Lufthansa Technik AG is positioning itself as a developer and manufacturer of products for aircraft cabins. The company has indicated that it is bundling all its activities in the development and production of cabin products in its new Original Equipment Innovation product division, thus creating an organisation for expanding its position as a manufacturing operation. The leadership of this new product division has been entrusted to innovation manager Andrew Muirhead, who previously headed the Innovation unit at Lufthansa Technik. Muirhead is supported by a team of over 80 interdisciplinary employees – with more to come – as the consolidation process takes shape.
All products offered by Lufthansa Technik as an OEM will be developed, planned, manufactured and sold from the new product division. Innovative systems and products, such as nice, niceview, GuideU or the Patient Transport Unit (PTU), have already been successfully introduced to the market, and others will follow as part of the planned expansion. By bundling all of Lufthansa Technik’s cabin OEM products, the company says it will be able to efficiently and cost-effectively manage the know-how, development and planning processes, as well as the sales and customer support processes jointly.
“We’ve set some very ambitious goals for the years ahead,” stated Muirhead. “For an airline, the aircraft cabin is one of the most significant factors in customer perception and differentiation. Passenger expectations are rising and innovation cycles are becoming shorter and shorter. That offers us a significant opportunity, because we understand the possibilities for implementing and integrating modern systems in cabins and aircraft better than nearly any other company, and with our own workshops and a worldwide network of partners, we have the potential to turn ideas into reality faster than others do. All the company’s know-how in airline installations, VIP completion, flight operations and maintenance comes together here, in this new division together with expertise from within the Lufthansa Technik organisation as a whole.”
