If you spend more than an hour a day sourcing aircraft parts, you're going to want to read this. Don’t postpone it. Sit back, drink your favorite coffee and absorb what I’m about to share with you. 

Count the hours you spend sourcing aircraft parts. Is it an hour a day? Two? Over three hours? What if you could reduce it to 30 minutes a day? 

Several years ago I worked with a purchasing executive for a large operator. His team spent an absurd amount of time sourcing and processing their aircraft material requirements. The job got mundane. It was stressful. His team was getting burnt out. Turnover was high. And it just wasn’t fun. It was frustrating and people didn’t enjoy their work. 

Is this you or your team? If so, put a cost on that. How much money is this costing your operation? A lot!

Let’s change that with a simple tweak to your sourcing strategy. 

Put more humans on the other end of your aircraft part sourcing

In the world of technology, you have access to listing databases and eCommerce sites that list everyone who has a particular aircraft part. The access is huge. The search is easy…so it seems. 

With a complicated supply chain, this poses an issue. Finding a few parts and ordering them is easy. But the more material you need, the more complex this gets. Just think to yourself, what happens when you need 20 items? Or what happens when you under planned and you’re now AOG? Is eCommerce really that great for high risk, high-value assets? 

I’m guessing not a single vendor has all the material you need. As you search the world you then need to piece the material puzzle together. You have to resolve cancellations and payment issues. You have to coordinate all the shipments. It get’s complicated and frustrating. 

This makes sourcing terribly difficult. 

My suggestion to you is to put more humans in front of you. Work with real people when you source and process your orders. Searching a database and looking at an eCommerce portal can only take you so far. 

Just think of how much you need. Logistics recommendations, shipping quotes, traceability, consolidation ideas, fast quotes for items not in the portal, answer to important questions, quick resolutions on issues after you order, quickly adding items to an order already processed, correcting an ordering mistake, changing the shipping address, and the list goes on. 

Only humans, for now, can do this. It makes things a lot easier. If it's the right human you're working with. You’ll save a lot of sourcing time and cost. 

It’s a simple tweak you can make today and save your operation millions (depending on your size) over the next year or two. And make you look like a rockstar. 

But before you jump in...

This is the one aircraft part vendor trait you must look for

It’s a simple trait but 99% of companies you work with get it wrong. 

Ease of communication. 

We recently sent out a survey to conduct our Aircraft Part Repair Report, and a vast majority of the responses had to do with the ease of communication. 

One person even said...

“If the part is ready then why do I have to ask if it’s ready. You should just update me.” How simple is that?

In theory, very simple. But with competing demands, your vendors are spread thin to focus on you. 

This is one reason why Skylink put’s so much attention on our 24/7 Dedicated Account Management team. To give you the real human updates and interactions. 

This is where trust is built. This is where results and value are created. 

So the one trait to look for is ease of communication, just ask yourself…

    1. If you’re already a client, how fast to the reply to an RFQ? 
    2. How fast to the send you an order confirmation? 
    3. How often do they update you on your orders? 
    4. How do they handle issues that arise? Do they provide you with options? 
    5. Is it was to talk to them outside of email? 

Answering these questions about your vendors should be eye-opening. If you’re not getting the level of service you need, don’t settle. It’s that simple. 

To finish this off, work with a human you trust or can see yourself trusting in the future. Then be sure that the ease of communication with them is seamless. 

If you can do both of these you will see a HUGE burden taken off of you and your operation when sourcing aircraft material. 

Your Wings, 

Nate Anglin
CEO