Up to recent years aircraft production, especially the assembly of large structural components has always been compared more to a crafted shipyard labor than a highly productive automotive line. This paper describes how lean concepts are helping Embraer to bring new paradigms in this stage by applying these fundaments to its new wing assembly line in Evora, Portugal. Starting from design for manufacturing principles in the product, full application of Production Preparation Process (3P) concept for the line early design planning, going through designed for automation assembly tooling, intense application of manufacturing simulation tools like ergonomic analysis and dimensional management as well as state of the art digital manufacturing execution systems for shop floor management Embraer intends to create a highly efficient work flow. All these developments ultimately will ensure product quality, continuous and stable production rates and a highly efficient use of all available resources.