the customer is a baby…
Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 3:39AM 
Image via Wikipedia - I’ve paid so much more for my tickets to the US, I thought all costs that go to flying a plane have gone up. Not true. I went today with a group of delegates to three plants that make aerospace components and subsystems. All three plants have elaborate programs that lower cost in their every process and also in their supplier-factories. Their success in cost-reduction are celebrated on every wall of their plants, and the extent of savings is so dramatic, my ticket should have cost less than half I paid.
In the evening on my second day there, in a plush hall in the the best hotel in town, amid the distracting aromas of an expensive dinner that lay outside, a senior executive from a top-two aircraft builder spoke to us: He has worked in the automotive industry in the past, where their creed was: The customer is king. What he demands, he should get. "Not in aerospace, though," the speaker lamented: "In the aerospace industry the customer never gets the low lead-time he needs, and never the low price. In this industry the customer is no king—he is a baby—he demands and loses and cries.” His audience were mainly his suppliers, so grim faces looked up at him.
The next speaker was from a leading international airline: “Every time the cost of fuel rises by a-dollar-a-barrel my corporation has lost forty-million dollars for the year,” he declared.
It doesn’t appear that I’ll pay less for my next ticket.
Reader Comments (2)
Dear Shashi,
you might have forget me i am Mr ashok kumar RH ,worked with Hical than 5 years. Now working with Flextronics tech Chennai as a senior engineer production.
Really your words too constructive in life. Im happy to see you in this blog.
Your leader ship qualitys are realy wonderfull, you are my role model
thanks to hical family forgiving me an proffesinel life.
Br,
Ashok kumar RH
Thanks for coming by, Ashok! I'm glad you have gone so far. Thanks for your nice words. My best wishes to you.