The materials will be supplied to the original equipment manufacturer, Hyundai WIA, over a period of three years and will be used to aid Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in building the Korea Utility Helicopter KUH-1 Surion. The KUH project was developed by KAI and Airbus Helicopters, a long-standing customer of thyssenkrupp Aerospace. The twin-engined transport helicopter will be used for both military and civil purposes.

A landing gear consists of many different components and is built for heavy loads and extreme reliability. To meet the demands, a wide range of materials with highly-specialised properties and very specific features from various sub-suppliers are required, but usually only in small quantities. This often leads to complex material supply chains and challenges in procurement, driving up costs and time required for overall coordination.

thyssenkrupp Aerospace has used its expertise in materials and global supply chains to develop a customised one-stop shop solution for the customer. A profound understanding of the customer’s challenges combined with early involvement in the process to develop a solution were important for success. As a result, thyssenkrupp Aerospace consolidated the various material shipments and put together a series of ship sets. These are then delivered when necessary and synchronised with the customer’s production flows.

This strategy allows thyssenkrupp Aerospace to eliminate supply chain complexity, enabling the customer to focus entirely on its core business.

“The project shows that it is not enough to simply supply materials to our customers. They need a partner who can also solve logistical challenges,” said Patrick Marous, CEO of thyssenkrupp Aerospace. “We have developed the one-stop shop solution with and for the customer to save them time and money. Both the material shipments and supply chain management have been customised for our customer.”

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