6 Essentials For Every HAZMAT Shipment

What’s worse than an AOG? I’ll tell you what.

It’s dealing with an aircraft parts supplier who has no idea what to do. Even if they specialize in consumable distribution. Scary.

Yes, they might be certified (make sure they are) to ship HAZMAT, but are they competent enough to work with you?

This may sound a little harsh, but it’s true.

We’ve all dealt with our fair share of clowns. Ouch! [CLICK TO TWEET]

They cost you more time and money than you and I care to admit.

A few things to be aware of when purchasing aircraft HAZMAT consumables

Speaking of clown (the amazing, superstar kind), Colin our Skylink TV personality is going to share some tips with you.

These key essentials to every HAZMAT shipment could be the thing that causes your order to be delayed.

Or even hit the AOG status!

When you purchase HAZMAT material, make sure your partner knows a thing or two about shipping consumables.

As Colin said, the biggest thing to be aware of is who you're working with.

If you can’t reach your account manager 24/7 and they aren't there to resolve any problems that arise...move on.

Have you had problems with HAZMAT shipments? Are you in dire need of a HAZMAT logistical overhaul? Comment below.

9 Ways To Reduce Stock & Increase Order Efficiency

Want to know how you can carry little inventory and still support your maintenance projects? Drumroll please.

Through proper planning.

On the eve of a particular Monday I received a “list” of a 100 line items in the form of a good ‘ole consumable / expendable RFQ. You know, the sealants, wire, tape, nuts and bolts type.

Myself and the sales support team began processing the RFQ but something was off.

Something wasn’t right.

Each line item I looked at was ordered last quarter.

I began to wonder why this particular airline was re-creating a process they had already completed the prior quarter.

My mind immediately envisioned a simpler way.

Through proper planning and communication this exaggerated process is 100% avoidable. [CLICK TO TWEET]

After they purchased this requirement “again” they spent an additional $10,000 on labor, processing, shipping and other nuances.

No prices increased and some items had lead times that they had to accommodate.

With proper planning they could have saved $10,000, increased efficiency and avoided stock out delays.

Stock out delays result in increased purchases which leads to excess inventory do to “trying” to avoid the issue in the future.

An inefficient purchasing system

Sending out RFQs to the entire world is a common practice but is it the most efficient?

Industry norm of the send RFQ and watch the flood of quotes come in is okay, but it isn’t efficient.

And it isn’t a viable way to increase vendor reliability as the floodgates of various sources rush in.

This creates improper forecasting, stock buildup, and additional costs to your procurement process.

By the time you receive the quotes, process them and cut the PO, the order cycle has been dramatically extended.

This is especially true for repeat purchases where 95% of the processing time could be avoided, saving money, time and excess stock through vendor demand forecasting.

9 ways to reduce stock and increase order efficiency

Holding onto stock isn’t your primary goal.

It’s not what gets you up in the morning, what you think about during the day or what pays the bills.

Simply put, it’s not your profit generating activity.

Here are 9 ways to reduce your stock and increase order efficiency:

