The source of success

The constant drive for supply chain consolidation and lean sourcing means that it has never been more important to have the right sub-contractors on board. At

, at the NEC from 1-3 May, companies can meet and assess hundreds of sub-contractors, both national and international.

A high-profile example of how major companies use the strategy as a tool to improve business performance is Airbus. Half of all work on its future programmes is to be outsourced as part of a radical restructuring of the aircraft maker — meaning 10,000 job losses across Europe, 1,600 of them in the UK.

The long-awaited Power 8 recovery plan will also result in the partial or complete sale of six of Airbus's 16 plants. Starting with the A350 wide-bodied jet, the company said that the proportion of aerostructure work carried out by outside firms would double to 50 per cent.

It estimated that this could result in £1.7bn (€2.4bn)) of the £6.8bn programme being financed by risk-sharing partners. The programme is designed to generate £3.4bn of cash savings by 2010 and annual cost savings of £1.4bn after that.