Recaro Aircraft Seating has hosted its 11th Global Supplier Conference at its Schwaebisch Hall headquarters in Germany, which highlighted industry trends and recognised supplier excellence.
The main theme of the conference was ‘Moving forward. Together’, with a focus on the importance of collaboration – and fittingly 160 participants from 70 companies from all over the world attended. Recaro experts and guest speakers shed their light on trends and expectations in the aviation market and how to best respond to them, as well as topics such as quality standards, innovation, on-time delivery, lean operations and supplier agility.
Sustainability was also a key topic, with Boet Kreiken, EVP of customer experience at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines emphasising the need for sustainable solutions for customers and the aviation market in general during his talk.
“Sustainability is a key theme in society and in our industry,” stated Joachim Ley, EVP of supply chain at Recaro Aircraft Seating. “As Recaro and its suppliers want to be prepared for the future and remain a supplier of choice, we need to keep coming up with innovative, adaptable and flexible solutions to address this and other important issues.”
Supplier awards
With the increased focus on and importance of sustainability, at this year’s event Recaro added an environmental category – the Environmental Supplier Award – to its list of supplier awards. The winner was Germany-based aviation adhesives and surface treatments supplier, Henkel GmbH, in recognition of its contribution to sustainable production solutions as well as its engagement in promoting these solutions to other companies.
Recaro rewarded a further six suppliers for their achievements over the past year:
- Yantai Aikai Tianlong Moulding Plastics won the Newcomer Award. This Chinese company has been delivering to Recaro since 2016 and is seen to combine competitive pricing with excellent service levels.
- Dietrich Aldinger GmbH from Germany received the Production Material Award. The award jury recognised the company’s punctual delivery, quality, customer orientation and service.
Other awards went to seat cover specialist, Transcal Polska, aluminium supplier, Alu Menziken Euromotive, design company, KalisInnovation and upholstery specialist, Artex.
Dr Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating stated, “We congratulate all the winners of our supplier awards 2019. Over the past years, our company has achieved tremendous growth and has come up with great innovations. This would not have been possible without the continued support from trusted suppliers and long-standing partners like KLM.”