Honeywell Aerospace has a consumables solutions business segment that serves all major OEMs, airlines, MROs, flight service centers and distributors, supplying consumable hardware products and services. This business segment was previously known as the hardware product group. Jeff Smith, vice president, consumables solutions, heads up this business segment, which saw 10 percent growth last year. Smith has high hopes for future growth. We spoke to Smith to understand his part of Honeywell’s business and get his insights on areas of growth in the consumables marketplace.

AM: Describe Honeywell’s consumables solutions business.

Jeff Smith: We carry one of the largest inventories of aerospace hardware in the industry with access to more than 725,000 parts. We employ between 550 and 600 people all over the world with about 200 in Dallas, but we also have people in Tempe, Hamburg, Toulouse, China, and co-located at our various forward-stocking locations. We are part of a $31 billion diversified technology and manufacturing company. Our consumable products division is able to draw on that depth of knowledge, stability, experience and resources.

What types of parts do you stock?

We have four main product lines — fasteners, bearings, electrical hardware and seals. We not only have Honeywell proprietary parts, but also parts from more than 150 major manufacturers and 2,600 suppliers. We have a large inventory of Airbus and Boeing standard parts. We maintain a cross-referencing database to identify alternate part numbers to meet short lead times and AOG demand. We also stock hard-to-find parts. We are able to offer cost savings through economies of scale.

You also offer some unique services. What types of services?

We are a leading provider of logistic and fulfillment services. We can customize a program to manage as many or as few elements of an integrated supply chain as required. We offer forecasting, ordering, inventory management and auto-bin replenishment. These services can help our customers reduce inventory and save money.

With our FutureCast program, our parts initial provisioning and maintenance planning software predicts the probable consumption of particular parts for aircraft maintenance and ordering, enabling us to keep our customers supplied with the right number of parts at the right time. Through our FastShop program, we have special agreements with manufacturers to process low-quantity parts, which decreases the ordinary manufacturer lead time of 20 to 60 weeks to 3 to 6 weeks, and enables our commitment of 100 percent part number coverage to our OE and aftermarket customers.

How do you integrate other companies?

One way is through our Symphony technology. We are partnering with other companies to provide access to their parts. You can order not only Honeywell products, but also parts not typically stocked by us. These can be ordered through a single entry system online, 24/7. Customers only have to go to our Web site to order, but the part is shipped directly to the end customer. Symphony maintains the customer’s negotiated contracts while eliminating administrative and processing costs associated with ordering through multiple suppliers. This streamlines operations for customers. We have approximately 12 partners at this time.

Where are you seeing growth for your business?

In the last 18 months we have seen 50 percent growth in Asia. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an additional 100 percent growth over the next 3 to 5 years. China will continue to grow and will be formidable. We are growing on the solutions side in Japan. Things are also starting to build up in the Emirates as the aerospace expansion takes off and the largest fleet of A380s will be delivered there.

What areas are you working on to improve for 2007?

We are focusing on providing flawless delivery to our customers and gaining their trust so we can forecast for them. Our customers have no patience for a missing bolt or rivet shutting down an assembly line. But in reality, it can. With improved forecasting capabilities and consistent delivery, they never need to give it a second thought. If they don’t see any disruptions, there is a broadened value. We are always looking for ways to improve our warehouse operation performance. We are looking to reduce the time from order placement to shipping; we can get better. We will also look to grow our specialized kitting service, refine our e-commerce portal, and increase our order tracking.