Car Seat Manufacturer Entering Airline Business
Jennifer Billock April 11, 2018
A car seat manufacturer is looking to get involved in the airline industry hoping to put an end to delays and costly problems with companies that currently manufacture plane seats, which have resulted in lawsuits and grounded planes for major airlines.
Adient is the largest manufacturer of seats for cars in the world – and now the company wants to get involved in making sure airlines get quality seats on time. Earlier this year, Adient announced it would be launching an airline industry portion of its business to bring some structure and reliability to airlines.
“In our industry if we don’t deliver 99 percent of the time to our customers within an hour and a half of them broadcasting the order, we won’t have business,” Richard Chung, Adient’s Vice President for innovation and design, said at the annual Passenger Experience Conference, reported by Skift. “We would like to bring the same discipline into the airline industry so that we can deliver products that customers want on time.”
It’s a promise that’s much-needed in the airline industry, as airlines have routinely struggled with manufacturers who haven’t been able to deliver seats on time, or at all.
Last year, United had to hold off on flying some new planes because the seat manufacturer, Zodiac, didn’t deliver the necessary seats. American had a similar problem, and ended up suing Zodiac, canceling a seat deal, and changing manufacturers.
“We think we can do better,” Chung told Skift. “As a flying passenger, with the experience of sitting in the seat for 10-12 hours and being able to enjoy the ride and flying experience, we feel there’s more we can do.”
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Delivered on time is a + Impossible to install. Current Major market unable to complain about being uncomfortable. Projected market has sharp words over minor issues like colors and mm differences in size. Do they know what they’re getting into?
I can see it already sardine packed slimline F seats
RECARO is a name I’ve noticed in airline seats lately. They’re known in automotive for sport and racing seats, and are now a subsidiary of Adient (formerly a division of Johnson Controls). As an aside, I’m not sure the “just in time” model really works for aerospace the way it does in automotive since the volumes are orders of magnitude lower. Just in time delivery is a means to reduce inventory at the final assembly plant, and I presume that wasn’t the issue with the airline seat delays from Zodiac.