficiency. This clearly contributed to the success of the Recaro BL3520 seat. Not only were our customers highly satisfied, our product was honored with the industry’s Crystal Cabin Award in April 2011.”

The three best Recaro suppliers included Hagans Plastics Co., Inc., a supplier of plastic backrest inserts based in the U.S., and Reinhard Bretthauer GmbH from Dillenburg, Germany. This company was last year’s “Recaro Supplier Award” winner.

The top three companies were chosen from the 100 best Recaro Aircraft Seating suppliers. The selection was based on supplier assessments that monitor quality, adherence to delivery deadlines, and efficiency. “These attributes are extremely important, because our customers insist on a supply chain that operates flawlessly. Reliability is our guiding principle. We do everything we can to ensure that our performance – and that of our suppliers – is consistently excellent. And our current success shows that we are on the right track,” explained Director Sourcing René Dankwerth. “But this is no reason to rest on our laurels. We are planning to increase our production capacity and our supply chain has to grow with us. In this respect, the ‘Recaro Supplier Award’ serves as an incentive for our suppliers. At the same time, we want to set an example by honoring their performance!”

In-depth communication at the third Supplier Conference
The award presentation took place in conjunction with the third “Recaro Aircraft Seating Supplier Conference”. In line with the company’s global network theme, suppliers from Europe, South Africa, India, China and the USA came to the Recaro site in Fort Worth. “We intentionally chose this venue to underscore our international orientation,” said Dankwerth. “We are currently developing new-generation products and boosting production output at our plants in the USA and Poland. Our goals for the future are very ambitious. We can only achieve them with a smooth-running network and suppliers who work with us in a spirit of partnership.”

The conference agenda included a general introduction and a discussion on the Recaro global purchasing and quality strategies. It also featured symposiums aimed at encouraging in-depth communication between conference participants. Topics included the most effective ways to communicate within a worldwide network, international certification standards, production cost calculations, and process optimization strategies like the shopfloor management program that Recaro has successfully integrated into its production operations.

Keynote speaker at the conference was John MacLean, American Airlines Vice President of Purchasing and Transportation and Corporate Officer. Technical discussions focusing on current projects and a tour of the Recaro Aircraft Seating production facility rounded off the day. “This year’s conference was once again extremely successful,” said Hiller. “For our suppliers it has become an important event that encourages communication and supports mutual understanding. This was made obvious by the fact that a number of suppliers were willing to make the trip to the USA to attend the conference. This makes it clear to us that, with a strong network, we are taking giant steps into the future.”