SBS Maschinenfabrik receives the “Recaro Supplier Award 2012”

A 100-percent on-time delivery rating from Airbus, and a Gold rating from Boeing also assigned based on perfect on-time deliveries – these are the extremely positive results 2011 for Recaro Aircraft Seating. “In our business it is crucial that our seats are delivered to aircraft manufacturers on time for installation. In addition to the outstanding quality and comfort characteristics, this is what makes our products a success. In order for us to be able to enhance this high performance level, our suppliers have to pull together with us,” says Dr. Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating. “That’s why we have made ‘ontime delivery’ the main topic of this year’s suppliers’ conference.”

This criterion played a key role in selecting the best suppliers, who were honored with the “Recaro Supplier Award”. This year marked the third time the company awarded its suppliers. A Recaro team selected the top three out of a pool of 90 companies. First place went to SBS Maschinenfabrik GmbH in Aalen (Germany), which supplies forged parts and milled components such as seat bases and seat dividers for Recaro economy class seats. “In addition to delivery reliability, this company really came through with top performances in terms of quality and flexibility,” explains René Dankwerth, former Director Sourcing and now Vice President Research & Development, who organized and presented the supplier conference. The three best Recaro suppliers included Karmann Ghia from Portugal and Silver Creek from the US, which were also honored with a “Recaro Supplier Award”.

Fourth international suppliers’ conference
“On-time delivery” was also the main theme of the fourth “Recaro Global Supplier Conference” in 2012, which was held at the headquarters in Schwaebisch Hall, Germany. “This year we had approximately 150 participants from Europe, the USA, South Africa as well as China – which is significantly more than the previous year,” says Dr. Mark Hiller. “Our event has become firmly established: It primarily serves as an exchange platform to inform participants about key developments at Recaro Aircraft Seating and the suppliers. Moreover, the award ceremony is a real motivation for the companies to continuously improve their performance.”

Dr. Mark Hiller gave a presentation on market trends in the aviation industry along with the strategies, goals and expansion of the capacities of Recaro Aircraft Seating. The conference program also included an overview of the attained and planned purchasing objectives. On this occasion, René Dankwerth officially handed over his responsibilities to Joachim Ley, who has been serving as new Vice President Supply Chain in charge of Purchasing since April 2012. Recaro also found a fitting guest speaker for the conference: Eduardo Lopez, Managing Director, FedEx Express Europe, talked about on-time deliveries in the area of shipping and handling, which is the main challenge of this worldwide logistics company. Other presentations dealt with the issues of quality, customer satisfaction and tolerance management.