• Use vendor managed inventory & vendor stocking programs: With the right incentives, letting VMI suppliers take the responsibility for replenishment of your inventory, because of their visibility into both their own inventory and your demand data, will always reduce your inventory. Primarily used for maintenance inventories VSPs require your supplier to commit to an extremely high service level for delivery of specific products within a fixed time at a pre-defined mark-up over cost. VSPs can reduce or eliminate inventories for slow-moving products.
• Reduce lead times: When supplier lead times are reduced below the required lead time you set it’ll help remove the requirement to hold much stock, especially consumables. Cutting lead times in half will reduce safety stocks by about 30% for the same availability.
• Improve reliability of supply: Unreliable supply is one of the reasons for holding safety stocks. If delivery is guaranteed on the due date then safety stock can be reduced what's needed to cover common-cause variability. A good start is sharing demand, forecast and stock positions with suppliers. When there’s heightened transparency of information throughout the supply chain it’ll improve reliability and mitigate Bullwhip/Forrester effects.
• Order more frequently: This reduces cycle stock and will often cut it in half. There is a cost as each order will require additional administration overhead and a labour cost to receive the goods. The former can be mitigated with automation and management by exception or through better planning in a Just In Time inventory program.
• Expedite more effectively: Solving supply chain failure quickly will undoubtedly improve service. We’ve all had AOG nightmares. Strong relationships with suppliers means that your expediting process will contribute to 1% point to availability. Without that, availability would have been at 95% – or put another way, good expediting reduced service failure by 20%.
• Forecast more accurately: Better forecasting means lower safety stocks and higher levels of availability. It also means a reduced exposure to excess and obsolete stock risk (a large contributor to your holding cost of stock).
• Liquidate: There’s always a short-term price to pay on the profit and loss (P&L) and the balance sheet, when it’s clear that the value to be gained through liquidation is greater than the most optimistic estimate of future gross margin from conventional product sales, then liquidation is the best decision. You are not in the conventional product sale business so liquidation of absolute or unnecessary stock is highly optimal.
• Strangers strategy: Where there’s a lot of slow moving product in the range, seriously addressing the fulfilment rules of your maintenance activities can make a big difference. Integrating closely with suppliers may enable a back-to-back ordering process and removes the need to hold stock altogether. A close relationship with your supplier is crucial.
• Change the network configuration: The general rule is that the safety stock in the system is proportional to the square root of the number of locations. A hub and spoke approach. Apart from this, understanding the relationship between main store availability and satellite availability is vital. This allows the right balance to be struck between stock in different tiers of the supply chain. Fixing a typical imbalance could reduce stock by up to 10% overall.

Whether you choose one of these strategies or all 9, your primary goal is to reduce stock and increase efficiency.

I challenge you today to implement one and began to make a shift of mass RFQs to structure and deliberate action to your RFQs.

Is your procurement process out of control? Do you have surplus inventory? Are your maintenance projects consistently over budget? Comment below.

A Secret Shipping Method To Save You Thousands

Do you know what a properly shipped aircraft part looks like?

Of course you think you do.

There has been many instances where we've received aircraft parts to our facility for repair and they weren't packaged correctly.

Or maybe you received a package and thought to yourself, “what baboon packed this box?”

Between you and me, I've thought this as well.

The parts experience more damage in transit, with thousands of dollars in increased repair costs to show for it.

A simple way to ship your aircraft part

At Skylink, we have a simple rule when we ship your parts.

We call it the fist rule.

You can learn more about it in this weeks video:

Packing your parts might cost a little more and yes, you may spend some more time, but in the long run it’ll save you thousands in freight damages.

And have you ever tried submitting an insurance claim?

Not fun.

Whether you utilize our shipping service or ship your parts to us for repair, make sure the fist rule is implemented in your shipping procedure.

Do you use the fist rule when you ship? Have you experienced damages to your aircraft parts in transit? Comment below.

How To Properly Scrap A BER Aircraft Part

Have you ever scrapped a BER aircraft part? [CLICK TO TWEET]

You probably wonder what the MROs procedure is to properly “scrap” it.

Or more likely you wonder if they actually scrap it.

Questions race through your mind like what piece parts did they keep, did they turn around and sell the BER core for a small fee, what exactly happened to your unit?

These questions are normal.

It’s common for MROs to have a field day on your piece parts and that's why we created this video for you:

Properly scrapping an aircraft part

Getting rid of a BER aircraft part is easy.

Best of all you get to keep the good piece parts.

In this short video we show you one way to get rid of your BER unit.

Check it out:

As Skylink’s professional actors, Alex, Colin, Ron and Mark show you smashing your unit is an effective way to scrap your BER part.

Or you can cut it in half, burn it, melt it, soak it, or whatever option you chose as long as there’s no possible way it will ever be returned to service.

The best part is, you’ll relieve all sorts of aviation stress.

This is one reason we have partners from large national airlines to small regional operators taking advantage of the value we create in our repair program.

