Dassault Beefs Up Spare Parts Distribution

Dassault continues spares initiatives in an effort to satisfy customers worldwide. European contributing editor, Thierry Dubois, learned about their initiatives firsthand during a visit to Dassault’s warehouse at Le Bourget Airport in Paris, France.

Between 2005 and this year, Dassault is increasing the spare parts inventory worldwide for its Falcon business jets by 65 percent — to $650 million — and has launched a series of initiatives to make customers happier with genuine replacement parts. Improving customer support has been necessary to keep up with the competition and growing customer expectations, Jean Kayanakis, vice president worldwide Falcon spares, told Aviation Maintenance during a visit to Dassault’s warehouse at Le Bourget Airport (LBG) in Paris, France. Short-term plans now call for further expanding the parts distribution network.

"A customer who sees [on the customer support website] that a spare part is available at some place wants it to be shipped on the next flight," Kayanakis notes. Around 320,000 parts are available to order online. Some 10 years ago, delivering in 48 hours was fine, Kayanakis adds, but customer expectations have since risen. Replacement of an engine air intake damaged by a bird strike is expected in a maximum of 24 hours.

Dassault has created a second distribution center, in Teterboro, N.J. Since 2007, the strategy is to have two main distribution centers and secondary (or satellite) ones spread regionally over the world. "Regional centers are of limited importance if measured in how many parts references they have; their raison d’être [reason for being] is rather to deal with emergencies — they have critical parts such as wheels fitted with tires, and fuel pumps," Kayanakis asserts. For example, in Mumbai, India, there are about 200 pieces of equipment. Satellite distribution centers are staffed mainly with people employed by local partners — there are few Dassault employees. One of the recently opened distribution centers, in Shanghai, China, is a place where few Falcons are based but there is a lot of traffic. Hence the relevance of locating a distribution center there. The situation was the same in Dubai, UAE, one of the first satellite centers, in 2007.

In Latin America, Dassault has chosen to establish a regional distribution center in São Paulo, Brazil, because "this is a complicated country" as far as customs procedures. In Mumbai, "we have set up a process that will normally make clearing the customs swift," Kayanakis hopes. Secondary centers can also be found in Johannesburg, South Africa, Singapore and Sydney. In the U.S., there are satellite parts distribution centers in San Jose, Calif., and Wilmington, Del.

Plans during 2009 call for opening satellite distribution centers in Moscow, Russia and Istanbul, Turkey. In Russia, opening a satellite distribution center is a challenging task. "Rules change very often so, if you want to do everything legally, your goals are difficult to reach," he says.

At Dassault’s factory in Bordeaux Mérignac, where Falcons are put together, some engineers are in charge of the "parts selection" process. "They answer questions such as: How often will this part be replaced? What is the required competence level to replace it? May the operator perform the replacement or should he leave it to a fully skilled workshop?" Kayanakis explains. These engineers carry out a technical and operational analysis.

The objective is to meet customer needs, both for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. The current design process, which involves Dassault Systemes’ product life management software suite, helps the parts selection process, Kayanakis notes. The quantities of parts to produce are defined in Mérignac. "This is our global back office," Kayanakis says. Then, there are two frontline desks — Le Bourget and Teterboro. In these three locations, a total 200 employees work on spares support.

Parts travel almost only by plane. Dassault has partnered with express delivery specialist DHL. Parts often go into the cargo hold of a passenger aircraft. For large sizes and big quantities, DHL uses its freighters. Large parts include, among others, wing slats (the demand for which is almost weekly, since it is highly exposed to foreign object damage), radomes and landing gear doors. "DHL’s added value is the way they optimize clearing the customs," Kayanakis says.

As a result, if a U.S. operator requests a spare part at 10 p.m. and the part is in Europe, it can be at Newark Airport (EWR) on the day after, having cleared the customs at 5 p.m. The final leg of the journey may then be with FedEx.

There is also a thin eastbound flow of parts over the Atlantic. "Sometimes, a part is needed in Europe and available in Teterboro," Kayanakis explains. In that instance, if the request happens at 10 p.m. in Europe, the part can be there on the day after at 2 p.m. "But it is better to have the part available here!" Kayanakis emphasizes.

