Accelerating Boeing’s strong commercial and defense businesses have an essential partner—services STORIES BY DAN RALEY New airplanes roll out of the factory and down the runway and disappear into the clouds, headed for any number of global destinations. This particular moment marks not closure but another beginning—in Boeing’s business relationship with its customers. Customer support and services, which involve everything from flight training to parts distribution to predictive data analytics for maintenance and repairs, and available to both commercial and military customers, come into play whenever an aircraft changes hands. The business represents a growth area with upward projections that can’t be understated—Boeing estimates the value of the services market over the next 20 years to equal the markets of either the single-aisle or twin-aisle commercial airplanes. Services have evolved to the point that Boeing now considers them as essential as sales and production, effectively keeping the company and the customer connected for decades over the life of the product, according to Stan Deal, senior vice president, Commercial Aviation Services. “It’s an important area for us to accelerate and grow,” Deal said. “Where we’re headed as a company is a deliberate focus on how services become as important to our business as either Commercial Airplanes or Defense, Space & Security.” Eighty years ago, Boeing launched its services business when Herbert “Nemo” Ponceti boarded a ship and escorted 11 disassembled 18 BOEING FRONTIERS P-26 “Peashooter” fighters from Seattle to Shanghai. Ponceti was an engineer, mechanic and training expert, a resourceful aviation jack-of-all-trades. In 1935, he taught Chinese pilots and mechanics how to fly and fix the airplane once he showed them how to reassemble it. He had no support system of any kind, no call center, no parts warehouse. He traveled only with a suitcase stuffed with tools and manuals. Today, Commercial Aviation Services, or CAS, employs more than 11,000 people in 60 countries. In March, CAS converted a facility that made C-17 parts in Huntington Beach, Calif., into the Quick Response Center, which deals globally with urgent equipment replacement needs for both commercial and military aircraft customers. Last year, CAS also opened a Customer Operations center in California and generated record sales, which included parts provided by its wholly owned Aviall subsidiary and navigation charts developed by the Jeppesen subsidiary. CAS is training more pilots and crews than at any time in its history, according to Boeing. Meanwhile, Global Services & Support, part of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, has more than 12,800 employees working at 260 locations worldwide. In April, it opened the 10,800-square-foot (1,000-square-meter) Boeing Avionics Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul center in the Republic of Korea, one of the first of its kind outside the United States, and in August it signed an agreement with Saudia Aerospace Engineering Industries and Alsalam Aircraft Company to create a Saudi Rotorcraft Support Center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These groundbreaking facilities, combined with businesses in Boeing GLOBAL PRESENCE 11,000+ CAS employees worldwide 12,800+ GS&S employees worldwide Defence Australia and Boeing Defence United Kingdom, are a true reflection of global growth and local presence, according to Leanne Caret, president, Global Services & Support. Also known as GS&S, the organization itself has more than 16,500 contracts and orders in hand. “Uncompromising service really speaks to itself—we have to deliver,” Caret said. “Our business is based on those men and women who, 365 days a year, put themselves in harm’s way. What we provide has to have the highest quality, reliability and availability so those customers can have confidence that when they conduct their mission, those services will not only get them there but also bring them home.”
Frontiers November 2015 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above