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By Dale Wilkinson, Vice President, Material Management, Boeing Commercial Aviation Services
Before joining Boeing last year as vice president of Material Management, I worked in the airline business for more than 27 years. I was directly involved in purchasing materials and repair services for airplanes, engines, and components. During that time, I experienced the very best in customer service and product support. I also experienced the worst. I know firsthand how important it is to get the right part at the right time and at the right price.
Understanding the specific needs of each individual customer — and doing everything reasonably possible to meet those needs — are what Boeing’s Material Management organization is all about. We are absolutely committed to delivering the very best support. Yes, we are in business to sell parts (500,000 different types) and repair services, but more importantly we’re in business to ensure that operators of Boeing airplanes get solutions from us that help them run a safe, efficient, and reliable operation.
All of our services are designed to create solutions to help you maximize the value of your fleet by operating more efficiently while reducing costs to your bottom line. Our Material Management Services include Integrated Materials Management, a next-generation supply chain service in which you can transition materials management responsibility to Boeing, who then manages the consolidated supply chain. This offers a better service level for parts and more reliability to maintenance operations. You pay for parts when issued to maintenance or on a flight-by-hour basis. Integrated Materials Management also provides a method to measure and share benefits among airlines, suppliers, and Boeing.
We also offer a Component Services Program in which you can receive a replacement part within one day of placing an order. Boeing, or its partners Air France Industries or KLM, restore your faulty unit to airworthy condition, upgrade it to reflect the latest design changes, and return it to the exchange inventory pool.
Our Landing Gear Program offers you a “rotable” program as a repair option. You can exchange unserviceable or time-expired landing gears for overhauled or restored product from a pool of inventory. After being placed in the pool, your landing gear undergoes repair and is then placed back in the pool for other customer exchanges. You can read more about this program here in this issue.
We face many challenges every day delivering the service and support that you deserve and expect — just as you face challenges doing the same for your customers. But we never stop working an issue until your airplane is back in service. We proudly process more than 4,000 shipments to customers every day. Our team knows that every box leaving one of our eight worldwide distribution centers means a customer’s need for parts is being satisfied.
Whenever you have a need for parts or services, please contact us and we will work together on a Boeing genuine parts solution that works. We appreciate your business. Thank you for operating Boeing airplanes.
DALE WILKINSON
Vice President, Material Management,
Boeing Commercial Aviation Services