Pushing the TBO Envelope

Corporate Rotable & Supply has carved a niche by having rotable parts ready when customers need them. It’s banking on the growth of the market for such services.

If Armando Leighton, Jr., founder and president of Corporate Rotable & Supply, ever decided to get out of the airplane components business, there’s little doubt that he could make a handsome living teaching other company owners how to create and maintain an effective customer service program.

Customer service has been one of the major building blocks Leighton has used to build his company from a few boxes in a corner of his mother’s garage into one of the major global players in the rotable components supply business with more than $50 million in inventory.

"I’d say that one of the first things that stands out about CRS is our commitment to total customer satisfaction without an immediate concern for the profitability of an individual transaction," Leighton said. "It’s really about making the customer happy and satisfied; having them walk away from a transaction feeling that they were taken care of."

"A lot of people look at aftermarket parts suppliers as just short-term companies," added Jack Caloras, vice president sales and marketing. "Everyone here strives to let our customers know we are here for them at all costs."

CRS’s customer service is backed up with hard work and real solutions. The company will go so far as lending customers spare parts to take on a long trip. "In today’s economy, many operators don’t have the budgets to carry a lot of spare parts on long international trips," Leighton said. "So what we will do is loan them specific rotable parts to take in their fly-away kits. If they need the parts, they have them. If they don’t, they just ship them back to us when they return."

"It’s an added service we offer our customers free of charge that really sets us apart," he said. "Many times you’re looking at $20,000 to $30,000 in spares that we’re loaning a customer just for the sake of asking. It’s unusual and certainly different from the service offered by the typical parts vendor. But our extensive stock allows us to go that extra mile to help our customers out."

Comprehensive AOG service sets CRS apart from other vendors, Caloras said. When someone calls CRS’s AOG hotline any time day or night, a real person will respond and immediately check the CRS computer for parts availability.

"Our customers like knowing that someone is there who is really concerned about helping them out," he said. "Of course parts availability isn’t the only thing our technical staff can offer. Our people are also trained to provide AOG technical assistance if a customer needs it. Sometimes the right answer doesn’t end with just finding a part."

"Corporate aviation doesn’t stop and that means they can’t waste time calling all around for a part," Leighton said. "So if a customer calls with a request and we don’t have the part in stock, we’ll take the responsibility to call around until we find what they need and arrange for it to be shipped to them. Our customers are people who know and appreciate who they can count on when they need help."

CRS’s dedication to providing customers with peace-of-mind and reliable parts availability is the reason it has built such a comprehensive inventory of rotable parts. Leighton said that over more than 20 years, he and his staff have closely monitored customers’ needs and have a pretty good idea of which parts they are going to need most frequently.

As the rotable spares business continues to grow and more suppliers enter the market, Leighton sees an even more focused effort on providing service and support above and beyond the ordinary.

Or as Leighton stated in his recent message celebrating the company’s 20th anniversary, "While we have grown bigger than I had ever dreamed, the same unwavering commitment to giving you the reliable products and service you need, when you need them, is stronger today that it has ever been. This commitment is shared by myself and everyone on the CRS team."

CRS PMAs New Learjet Generator

You just can’t argue about the popularity of the Learjet family in all facets of business aviation. It seems like every company either has, does, or will own and operate a Learjet sometime during their history. But, Learjets, like every other aircraft, do have their Achilles heels, and one of the big ones is chronic generator problems, according to the folks at Corporate Rotable & Supply.

"We have seen a lot of generators–up to 200 a year–coming through our shop," said CRS president Armando Leighton Jr. "And lots of those had suffered catastrophic failures."

Leighton and his team decided that there had to be a better way so they set out to develop a new and greatly improved replacement generator for Learjet 35/36 and 55 models. "It took us over four years to bring the new generator product to fruition," he explained. "We developed and PMAed a new generator that uses the latest electrical technology to provide operators more reliable operation and a 3,000-hour TBO."

CRS’s road to the generator PMA wasn’t an easy one. "It took nearly two years to certify it with the FAA," Leighton said. "It’s such a critical item on the airplane that they literally made us certify it as though we were certifying the Lear 55 all over again."

The certification steps to receiving the PMA on the new generator included a complete fight test regimen with data probes, full test instrumentation, and all kinds of test boxes. "We even had to call the airplane ‘experimental’ during the tests," he added. "During the tests we had to go to 50,000 feet and do emergency descents. Thanks to the diligent efforts of our Jeff Biederwolf, an in-house engineer/DER, we passed them all with flying colors."

Now Learjet operators have a viable alternative to the OEM generator. The CRS generator comes with a two-year warranty and is projected to have a 3,000-hour TBO, nearly three-times longer than the OEM part. And the best news is that it costs the same as the OEM generator. "What really motivated us to get involved with the generator PMA was the ability to deliver an improved part to our customers when they need them," Leighton said. "The jets are getting old and the OEM just isn’t responsive to the changing needs of the operators. We’ve stepped in and now offer a quality alternative at a competitive price, and the best part is, it’s available off the shelf and ready for delivery."

Contact:
Corporate Rotable & Supply
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Phone: 954-972-2807
800-338-5387
Fax: 954-972-2708
www.corporaterotable.com