We know how to scrap, we know the value in piece parts and we know how to relieve stress.

Did you enjoy this video? Do you wish you could relieve stress like this? Comment below.

Thousands of Dollars Lost Because You’re Now An Aircraft Parts Babysitter

Do you feel out of control? From delayed shipments and BER parts, to unaccountable partners.

You make decisions knowing, feeling, and thinking it was a good move.

Right?

But suddenly your decisions kick you in the butt taking you two steps backward.

You’re exhausted.

A quick 30 minute task turns into a daunting 2 hour mission.

This is the epidemic we call a flawed distribution strategy.

You do more of what you shouldn’t.

Chasing, screaming, and stressing.

Is it because you forgot to get diapers at the store?

Today, you and your team are more babysitters than strategist.

More often than not, you’re babysitting your aircraft parts suppliers and MROs.

You have a choice to make.

Either go get more diapers, or fire yourself as a babysitter.

Focusing away from your strengths is not a good idea

When you have to babysit your partners, you do more of the small tasks you shouldn’t be doing.

That’s inefficiency at it’s best.

It’s like a CFO shipping and receiving. The two just don’t make sense.

Your strong points are not stocking parts, knowing the ins and outs of the parts market, piece parting to reduce repair costs, or staffing for component distribution.

Your strengths are not the same as an MRO or an aircraft parts supplier. They are to find efficient ways to keep aircraft maintenance costs low and reduce aircraft downtime.

Your profit generating activities is keeping your aircraft in the air and profitable, not babysitting suppliers and MROs.

Right now, you spend to much of you and your teams time babysitting.

It is not in your best interest to:

• Follow up and babysit hundreds of vendors
• Keep track of AWB #s
• Review documentation for accuracy
• Emailing RFQs and inputting hundreds of responses
• Solving BER issues
• Resolving cancellation problems
• Piece parting your repairs
• Finding efficient shipping methods
• Solving supplier problems

Trust, it’s more than just a word

[CLICK TO TWEET]

Your title is not “VP of Nanny Services”

By streamlining your focus and utilizing key strategic partners your life will be much easier and efficient. We’ve talked about the art of delegating before.

Choose your partners wisely. Are they easy to communicate with? Do they solve problems as they occur? Do they give you options to maximize your operational results? Do they have various programs and services for your unique operation? Do they have a total support program? Do you trust them?

Answering these questions will enlighten you into who you're working with. Would you put your life and career into their hands?

You must be 100% confident in your partners. So confident, you’d put your career’s future in their hands.

Now that's trust.

What does an effective aircraft parts strategy look like?

An effective aircraft parts strategy is incredibly simple...for you.

All you have to do is state your need and the aircraft parts should show up at your door as you need them.

Sound too simple?

Well it is.

Remember you do not have time to figure our where to buy aircraft tape, how to best ship your $80,000 INUs, or the best options to forecast consumable consumption.

Your strategic aircraft parts partner is competent enough to have these figured out already. They are the experts in this field, or at least should be.

This is why we rely on our strategic distribution strategy.

Stress is not your ally.

The more you’re stressed having to babysit, the less productive you’ll be.

Streamline your distribution, work with partners you trust, and delegate tasks that are not your operations strengths.

Do you babysit your suppliers? Do you feel like you stock more diapers than mission critical parts? Comment below.

2nd MEGA Maldives Airlines Futsal Tournament

Just imagine, an opportunity to compete against other departments within your company. Finance against maintenance, marketing against sales.

This is exactly what our friends did at MEGA Maldives Airlines.

They competed against internal departments with one department being the victor.

Here’s a little piece of the action:

We are pleased to be apart of the MEGA Maldives team and to be able to enjoy this experience thousands of miles away.

MEGA and the entire crew are amazing people and an amazing company.

We can't wait until the 3rd annual MEGA Maldives futsal tournament.

What AOGs And Wrinkles Have In Common

Do you ever look in the mirror and say “it must be the poor lighting?” Years of youth verifiably gone.

