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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 1075.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 July 1960 Airpart Airpart Canadian *"£"' LONDON LONDON Factories MONTREAL .^. .g. United Kingdom Airpart Airpart |ndian Airpart Factories BEIRUT BOMBAY Factories HONG KONG SUPPORT AND SELL... South Airpart American RI0 DE JANEIRO Factories South African Factories Airpart JOHANNESBURG Australian Airpart Factories SYDNEY Fig 3. AIRPART. A suggestion for a co-operative scheme tor the supply of British aircraft parts, centralized into one customer in Britain. Airpart, London, would supply to centres in A, Europe; B, North and Central America; C, South America; D, the Middle East; E, Africa; F, Mid-Asia; G, the Far East; and H, Australasia spend a lot more money on modernizing and streamlining thewhole spare-parts system before the operators will be prepared to agree that British aircraft are competitive, not just at Farn-borough, but throughout their operating lives. To spend all available funds on pre-sales effort makes about as much senseas to commit all the Army's reserves to battle on D-day and at H-hour. If the Minister allocates millions to the rationalized groupswith the object of exporting the new generation of British civil aircraft, then he should insist that a substantial sum is witheldfrom pre-sales and devoted exclusively to the modernization of the industry's spares support. This should be started immediately,and should include the ancillary manufacturers. At least 150 companies in this country produce aviation components whichrequire some degree of parts service, and collectively these firms have an unsatisfactory reputation for supporting their productsafter sale. To sell today we must support, and if we support we shall sell. System of Supply There are a few stages of the industry'sparts-sales service where injections of modern equipment and ideas are not urgently needed, and a complete manual would berequired to cover every aspect of the subject. The purpose of this article is to suggest a co-ordinated and recognizable system(rationalization, if you must) for the supply of parts to the opera- tors of British aircraft in every country in the world. The first object would be to ensure that the civil operator'sconvenience was the first concern of the whole industry. Even the smallest operator must know where he can obtain any panhe requires, and further, know that he will get it when he wants it. Secondly, we should stop the Ministries overloading the industry'sspare-parts capacity. A customer for parts should be created who can speak for all the civil operators with a voice more powerfulthan those of all the Ministries lumped together. (As things are now, the still, small voice of the bush operator calling from theAfrican jungle for a vital tab-washer is liable to receive scant attention when the parts manager's office is full of Ministry menon an all-day progress conference.) Thirdly, the foreign agents supplying aircraft parts on a fat commission as a sideline mustbe eliminated from the system. In considering this business of supply we should first of alltake a look at what is happening now. Fig 1 illustrates something that is alas, fact; a system that is actually in operation today forthe ordering and supply of spare parts for British civil aircraft. The word "system" is meaningless in this context, for the onething that the picture does illustrate is that there is no system. There is just a series of haphazard arrangements, usually con-cocted by the salesmen and the middleman, and so full of built-in disadvantages that efficient operation is impossible. Middlemen As a rule, the operator's requirements for parts of proprietary manufacture exceeds by a considerable margin, in the number of items on one order, those produced by the airframe manufacturer. Despite this, there are an incredible number of middlemen (overseas agents, European agents, UK agents, and the airframe manufacturer) interposed between the operator and the ancillary manufacturer. Very seldom is there direct contact between the two. Carrying this a stage further, Fig 2 illustrates the progress of a routine order for a proprietary part, from an operator in the Far East who has specified delivery by sea. This order is processed through no fewer than fourteen stages, not including the railways, shipping people, Customs and so on; and approximately 75 days —two-and-a-half months—elapse from the time the stores demand arises with the operator until the departure of the goods from this country. This does not allow for any delay due to stock shortages in the factory, and does not include the transit time to the Far East. An AOG demand is of course usually satisfied much more promptly, although at some cost in delay to less urgent orders. As all else can come to a standstill for an AOG, customers who do not use the magic letters have to wait even longer, and still the fourteen middlemen have their little parts to play. Services Supplies The writer has already criticized the methods used by the Ministries in the procurement and progressing of aircraft parts. Nevertheless, the industry could learn much from the Services in their system of supply of stores around the world. In the Royal Air Force in the UK for example, the factories deliver direct to maintenance units. The maintenance units ship the stores abroad, and the overseas squadrons (the operators) draw pans and equipment from their nearest MU; overseas squadrons never order parts from the home factories. This is a system which has been developed over many years, with the object of operating efficiently under the emergency conditions of war. It is one which works because it has been made to do so. A similar system could be introduced with advantage on thecivil side. A suggestion for such a system is illustrated in Fig 3. The world has been divided into areas, North and CentralAmerica, South America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Mid-Asia, the Far East, and Australasia.A parts distribution centre is located at an airways focal point in each area: Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, London, Johannesburg,Beirut, Bombay, Hong Kong, and Sydney. London is split into London A, distributing to operators in the United Kingdom only,and London B, covering the remainder of Europe. B could for convenience perhaps be located at Gatwick, and A at LondonAirport. Also at London Airport would be the main distribution centre for the whole system. ^ ^
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