If you’re a Dash 8 operator, aircraft MRO, or lessor, this post is for you.
This is your go-to resource for the current major Dash 8 components we have available now or in the near term.
Bookmark this page as it’ll be updated often.
Do you have surplus aircraft part inventory?
This unnecessary buildup occurs when you order inventory in preparation for near term consumption.
When that consumption never occurs. Voila! Surplus inventory builds up.
Here’s the impact that this causes to your operation.
It’s not the price you pay, how business savvy you are, or how excellent your negotiation skills are. This is the MOST IMPORTANT skill you need when purchasing aircraft parts.
Your surplus aircraft material was sitting. Rotting. Wasting away on your shelves.
Slowly eating away at your operational results. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.
Cash was being sucked down the surplus drain. And the only thing you could do was…
Price. How important is it to you? How often do you try and get the lowest price? I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, “It’s incredibly important.” and “Every chance I get.” And that’s fair. It’s also common to ask how much something costs. Or to reduce the cost of something. We often use price and cost interchangeably. That’s a mistake.
Is processing your aircraft expendable orders like cleaning a toilet?
It’s messy, time-consuming, and there are more productive things you could be doing.
Likely!
But whether you like it or not, these low value, high volume items are an important asset to your fleet.
They’re crucial!
Yet, they take up a ton of time.
The email hits your inbox.
You glance at the subject line and it reads “Need ASAP for XTY-123.”
Maintenance is requesting material for this week’s project.
You anxiously open the document.
It’s expendable and consumable material:
The request is 100 line items.
Some items you’ve never purchased, while others are high volume for you but your inventory level does not meet this maintenance need.
And it’s not that you haven’t done this before.
It’s just damn difficult.
Quality Assurance manuals are boring.
Most people skim or skip and don’t read it. And if they’re not reading it…it’s ineffective.
The 100-page document is a snoozefest. A sleeper. A book that’ll knock you out from boredom in 5 seconds.
Care to dare this hypothesis? Test someone. See for yourself.
It’s the cold hard truth. Yell and scream if you’d like. But the document itself isn’t engaging. It’s a sleeper.
It needs help. It requires engaging training and coaching. We’ll dig into this in a minute.
But right now…
Trace and certifications.
Both topics are confusing.
What do you need, with what type of material, and when?
Questions like these flood your brain. And you’re not alone. Many have the same misunderstandings of what is needed and when.
Whether you were born as a Quality Assurance inspector, trained, or were just thrown into purchasing to “figure it out.”
Just like aircraft part trace, knowing what type of certifications you need is downright maddening.
Every operation is different, making QA standards difficult to apply to everyone, in every country, in every operation.
You spend hours sourcing and processing material orders to find out the certifications you received were wrong.
It’s frustrating. And a big contributor to your material processing costs.
To help combat this, let’s define what the various certifications are and some quick tips to use with your trusted material advisor.
What is aircraft part trace? Why do you need it?
Trace ensures that quality, trustworthiness, and professionalism follows aircraft material through its various supply chains.
It is not a form of airworthiness. It’s a record of who had what and when.
Are you consuming the same 100+ expendables and consumables over and over again?
If so, you'd be crazy to ignore the powerful impacts of a vendor managed inventory. The title might deceive you. You think vendor + inventory...no thanks. That's just giving them a sale.
Wrong!
If done right, with a win/win mindset, you could cut 30 - 90% of your total material costs (not the same as material price, read more here) instantly.
Do you purchase expendable and consumable material from international partners?
If you're like most airlines, MROs, lessors and militaries we work with, your answer is…YES! Duh!
By sourcing material from overseas partners, you’re trying to control total material costs and increase reliability.
Expendables and consumables. The inglorious material that gives you a headache.
You know the feeling. You get a 100 part requirement. Or 200. Or 1,000. And your head wants to explode.
In our previous post, we talked about how to cut a huge amount of money from your operating expenses.
Now, let’s talk about how to cut 20 hours a week from your purchasing activities.
First, think about what those 20 hours mean to you. Is it more time with family? A hobby? The ability to work on higher level projects?
