Tom Williams-Airbus Commercial's chief operating officer-has weathered a lot during his decades at Airbus. He was there during the A380 production meltdown more than 10 years ago, worked on building the production system for the A350 and participated in numerous other key decisions. The year leading up to his retirement at the end of 2018 was particularly difficult. In fact, Williams calls it a "perfect storm."The Airbus Hamburg factory, the main center for single-aisle production and the lead facility for building the A321 and A321neo, is in the eye of that storm. A combination of factors has made 2018 "a most difficult year for single-aisles," Williams concedes. But as 2018 draws to a close, he believes the worst is over and that lessons learned from the production problems will help smooth the way ahead. Of key impor-tance is understanding the extent to which it can automate production of legacy aircraft such as the A320.
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