If you’re a Dash 8 operator, aircraft MRO, or lessor, this post is for you.
This is your go-to resource for the current major Dash 8 components we have available now or in the near term.
Bookmark this page as it’ll be updated often.
Do you have surplus aircraft part inventory?
This unnecessary buildup occurs when you order inventory in preparation for near term consumption.
When that consumption never occurs. Voila! Surplus inventory builds up.
Here’s the impact that this causes to your operation.
It’s not the price you pay, how business savvy you are, or how excellent your negotiation skills are. This is the MOST IMPORTANT skill you need when purchasing aircraft parts.
Your surplus aircraft material was sitting. Rotting. Wasting away on your shelves.
Slowly eating away at your operational results. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.
Cash was being sucked down the surplus drain. And the only thing you could do was…
Price. How important is it to you? How often do you try and get the lowest price? I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, “It’s incredibly important.” and “Every chance I get.” And that’s fair. It’s also common to ask how much something costs. Or to reduce the cost of something. We often use price and cost interchangeably. That’s a mistake.
You need a change. What you’re doing isn’t working. Things aren’t getting better. You’re more stressed than ever and you want an idea that will give you more of what you need. Time.
But the real issue is what you’re going to do about it? A vendor managed inventory is a solution that will resolve a lot of your time and cost issues. And, it’s easy to implement. But first, let’s understand some of the issues it’ll help you resolve.
Do you purchase your aircraft material based on price? Of course you do. It seems logical. Many purchasing departments do. The better your price the happier you’ll be. But it doesn’t end up that way.
Price and cost are different. Price is the money coming in, or your direct cost. Cost is the money going out, through your aircraft materials life cycle. As a purchasing professional, it’s important to purchase for total cost of ownership (TCO). It’ll help drive down operational cost, make you and your team more efficient, and give you the opportunity to make good decisions.
Your aircraft expendable inventory is like a child’s bedroom. Messy and out of control. You have stock on what you don’t need and you’re AOG for items you should have planned for. It’s a mess. You’re frustrated that time and money is wasted. All you want is for the craziness to stop. You want to stock the things you need and plan for the rest. And this is where aircraft inventory management plays a big role.
What you need, is vendor managed inventory. It’s an aircraft expendable dream. Have what you want and only consume what you need. Once you hit a minimum stock level, an automatic shipment of replacements is sent to you. Easy! But how do you decide if it’s right for you?
It’s common business knowledge that excess inventory is a liability, but it’s also common that you can’t sell what you don’t have. Traditional inventory management approaches force you to purchase excess inventory to pad yourself against stock-outs, causing you to carry excess. You literally have to decide what’s worse for your business: running out of inventory or carrying too much.
The aviation industry is a competitive market. Under massive pressures (economic & regulatory), airlines are increasingly looking at ways to reduce cost, improve efficiency and increase competitiveness. Aircraft component pooling is one way to just this.
Who doesn't like some good 'ole aircraft maintenance tape?
You use it often and it does just about anything you want it too.
We go through a ton of a few popular models so we want to extend some bulk savings to you.
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Would you like to take advantage of these awesome savings?
Whether you own a fleet of regional, narrow-body or wide-body aircraft, knowing your operating costs is important.
Your goal is to lean out and maximize your fleet to it’s fullest potential. What strategies can you adopt to streamline your maintenance costs? With crew and maintenance costs being over 25% of your total operating costs, I would say these are important, wouldn’t you?
Below is a list from planestats.com on the reported aircraft operating costs for nearly 500 wide-body aircraft for the 12 months of 2014. Its good to note that fuel prices will clearly be much different for 2015.
It is no secret that additive manufacturing is the hot topic, especially in our fast paced aviation world. Many companies are exploring this new frontier of technology because of its unbelievable benefits. Pratt and Whitney are a perfect example of the new exploration in this uncharted world with manufacturing engine brackets using 3D printing. They have embraced two of many additive manufacturing techniques to make engine components, engine brackets specifically. Instead of using expensive slabs of steel to shape aircraft parts, the process of additive manufacturing enables Pratt and Whitney to layer materials together using absolutely no waste.
This trifecta of efficiency is what the aviation industry is raving about and why companies like Pratt and Whitney and even GE Aviation has adopted this new technique in manufacturing.
GE has adopted laser-powered 3-D printers and inking machines to make aircraft parts that seemed like science fiction long ago. GE likes to call this next chapter in manufacturing the next step in our Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution was a transition from new manufacturing processes in the period that started in 1760.
The additive manufacturing process can increase the tempo of production, reduce waste, and produce designs that seems almost impossible with last generation manufacturing processes. Unusual brackets, new age propellers, and even new engine designs are now open door ideas with this new technology.
However, this new revolution for the industry is growing at a crawl. Additive manufacturing techniques will need to be improved before the entire market adopts the technique with open arms. Glitches and muddy precision is still very common unless a finer and more expensive 3-D printer is purchased.
It makes sense why our industry is an early adopter of this new technology in manufacturing.
This process is taking off with no emergency brake and is beginning to grow exponentially.