Smooth skin has turned into something of another form.

A form in which I’ll keep to myself so you don’t try to hunt me down.

Often times wrinkles associate with age and experience.

But is this always the case?

Is it instead a sign of constant stress, poor habits and work priorities that puts your health last?

There’s constant pressure to keep your aircraft maintenance short and to maximize cycles.

And not to mention the added pressure of AOGs.

AOGs are a recipe for wrinkles.

The wrinkle inducing AOG

Your aircraft has been grounded at your primary operating base.

The engineering department states that a hydraulic hose busted and you have no stock to replace it.

You’re instructed that the hose must be at your base for tomorrow afternoons flight.

You search the entire world but no hose is available.

One of your key partners provides you with a solution, but the 7 day lead time to assemble the hose puts you in a further predicament.

AOGs are stressful. From the time you find out about the AOG to the time the aircraft is in the air, the pressure is on.

You lose thousands of dollars every hour your aircraft is on the ground.

AOGs cause wrinkles because AOGs are stressful.

Aircraft maintenance isn’t always easy and the wrinkles you now see on your face are a product of this environment.

Stress causes wrinkles for several reasons:

• Stress damages cells which leads to premature aging
• Chronic stress contributes to an unhealthy lifestyle
• The stress hormone cortisol degrades collagen

Reduce stress, wrinkles and AOGs

Stress and aviation are not mutually exclusive.

When there’s one the other will be peaking it’s sly little head around the corner getting ready to pounce.

Sorry to break it to you but it’s completely up to you to balance the two.

From taking care of yourself and practicing time management to relying on trustworthy partners to meditation, it all plays an integral part in your wrinkle fighting, stress reducing aircraft maintenance initiatives.

Here a several ways you can reduce AOG induced wrinkles:

• Partner with people you trust and who help you solve problems, not just create them
• Have a sound logistics strategy in place
• Incorporate time management into your schedule
• Take care of your mind and body
• Meditate

Wrinkles and AOGs have one thing in common…stress. [CLICK TO TWEET]

To avoid stress you must work with reliable partners and make sure you have a take-care-of-yourself strategy.

These are the greatest ways to minimize AOGs and fine lines.

Do you have a case of “where did my wrinkles come from?” Do you have AOGs day in and day out? Comment below.

4 Ridiculously Easy Ways To Ship Your Aircraft Parts

So you lost your shipment in transit?

Maybe it was a ghost, a thief or an incompetent freight forwarder.

Whatever it was you’re now stuck without the material you bought.

It could have been $20,000, $5 or free, you're still in a bind.

More than anything, you needed this material for your operation and now it’s on you to deal with the loss, both of time and money.

This thought is frustrating, stressful and may even keep you up at night.

The impact lost aircraft parts has on you

Losing your shorts is embarrassing but losing your valuable assets is down right stressful.

This error not only affects you but impacts your entire maintenance and engineering departments.

Ouch!

I don’t know about you but I take financial losses personal.

When anybody losses something that you’ve put time and money into, it’s personal.

Above all, lost shipment create a bottleneck in your distribution cycle. Is your aircraft undergoing maintenance, do you have an AOG, or was it for your MEL inventory?

Whatever it is, lost shipments double your investment and create bottlenecks.

Simple as that.

The logistical plan of attack

When you arrange for your aircraft parts to be shipped, what’s your strategy?

This may seem like a silly question but having a strategy in place will help you avoid losses, streamline distribution, and secure high value assets.

It’s no longer just giving your supplier an address and account number, it’s about having a 30,000 foot view of your operation.

When you ship theres 4 key areas to focus on:

1. AOG shipment: these are time crucial shipments that should be properly prepared for before they happen. Having an AOG shipper that can accommodate next flight out or aircraft charters is imperative.
2. Routine small parcel: Having a proper process for routine small parcel will help you avoid unnecessary delays and additional cost for last minute decisions.
3. Routine freight: Shipments over 150lbs can be costly if not properly prepared for. Especially if you end up using an unreliable freight forwarder.
4. High value shipments: When you ship something of high value do you trust the people who are carrying it? By having proper strategies in place you can avoid the stress of in transit worry. I find using GPS helps with this worry.

