Gerry Goguen, senior vice president, customer service for Dassault Falcon, continues his discussion with Aviation Maintenance about the components that make up Falcon's comprehensive service philosophy. Here he talks about new products, operator boards, parts pricing, and warranty.

AM: Tell us about your maintenance products CATS and OCIP and how these products help your customers.

Goguen: CATS (Computer Assisted Troubleshooting System) is an incredible investment according to our customers. This innovative maintenance tool has become a benchmark in the industry for troubleshooting, and we're very proud of that. We recently added a feature to CATS called "Reliability Plus" which is an aircraft management tool developed to simplify and clearly organize information about new parts and service bulletins to assure the highest reliability available for each Falcon model series. It's intended to be used proactively to prevent unscheduled component removals that can lead to unnecessary delayed or cancelled flights.

OCIP (Optimized Continuous Inspection Program) offers an alternative approved maintenance schedule that lessens lengthy downtime by providing an operator a means comply with inspection requirements in regularly scheduled blocks of maintenance. It is a proven program, already in service with hundreds of Falcon operators.

AM: Any new products or service initiatives?

Goguen: Last year we launched FalconCare, one of our newest programs that guarantees maintenance cost for up to nine years on newly delivered Falcons. Its unique fee schedule is tailored to adjust for different rates of utilization based on aircraft operating hours and landings. Unlike other similar programs you only pay for how you actually use your aircraft.

Also, I mentioned "Reliability Plus" is the newest service initiative we're offering at this time. We've implemented a new business practice whereby our engineering team provides monthly model-specific reports to our DAS Reps. These reports harness huge amounts of information into a useful and organized format, and can help Falcon operators attain the highest levels of dispatch reliability possible.

We've been focusing most of our efforts on the pricing of replacement parts and have recently launched the most aggressive warranty in business aviation and new pricing initiatives designed to lower the price of replacement parts.

AM: How do your operator boards (OAB, MRB, O'BIZ) help Dassault be a better maintenance support team?

Goguen: Our Operator Advisory boards include a broad cross section of flight department management personnel, pilots and technicians meeting with strategic members of Falcon customer service, engineers and senior executives. Working groups are given as much liberty as possible in order to encourage free-flowing idea exchanges. These boards meet regularly with the senior Customer Service staff including myself. It's often the case that these boards can offer unique solutions to common and uncommon issues that we then share with all of our operators.

AM: Many OEMs have taken a strong stance on trying to lower spare parts pricing. Is Falcon?

Goguen: Yes, Dassault Falcon has launched an extensive effort to lower the price of spare parts to accurately reflect the quality of parts being sold. Each week we announce a "Special Spare Program" reducing the price of parts that have a high use by our operators. In addition, in April of this year, we announced our Added Value and Pricing Guarantee. If Dassault Falcon agrees that the customer could find an equivalent component with the same added value to a Genuine Dassault Replacement Part, Dassault Falcon will adjust the price equal to the other parts supplier anytime prior to installation. If Dassault can't show a better value, the customer can return the part for full credit without the applicable restocking fee.

AM: You announced recently that the warranty duration on all genuine Dassault Falcon replacement parts will double. How many parts does this cover? Why did you do this?

Goguen: We extended our spare parts warranty to add to the value of a Genuine Falcon Replacement Part. As the manufacturer of the aircraft, we are dedicated to improving the reliability of our parts and monitoring the quality of the authorized repair agents. Over time we've learned parts repaired or overhauled by these authorized repair agents have a high degree of quality. We increased our warranty to reflect our confidence in the value of these parts.