On the Record With
Pierre Beaudoin, President and COO,
Bombardier Aerospace
A huge effort to improve fleet reliability and availability
of parts for Bombardier business aircraft is paying off two years into an
initiative that has cost well over $75 million to date.
Pierre Beaudoin, president and chief operating officer of
Bombardier's entire $7.9 billion aerospace business, says the company has
shifted its focus to supporting its customers instead of developing an all-new
airplane every year, as it has done through the past decade.
"Engineering is focused on making sure the product that is
out there is the best in the
world," Beaudoin told Show News. Longtime issues, such as
the propensity for Challenger windshields to crack, are getting the engineering
resources they should have had years ago (the Challenger now has a new
windshield design).
"We recognize that we weren't up to par. My aim is to be
leading this industry and to set new benchmarks in terms of service," said
Beaudoin, who also took over as president of the business aircraft division
following the sudden departure of Peter Edwards in the first week of September.
Beaudoin is insisting on results in three areas:
¥ Aircraft reliability: "We are seeing the impact of the
whole team focusing on that." A must-do list of hundreds of squawks has been
boiled down to a top ten action list for every model, with oversight by an
advisory board of deadlines "to keep the pressure in the right place." That
effort, Beaudoin said, is really gaining momentum.
¥ Spare parts: "That is an area where we had not invested in
systems, in people, and giving our people the right tools," Beaudoin said. For
example, Bombardier Aerospace now has a single SAP software system to monitor
inventory, delivering parts to customers rapidly, and to identify and order
from suppliers those parts that will be needed most often. Learjet alone used
to have three different systems for these functions. Two new warehouses in
Chicago and Frankfurt are charged with setting a new industry standard of
getting a part into the hands of a customer with an AOG problem within 10
hours. In the past, it took Bombardier six hours to process an AOG order, let
alone locate it in the system and ship it.
¥ Servicing customers: All Bombardier's service centers in
North America went to 24/7 this year, and a 100,000-sq-ft expansion will double
the size of its Dallas service center when it opens next fall. The network of
authorized service centers is being expanded. Recent additions include Duncan
Aviation in the U.S., OceanAir in Brazil and a new center that is about to open
in Dubai. Beaudoin noted Bombardier has invested heavily in all these support
areas, spending some $50 million on spare parts management and distribution,
and another $15 million on the Dallas expansions alone. "We needed to build a
backbone, and that is what we have been doing. We are really starting to
demonstrate results, and our customers are beginning to talk about it. I am
confident they are going to feel a huge difference," Beaudoin asserted.
So why has it taken two years to address the problems?
"I understood everybody's frustration with our parts system,
but I wanted to avoid a quick fix," Beaudoin said. "It is very tempting to say,
'Let's just jam inventory and put on lots of people,' only to see it get better
for six months then all fall apart."
