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.
Have you ever made a bad buying decision? Of course your have. You’re human. It’s frustrating, stressful and a waste of time, money and resources. You might not even know you’re making mistakes. You think everything is working perfectly. But secretly, everything's a mess. You’ve created a “bad” habit and habits are hard to break. Here’s a list of the mistakes and what you can do about them.
Buying is hard. You deal with constant demands: maintenance, coworkers, the unknown. Now throw in an AOG and chaos ensues. Despite everything you must do, you still have babysit your suppliers. There are things your supplier does that annoys you. They're human. Let's identify these top traits and find ways to correct them...
You're going nuts. You spend a ton of time processing, organizing and following up with aircraft material purchases. It's all you do...all day long. It's time consuming. It costs money. It's not efficient. Yet, it has to get done.
So what are you going to do? The first thing is to take a step back. Look at the big picture. What’s your biggest underlying problem? Most airlines and MROs get so caught up in what they have to do or what they have to resolve in the day and they forget the most important part of their operation…efficiency.
You know the saying. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Well, for your aircraft, that’s not true. If it’s dirty they’ll laugh and say goodbye birdie. Remember that. On the exterior, dirt will hide in cracks, working rivets and damaged areas. It looks bad. Your interior is no different. If there’s junk everywhere, broken tray tables, dirty seats, messy lavatories, it represents your operation.
Are you an aircraft maintenance professional? Do you want to be great at what you do? You went to school but it doesn’t end there. Whether you’re in engineering, supply, material, maintenance, VP, or the hundreds of other important roles, reading and developing your skills is important. We’ve compiled a list of 5 must read books to help you become an aircraft maintenance rock star.
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.
In this Ask an Expert interview, I speak to Kamil Iwankiewicz. As an aircraft engineer he got his engineering wings from playing with legos and his Grandfather. We also cover how effecient Ryanair is, the top trait for engineers and much more.
