The Aerospace Coatings business of AkzoNobel has achieved the highest supplier award in the Airbus Supply Chain & Quality Improvement Program (SQIP). The team once again attained ‘Accredited Supplier’ status for Airbus Procurement Operations, materials and parts. 

The award acknowledges AkzoNobel’s ongoing focus on delivering a sustained performance aligned to agreed KPIs, strong continuous improvements, and a proven customer-oriented approach in line with Airbus targets and expectations. 

It particularly recognizes the developments and process improvements across all of the AkzoNobel Aerospace sites. It also reflects the ongoing drive to further reduce the supply chain risk associated with sourcing and securing the supply of raw materials conducted by Procurement teams and Research and Development teams within the business.

The aim of the annual Airbus SQIP Program is to advance major strategic Airbus suppliers toward the goal of industrial excellence with regards to product quality and delivery reliability. This goal is particularly important as Airbus returns to pre-COVID manufacturing rates. 

In 2022/2023, AkzoNobel was involved in several SQIP projects: as well as ‘de-risking’ the supply chain, it also sought to make additional improvements, for example, in the production, quality and application of some of its products. AkzoNobel is already well known for having developed solutions that provide a comparable performance to that of traditional chromated Primers. 

Alexia Apostolou, Airbus Key Account Manager at AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings, says the award is recognition of a journey of continuous improvement: “We realize that the best can always be better, and we are constantly challenging ourselves to enhance the quality of our products and our service,” she explains. 

“To have these improvements validated and acknowledged by this award is testament to the hard work and dedication of expert teams across all of our sites. It also proves the benefit of our long-term collaboration with Airbus, and a company ethos that is founded on delivering value through partnerships.”