Bridgestone a Boeing ‘Supplier of the Year’

More than 12,000 companies currently supply Boeing with components for its range of aircraft, but only fourteen of these could be chosen to be a ‘2009 Supplier of the Year’. Bridgestone Corporation was one of this select group, having been singled out for its performance in a number of areas, including quality, delivery performance, cost, environmental initiatives, customer service and technical expertise. This is the first occasion that Bridgestone has been awarded this title.

The award ceremony was held on April 13, in Seattle, Washington. Boeing’s Ray Conner and Stan Deal presented the award to Shigeru Niho, director of Bridgestone’s Specialty Tire Division, and Joe Rayna, CEO and president of Bridgestone Aircraft Tire (USA), Inc.

“Boeing and our suppliers are more interconnected now than ever before – combining our talents and capabilities to create the most innovative products and services for our customers and the aerospace industry worldwide,” said Ray Conner, Boeing enterprise leader of Supplier Management and vice president and general manager of Supply Chain Management and Operations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “Every supplier – small and large – is critical to our success, and it is important to recognise these suppliers for demonstrating industry-leading standards of quality, efficiency and performance.”

Bridgestone currently supplies tyres to the Boeing 737-900ER, 747, 767 and 777, and the upcoming Boeing 787 Dreamliner is scheduled to go into commission with Bridgestone aircraft radials. Before being chosen a Supplier of the Year, Bridgestone was first named as one of 486 recipients of a Boeing Performance Excellence Award.