In the last several years, the current StandardAero facility in Augusta, Ga. has undergone quite a few name changes. Regardless of the name on the door, two things have remained constant at StandardAero Augusta. "Quality and people," says Chris Swan, VP and general manager. The business started as Capital Aviation in the ’70s but was purchased by the former Garrett Aviation. This relatively small but efficient shop has a loyal fan base of customers who continually return time and again to have their aircraft and engines worked on by its maintenance team.

"There was some recalibration, but standards are still standards," Swan says about all the changes. He came to Augusta facility in October 2003 and was at GE prior to that in Tulsa, Okla. "When I got my offer letter, I was informed that the business was for sale. They asked if I still wanted the job," he recalls. "I didn’t even know who was buying the company. In April of ’04 we were called to Phoenix and met the Carlyle folks." The Carlyle Group purchased Garrett, Piedmont Hawthorne and Associated Air Center. "The take away [from that time] was Carlyle helped to reinforce some procedures," Swan says. But with the FBO and maintenance businesses there was a lack of clarity. "What are we growing? FBO or maintenance?" he recalls.

None of that exists with the new ownership. "New StandardAero has a purity of focus. Our mission statement really says it: To be the best and largest independent third-party maintenance provider," he says. "With DAE and StandardAero, we just got more support. StandardAero had more resources due to size and strength. They are heavy on engineering and training." Swan says when they rolled out the new name, the employees in Augusta embraced it once they realized StandardAero has five market sectors and how that could help them grow into anything they wanted to in the industry.

"How I approach customer service changed a bit. I’m a big believer in customer loyalty. I want it so that customers are always going to shop here. The beauty of Augusta is that we have been through these changes," Swan says. He thinks it has actually been beneficial to the customer. "They say, ‘I don’t care what name is on the door, it’s those same faces that have been here.’" The average employee has been with the Augusta facility for 15 – 16 years. They experience very low turnover.

Still, the Augusta facility is finding that good technical help is hard to find. They participate in an FAA working group designed get kids interested in aviation and technical work while they are in elementary and high school. They are also working with their Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) chapter and reaching out to the local middle schools. "We haven’t had a true staffing problem. But we are seeing that we have to go through more applicants than we did to get what we need. And we are using an apprenticeship program," he says.

Augusta is an FAA Class 4 repair station and Authorized Service Center for Dassault Falcon, Bombardier Challenger and Embraer Legacy aircraft. The shop also specializes in the Hawker airframe as well as Cessna Citation, Learjet, and others. "We have 170 mechanics and all are A&Ps except two in our apprentice program. We have a total of 240 employees on site. We have 140,000 sq. ft. of shop space," Swan says. "We are heavy on scheduled work and run three shifts in the week."

For engine work the location is a full service shop but is particularly focused on Honeywell products, including the TFE731, TPE331 and APUs. There are state-of-the-art test equipment and test cells, and Swan indicated that adding models is an area of potential growth for the facility. "We will have a whole engine shop redesign late this year. L.A. is doing it now. This shop was laid out in the current configuration in 2005. As volume has increased, we have looked at flow. The beauty is, the only costs will be to move the power drops," says Swan. We will look at many factors in the engine shop redesign; do I have the right shops in the right place? For example the balance shop. Is it in the right spot? It can’t be too close to the test cell."

Growth is on the company’s mind. "As we build a strategic plan, everything is on the table. On the maintenance side, we are looking at where we want to grow. Do we want to add engine models? That would be easier than airframes," says Swan. "I could pull the trigger on that fairly quick. We are thinking about who we are now and who we want to be. Everything is under consideration right now. We could add capacity to our engine shop. We would look at building organically or buying space."

StandardAero has focused efforts on efficiency. When the companies came together, the leadership was worried about overpowering the individual shops with "StandardAero." "Paul [Soubry, president and CEO of StandardAero] was concerned about not wanting Augusta to feel like StandardAero was taking them over. He was respectful of our ways. There are things we were good at and things they were good at," Swan says. StandardAero is a very engineering-focused company, whereas Augusta felt they were more customer service oriented and focused on what customers wanted. So Soubry made a visit. "He’s got the right attitude. The two companies are equals and he is conscious of that. We have lots to contribute. We have had lots of visitors come to see how we are doing things," he says. "We are valued. We have resources that the company can pull from. We can call an engineering leader — one phone call and that is that. But Paul also emphasized that we need to work hard but have fun and enjoy what we do. He also doesn’t tolerate complaining. You can have a complaint, but when you bring it up, you better have a solution."

The Augusta plant has a five to 10-year plan coming from DAE and Soubry. The plan includes collaborating with and learning from each facility. "The DAE folks really know their business. They make themselves available as a resource. They are all about the management philosophy of continuous improvement — they live and breath that stuff," Swan says.

What drove StandardAero to this improvement was their realization that they needed to change to a customer service business. They have embraced lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and continuous improvement. "This is an engineering-ingrained company. I asked the guys in Knoxville how they do what they do. Their moral is fantastic, cleanliness is fantastic. It’s all about ownership. They own it. We are implementing things we learned from them," he says.

"For example, we are increasing the candle power in our facility so that it is bright, white. The Knoxville facility is close enough that we can have a real exchange of ideas and our guys can see that it really does work."

StandardAero also has made training their employees a crucial part of what they do. There is training on budgets, technical issues, human factors training, and a combination of hard and soft training. One of the ways StandardAero makes improvements at a facility is with a Rapid Improvement Event (RIE). "We received RIE training from StandardAero. We got our first taste of this for 12 people, a mix of all levels of employees. Some volunteered, some were drafted. They brought the training to us and are doing it in Houston and L.A. as well," he says. "I am a keeper of that value that we will be a lean company with empowered, self-directed employees." A typical week in the RIE program includes the following:

Monday: By the afternoon the problem is identified.

Tuesday: Getting an understanding of the problem.

Wednesday/Thursday: Trying new fixes.

Friday: Have solution or proposal.

According to Swan, the RIE is very visual and tries to match flow with the assembly process. They utilize a problem summary board where employees can add their comments and suggestions on the board for consideration. "StandardAero has brought a lot of emphasis on efficiency," he adds.

Another area the Augusta facility is working on is the physical layout of the departments. They tore down walls that separated the customer service reps. Crew chief stations are out on the floor, not in offices where technicians would have to leave their work areas to find them. Inspectors are also out on the floor with them. Parts people are collocated. Various team members wear different colored shirts to make them easier to locate. Crew chiefs wear a white shirt, for instance.

"Everybody is here together. We modeled this after StandardAero in Tennessee. It’s a visual workspace with everyone collocated," he says. They are also planning on a total remodel of the lobby entry and customer office area, including adding more offices for customer use. The planned re-do will double the length of the office from ramp. Customer offices, a lobby conference room and lounge will all be added.

Swan indicated that growth would be easier in Augusta than in some of StandardAero’s other locations. "StandardAero is happy with Augusta. This is a good place to be right now," says Swan.