[salex89]

Airbus isn't in an advantage there. They also employ a bunch of suppliers, outside the original companies that formed Airbus. However, they might be in an advantage because that's the way they grown from the start. Different countries, different continents, different languages, final assembly plants, all sorts of aircraft...

I met a guy from EADS once, while it was still called EADS, and I was far too young to understand the complexity of what he was talking about. But from what I understood they really do put a lot into managing their supply chain management (very meta), a team he was in. It was a behemoth of an organisation back then and this is just one guy, but I had a feeling they were very open minded.