Steve Nichols
BFGoodrich has become the third aerospace supplier to invest in the business-to-business e-commerce venture MyAircraft.
The company, which has aerospace sales of $3.6 billion worldwide, joins existing partners Honeywell and United Technologies in a deal which could squeeze other aerospace dot-coms out of the marketplace.
Marshall Larsen, BFGoodrich's president and chief operating officer says: We looked at e-commerce opportunities for some time before choosing MyAircraft as a partner. This is not a passing fad ¡ e-commerce is here to stay ¡ and we wanted to be part of any decision-making process, hence the equity partnership.
He will not, however, be drawn into saying how much equity the company has brought to the deal.
MyAircraft ¡ now officially referred to without its "dot-com" suffix ¡ is aimed at OEMs and suppliers, aircraft operators and repair centres. It hopes to be the portal of choice for improving service levels, reducing procurement costs and inventories and bringing together information.
Honeywell's Scott Clements, vice-president, MyAircraft, says that the venture will take companies out of their own four walls.
"The real objective is intelligent, collaborative ebusiness; that's where the big win is," he says. "MyAircraft will be accessible to large and small companies and the plan is that someone in the maintenance department should have all the tools needed to do their job available in one place."
Honeywell predicts that the full system, when up and running, could save an average OEM supplier or airline operator 2-4% on sales or maintenance costs. But its official launch date has already slipped until the third quarter of this year and it faces stiff competition from ventures involving industry big names.
Clements says other strategic partners will follow. "Perhaps up to a total of eight or more," he says. "We want an ownership that represents the breadth of the market." Another partner, possibly an industry news feed, is likely to be announced in the near future and MyAircraft is currently in discussion with other rich-content suppliers. The announcement also coincided with the launch of a new-look MyAircraft web site; the old version had remained unchanged for some time. MyAircraft is demonstrating more functionality on its stand at Hall 4-D6.
Source: Flight Daily News
