Bombardier is pushing to improve parts availability for operators of its regional airliners and business jets after opening new “super warehouses” in Chicago and Frankfurt. New parts depots will be opened in Dubai and São Paulo within the next few months, with the Asia-Pacific region to follow next year.

After forming a dedicated parts logistics business unit in January last year to address shortcomings, Bombardier has improved its parts availability and delivery. The company is working with distribution specialist Caterpillar to develop demand forecasting tools to enable it to further improve performance by predicting which parts will be needed and where so that it can locate spares close to customers. “We started to analyse where our customers operate, how that is likely to change over time, where parts are stocked and where they need to be,” says Des Bell, vice-president parts logistics. “We looked at demand with Caterpillar and decided to master all parts in Chicago, where we stock 120,000 part numbers.”

Chicago handles North America, and also resupplies Frankfurt and the other depots. “Looking at European, African and Middle Eastern demand we saw the same level of service needed 40,000 part numbers in Frankfurt – a subset of Chicago,” Bell says. “It’s an 8h flight from Chicago, so in effect all the parts are available in Frankfurt.”

Teamed with express forwarders Expeditors International, Bombardier has cut the time required to get a part to a grounded aircraft to 10h within North America, down from the industry-standard 24h. “We will soon achieve that in Europe, Africa and the Middle East with the Frankfurt facility,” says Bell. “By the end of 2006 we will offer 95% availability in 12h or less worldwide.”

Bombardier has improved its ability to fill customer spares orders off the shelf from 63% to 88% for regional airliners and from 81% to 95% for business aircraft. “Our target is to get to a 95% off-the-shelf fill rate – that covers all the parts a customer wants to order or could order,” Bell says.

GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC

Source: Flight International