General Electric Co., sitting atop a record backlog of more than 15,000 engines, is prodding suppliers to be sure they can handle production that's poised to surge to the fastest ever.
The efforts include periodically boosting demand on various parts makers to prepare for a 17 percent jump in annual deliveries by 2020, according to GE Aviation Chief Executive Officer David Joyce. The business, which sells engines through the CFM International venture, could hand over 10,000 commercial units by 2020.
"We'll build more CFM engines next year than at any time in the program," Joyce said in an interview ahead of a briefing Monday at the Paris Air Show. "We're obviously planning for it. We've got a very aggressive program to stress-test our supply chain."