Creating Advantages in Aerospace Through a Superior Supply Chain

CUSTOMER STORY

Decades of Experience

Capsonic’s dedication to customer excellence starts at the supply chain level, and is grounded in more than two decades of experience creating value stream optimization in electromechanical Aerospace. It’s a commitment to generating enormous time, quality, and cost savings advantages for its customers that Capsonic proudly upholds year-in and year-out. And, it’s a way of doing business from the ground up that is backed by both hands-on search and process driven assessments.

When Capsonic deals with military parts, there is a requirement that suppliers have to be located in the United States.

Having a mature value stream in place via Capsonic is something every one of its customers’ benefits from today. But like all good business stories this happy ending didn’t just occur overnight.

Directed Supply Chain Dysfunction Spurs a Search for Improvements

When one of the world’s largest helicopter makers came to Capsonic to manufacture key parts for its aircrafts used by the U.S. military and hospitals around the globe, it had a list of pre-existing directed suppliers. The problem was, many on this outdated list were no longer capable of doing the job, and were introducing large variations of cost and quality into the value stream.

Capsonic came to the rescue by having its Supplier Quality Engineering staff audit new outside suppliers and get them certified according to the helicopter manufacturer’s requirements.

But before they could even get to that stage, the effort to find the right new suppliers was an intensive one that required locating and visiting many suppliers’ warehouses and factories, and having Capsonic’s Purchasing staff evaluate their business practices to make sure their ways of doing business were consistent with Capsonic’s own high-level expectations.

Ultimately, Capsonic was able to produce quality upgrades and sustainable and substantial time and cost savings by finding better suppliers for this helicopter manufacturer that specifically included results of:

• Projected cost avoidance of over $100,000 per year
• Lead time increase avoidance of 4 weeks ongoing
• Inventory increase avoidance of 6 part-weeks at spike

Different Types of Customers Also Make Gains Through a Carefully Vetted Supply Chain

Another Capsonic customer that has benefitted greatly for the past decade from the advantages of using Capsonic’s mature supply chain is a top manufacturer of toilet wastewater systems and sinks for aircrafts. The company’s high speed vacuum systems suck all the wastewater into storage tanks. Their systems also use high speed motors to operate clean water pumping systems in aircraft lavatories and kitchen facilities. Working with Capsonic to manufacture motor control sub-assemblies including rotors and stators, and having access to Capsonic’s top-of-the line supply chain, the company has been able to expand its business because it is now able to more easily source the individual pieces it needs and integrate them into one big vacuum system that is lighter weight, takes up less space, and performs better than the old systems it manufactured. This has created ongoing efficiencies across the board in terms of:

• Cost
• Quality
• Technical support
• Delivery

And, one of the largest Power Generation Systems Manufacturers in Aerospace today also credits Capsonic’s best-in-class supply chain for saving it over a million dollars in costs over the past decade while at that same time taking its average lead times and inventory avoidance for parts down 4-5 weeks.

Finding and Certifying the Best Suppliers Never Ceases

Capsonic’s mature supply chain ensures peace of mind for its customers in terms of knowing they can count on quality, competitive pricing, and speed from the suppliers they are depending on.

Before a manufacturer can become part of Capsonic’s supply chain they face a probationary period in which they are benchmarked from a cost competitiveness point of view by Capsonic’s Purchasing team, and deep full audits are made by Capsonic’s Supplier Quality Engineering team.

And when Capsonic deals with military parts as it does with many of its customers, there is also a requirement that suppliers have to be located in the United States.

Online searching, networking, digging through the supply base, visiting outside manufacturers, and maintaining great relationships with its existing top suppliers is all part of the hard work that goes into making Capsonic’s supply chain the carefully vetted benefit it is to all of its customers today.