By having strategies and processes for each one of these shipment methods it’ll save you time, money and worry.

It’s personal when you lose valuable assets. Start to prepare and eliminate these worries.

We provide a streamlined shipping strategy and all you have to do is worry about you.

We’ll take care of the rest.

Click here to learn more.

Elegantly Simple Ways To Eliminate Aircraft Maintenance Quality Problems

Do you often wonder why quality is such a problem? From the screams and yells by your quality assurance manager to the stops in distribution from your CAMO, life in aircraft maintenance can be rough.

It’s a test of your courage, a test of your patience, a test of your will.

Nothing is more frustrating and nothing halts productivity like quality issues.

You’ve experienced it.

You know how it feels.

It’s the morning when your parts supplier ships you an alternate when the alternate isn't effective on your aircraft, when they send you an overhauled unit without the proper airworthiness certification, or when they ship you material with crappy packaging and your $20,000 part got damaged in transit.

These are quality issues and these are what’s causing you to lose your hair.

The fact is, quality is a perfect way to cut long-term aircraft maintenance cost and it's stupidly simple.

Yes, stupidly simple.

Let’s see how…

Don’t play with fire, play with ice

Playing with fire in aviation is like being burned by 2,700 degrees fahrenheit jet fuel.

I’ll take my chances with ice.

Working under fire never leads to a productive aircraft maintenance plan.

Mistakes will happen, productivity will be lost and your sanity will get tested.

Not to mention, you’re stress and problems will then be pushed down to your partners, bottlenecking you entire distribution

Creating an aircraft maintenance plan will help you offset your chaotic distribution.

Here are a few ways to prepare yourself:

• Make note of your best supplier and MRO and use them often. They'll save you more money with less problems than the initial price ever will.
• Utilize problem solving partners. Each and every one of your partners must be able to look beyond their operation and into yours. They should do everything they can to eliminate your problems.
• Create contingency plans. What are your fall back choices and what will you do if an issue occurs?
• Know your distribution. How will material flow to your aircraft maintenance base and who’s your go to logistics provider?
• Each aircraft parts supplier and MRO should have an a up to date quality manual and training.

Quality is beyond quality, it's about purpose

Sorry to break it to you but quality is simple.

It’s about good products, good inspections, good processes and most of all, good partners.

Aircraft maintenance is a hosh posh (what does that mean?) of logistics and hundreds of hands involved for the end,  successful work order and a healthy plane back in the air.

Because of course, that’s where you make money.

Quality is all about purpose. If your partners do not have a purpose then they do not have quality. Purpose is not just supplying parts for your aircraft maintenance. Skylink’s purpose is to cut your aviation stress so you can be more productive, happy and truly know someone cares about you.

It’s about solving problems, being a resource and most of all being a trustworthy expert in the field.

Your partners should help solve issues before you even have to ask.

That is true quality at it’s best.

Do you have quality issues? Do your supplier have a purpose focused on you? Comment below.

How To Avoid HAZMAT Creating AOGs

How often do you lose sleep at night hearing the word AOG? I just lost an hour of sleep typing it out.

You want to cut this painfully costly occurrence as much as you can, but how?

There’s always something getting in your way of the peaceful non AOG operation.

Like HAZMAT.

Trucking HAZMAT to the Maldives...funny story

This brings me back to a recent shipment we had.

We had 8 hazardous material boxes that needed to arrive into the Maldives as a part of a kit we were supporting.

Our client’s freight forwarder contacted us (I love these guys by the way...sarcasm) to help arrange the shipment. They wanted these shipped to the Maldives as soon as possible but little did they know that the dangerous goods declarations had to be completed.