In 2016, GE Aviation will unveil 19 3-D printed fuel nozzles in a combustion system that can only be made using this method. They will lead the aviation industry with the first solid models of these unique parts. This exciting time is being called the new or 3rd industrial revolution and companies like GE and Pratt and Whitney are paving the way for others to lead.
Do you ever wonder how you can make aircraft consumable and expendable consumption easier? Or even automated?
No matter the price, no matter the size, no matter how many you need, even a small expendable can cause you to have an Aircraft on Ground (AOG).
These are 3 words every procurement professional never wants to hear. These words raise your blood pressure, make you sweat, and keep you up at night.
AOGs are costly occurrences that thousands of airlines experience due to consumable and expendable problems. It’s often caused by the component being out of stock, but it doesn’t stop there.
These little things can cause AOGs because of capital costs / obsolescence, logistics, or even from a failed purchasing plan.
How often does one of these create issues for you? Think about it. Once, twice, twenty times a week?
Now think of all the time and money you spend fixing these problems. It gets messy fast.
It doesn’t have to be all that bad and is incredibly simple if the right strategies are applied.
I’m a huge advocate of automating certain aspects of my life.
From social media posts and blog creation, to business development and automated ERP processes, automation can be found everywhere.
And most importantly, automation is handled by people who have a greater knowledge of certain activities. Or the opportunity cost for them to do a certain task is far cheaper than what you can do it for.
A good example is the company who cleans your office. The opportunity cost is much cheaper for them to do it instead of you. Make sense?
The same goes for automating your consumable and expendable consumption.
It’s as simple as 1, 2, and 3.
The benefit of automating is you get On-Demand component reliability through continuous replenishment. This significantly reduces your costs of AOGs, procurement, shipping, stocking components, and out of stock scenarios.
Through automation you get aircraft consumables and expendables when you need them, where you need them, and how you need them. Direct, automated shipments can be used for one maintenance hub or 15. It doesn't matter as the program automation is designed for your unique operation.
Think about it, how will automating reduce your costs and increase your reliability?
P.S. We structure our consumable automation program around you. For more information on how we can support your needs through this program, simply fill out the contact form below!
In a world of non-stop AOGs, the evaluation of the aircraft can give us one more hurdle...
Consumables.
Many years ago (years I rather not try to recount) Legos was my toy of choice.
Besides the GI Joes and Hot Wheels of course.
Lego is a toy that inspires creativity and it's something to build from scratch. Piece by piece, color by color. You can make something spectacular or have a pile of useless toy bricks.
These toy bricks are a lot like aircraft consumables.
Use the wrong piece, order the wrong product, lose an important component, and you have a messy maintenance project. One that’ll lead to AOGs, lost revenue and a stressed out you.
Consumables are an integral part of airlines maintenance operations. But of course you know this.
Any way you think of it, it’s difficult keeping up with new sealant specs, higher assembly numbers and bad information. More importantly, chasing down problems is counterintuitive...and costly to you.
Dealing with hundreds of airlines, I've heard and seen it all.
Not being consumed by aircraft consumables takes a strategy.
How do you go about ordering your consumables?
Is it a blind RFQ to hundreds of people, or do you have a method behind your madness?
Whether it's 3M 398FRP white cloth tape or window sealant, sit back and think about the most effective distribution for you.
Some things to think about are your future needs, expiration date, HAZMAT, and transport.
If you have a long consumable list think about the logistics and the time it'll take you to process the requirement. Once you start getting into multiple line items you risk increases for possible problems.
Don't process your long consumable list immediately. Think about how your requirement will best be served and follow a plan of attack that accomplishes just that.
If there's one word that can cause stress and resolve hundred of problems at the same time, it's forecast.
When you think of forecasting you're bound to think of reports, list building, statistics, and 10 others things that are "hair pull" worthy.
Relax.
Forecasting is actually not that difficult and it will save you countless of hours processing orders and thousands of dollars in inventory.
Lets look at a good example I mentioned above, the 3M 396FRP tape. Lets say last year you bought a total of 144 rolls divided between 3 orders. Now factor in the cost of each roll, processing time, and freight and you get close to an accurate per unit cost.
Over the next 12 months you forecast the same consumption rate. Building this forecast allows you to have the tape in stock when and as you need it. No overbuying or stocking for long periods of time. It significantly cuts processing and holding cost.
This is the primary purpose of our JIT program. You would receive 12 rolls per month as a part of your monthly JIT consolidation. No POs, no shipping instructions, it just shows up at your door.
Forecasting generates simplicity and simplicity saves you time and money.
When you have a problem, whose your external resource?
Having internal resources is great but what if engineering tells you need Cargo Gel Tape?
Where do you go, who do you ask, who can best serve your needs?
Having a professional external resource that has your best interest at the front of everything they do is crucial.
They'll help you solve consumable hurdles, answer your questions about specification, and most important they’ll work with you to streamline your consumable distribution.
Relying on that "go-to" source will save you countless hours.
Your time is scarce and consumables have a tendency to peak their little heads and consume much of your day.
Problems are inevitable and it takes pre-thought planning, accurate forecasting, and reliable partners to alleviate most of your headaches.