According to Franck Youngkin, vice president for customer service in the Western hemisphere, about 98 percent of parts orders are shipped in time. In that instance, "in time" means "in time for the customer to get it in his requested time."

Dassault usually sends someone to the airport to track the part until it embarks on a flight. "The idea is to secure loading," Kayanakis explains. For example, it may happen that the amount of passenger luggage leaves no room for the part. Or the captain may deny boarding to a so-called hazardous parcel, containing a fire extinguisher. The tracker’s job is then to ensure the part takes the next flight, or decide to ship it by taxi. From Paris, Dassault can have parts shipped by taxi to Italy.

Sometimes, in remote areas, one person carries the part personally to its destination. "Even in countries where bribery is widespread, we do everything legally," Youngkin insists. For example, the Dassault person will not pay the police to go through a checkpoint. "The person who is waiting for the part is generally in an urgent need and has therefore taken care of all local travel details," Youngkin notes.

Flawless information sharing is essential to avoid unnecessary and costly shippings. This is especially important as Dassault’s customer support is split between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. The Eastern one includes Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East and southwest Asia down to India. The Western hemisphere is made of the Americas, Australia and most of Asia. Good communications can avoid, for example, sending a part from Teterboro to India, where a stranded U.S. operator is waiting for it, whereas the Indian distribution center has the same part in its inventory. Increasing the inventory worldwide is Dassault’s own will. "We must support our field reps with good parts distribution," Kayanakis says. It is also an obvious need, since new aircraft are being introduced. For example, in April, Falcon 2000LX winglets were already in inventory, a few days before aircraft type certification. The Falcon 2000LX is a winglet-installed version of the Falcon 2000EX, the aerodynamic devices boosting range from 3,800 to 4,000 nautical miles. "A ferry flight with one winglet is allowed," Kayanakis points out.

The inventory is made of rotables (such as air intakes), new parts (such as screws) and tooling. Dassault pledges better traceability over parts brokers. According to Falcon spares marketing and sales manager Christelle Ecker, initiatives launched in 2007 have improved the relationship with customers. The first one was prolonging the warranty from one to two years.

Simultaneously, a "spare price feedback" form was created to enhance the perception of the claimed added value in Dassault-supplied spares. The principle is, "if you demonstrate you have found the same part, with same quality and same traceability, at a lower price, we will decrease our price to the same level," Ecker says. Since the initiative was launched, the company has received 200 such complaints and has decided to "adjust" the price in 60 percent of occurrences. Kayanakis sees customers better trusting his company.

In addition, Dassault regularly offers rotables at a discount price during a given period. Most often, the special offer lasts one year. "This is interesting for maintenance purchase planning, an operator may want to buy parts in advance," Ecker notes. However, such a move is the result of customer feedback on pricing (not necessarily through the aforementioned scheme) and the price may stay at the "discount" level after the specified duration.

This is again to counter the perception of too high pricing. "Some customers tell us our parts are expensive but they have not asked us for a quote for two years," Kayanakis says.

Also, Dassault has suppressed supplemental billings for standard upgrades. An extra amount was charged when the customer was getting a rotable with a higher standard than the one he had returned. This was deemed unjustified since the customer had not asked for the standard upgrade and was not given a choice. Now there is no more supplemental billing, providing the returned part comes from Dassault’s inventory.

Dassault also provides out-of-production aircraft parts. "This is costly for us but it shows our commitment to supporting old aircraft," Kayanakis says. Customer loyalty is at stake. Approximately 400 parts references are still produced in that framework. Spares availability quickly becomes an issue after aircraft production has ceased. "We already have such issues with the Falcon 50 series," Kayanakis says. Production of the last version, the Falcon 50EX, ended in 2007.

In recent years, Dassault had to increase its workforce regularly in spares distribution. "Our business had been growing by 10 – 15 percent a year in the Western hemisphere and 15 – 20 percent a year in the Eastern one," Kayanakis says. He reminded this was due both to the fleet’s growth and gains in market share. Globally, there are 1,800 rotables shipped every month to customers. For new parts, Dassault receives 10,000 line item orders every month. The Le Bourget distribution center is fully staffed from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with people on call on a 24-hour basis.