We asked them where the ultimate destination was and they proceeded to “educate” us that they were going to the Maldives. 4 boxes were cargo only shipments. The Maldives does not allow this as an air freight import.

So, we brutally tried explaining this to them.

They  told us to ship everything to Sri Lanka and they would “truck” the shipment to the Maldives.

Yes, truck it to the Maldives.

I began to cry when I heard this.

Truck? To the Maldives? Do trucks now have propellers and float?

The Maldives are islands so the only truck that's getting there is on a boat.

So, we finally arranged to have these goods shipped, via boat, to the Maldives from Sri Lanka.

Maybe you’ve encountered this as well.

The logistics of shipping hazardous material is daunting if not properly prepared for. [CLICK TO TWEET]

The nightmares of distribution

The biggest problem with HAZMAT shipping, besides dealing with silly freight forwarders is not knowing the logistics before shipment.

It’s like going to a salad bar with no plate.

Things get messy.

The first order of business is you must know who’s shipping the goods.

Is it your supplier? Is it a third party packer? Whoever it is, you need to know.

The next order of business is to know who stands in your way of delivery.

Are there any intermediaries? If so 2 dangerous goods declarations will have to be created. One from Skylink to the intermediary and one from the intermediary to you.

If you can avoid the intermediaries, I recommend it. As you’re well aware of, too many people touching the shipment increases the probability of errors.

It’s like the holidays, package for perfection

Have you ever sat through a HAZMAT course?

Brutal, I know.

It brought me back to my childhood days where I would sit in class falling asleep and...POW...hit the floor as I fell out of my chair.

Whether you’ve been through the class or not, you should know that each UN has a corresponding packing instructions.

These are all in the IATA Dangerous Goods Manual.

Whether you need to know the proper cardboard box, proper barrel packaging or the associated stickers, it’s very important to package the shipments properly.

If the packaging isn’t done properly the shipment will be sent back, possibly creating an AOG situation for you.

This is why competency is key and we can thank our team member Ronald Cathey for our HAZMAT shipments.

Controlled by countries and airlines

As you can see, shipping HAZMAT is a tedious process, which is why certain HAZMAT fees are associated with these shipments.

Another hurdle that you or your supplier will have to overcome is specific country or airline policies.

In the story at the beginning of the post you heard about the Maldives not accepting cargo only shipments.

These are things that you’ll need to know to avoid HAZMAT creating AOGs.

When your shipment is to an ultimate destination, ask yourself these three questions:

• Does the country allow cargo only shipments?
• Do they allow HAZMAT at all? If not, where can we divert the shipment too?
• What are the other restrictions for HAZMAT shipments?

These questions will help you get ready.

And remember all of this is in your IATA Dangerous Goods Study Guide.

If you thought the countries policies were tedious, we haven't even got to airline specific policies.

Some might not allow oxygen generators (almost all airlines), while others will allow you to ship more than a certain amount of a specific UN number. Some might have a requirement for specific classes to ship a certain distance away from one another in the belly of the aircraft.

These are all things to understand. If a cargo flight is full and your HAZMAT shipment needs a certain amount of distance away from each other than your shipment could get bumped. Not good.

This is why having a plan is imperative to avoiding AOGs.

Just as the country specific policies, the airline specific policies is all in the IATA manual.

Protect your yourself

The best way to avoid HAZMAT related AOGs is to know that you have a pending HAZMAT shipment and prepare.

It’s a great idea to have contingencies (your supplier should have these as well) to mitigate any issues that could occur.

Get yourself a copy of the IATA Dangerous Goods Manual and get trained in proper HAZMAT shipping protocol. This will help give you the advantage of knowing how dangerous good should be shipped.

It never hurts to know.

When you can, never give control to a third-party packer. They just don’t understand what an AOG is and they're usually slow. That's at least my experience.

They also charge a hefty fee as opposed to your supplier just doing it for you. 

Consumables shipments are by far the most common HAZMAT shipments we see.

If you’re looking for a partner who has both a positive consumable and HAZMAT shipping track record I urge you to click here.