Customer service remains at the heart of Dassault Falcon Jet's strategy |
| Emilie Drab |
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11 MAY 2017 | 770 words
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© Le Journal de l'Aviation - tous droits réservés |
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For the last few years, Dassault Falcon Jet has been making huge efforts to develop its services and stores network. According to the aircraft manufacturer, much of its effectiveness is based on proximity and face to face contact. This is why the numbers of service centres and spares parts stores are continuing to increase, extending Dassault Falcon Jet services' network around the world.
Dassault had already indicated that the number of its customer relationship representatives had increased by 25% over five yeas, reaching 105 representatives in 35 agencies in fourteen countries. These representatives are based mainly in the United States, one of the two main Falcon markets, in France and in a new agency in Moscow.
Service Centres, "key factors for worldwide operations"
The Service Centres network is also expanding. Over the last ten years, the number of centres has doubled and now stands at 51 sites - fifteen for Dassault and 36 approved centres. Two projects are currently being studied in order to establish two new centres, one in Ostafyevo (Moscow), and the other in New Delhi.
Among the latest assets is the Bordeaux site, which was inaugurated in October 2016 and for which Dassault has major ambitions. "DFS's (Dassault Falcon Service) Bordeaux centre is due to become a centre of excellence for Falcons. The concentration of skills will strengthen the company's overall activities: by combining engineering, production and customer service teams, we will integrate feedback into Dassault", explained Jacques Chauvet, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Customer Service Dassault Aviation, on 26th April at the M&0 seminar organised by the aircraft manufacturer in Paris.
The Mérignac centre, whose facilities can accommodate six Falcon 7X at the same time for maintenance, currently has a small team but the whole "frontline team based at Le Bourget will be transferring to be based in the same place as the spare back-office functions. This move will take place in September".
The spare parts stores are spreading out to reduce transport times
"We are also continuing to make major investments in spare parts", continues Jacques Chauvet. "In the Service Centres network, spare parts distribution occupies a strategic function. Our objective is to achieve a very high level of reliability and availability for Falcons". Growth has also been significant in this area over the last few years, with the doubling of available stocks in ten years to a value of 850 million dollars, meeting 220 000 orders per year. The spare parts activity provides work for 250 specialists, mainly in Teterboro and Le Bourget, but also with a small team in Beijing. Here again, proximity is a key element in the strategy and fifteen distribution centres have been established, with the objective of reducing delivery times as much as possible and a target of parts ready in two hours.
One new feature is scheduled for this area in 2018: a new store in the vicinity of Charles de Gaulle airport. "The warehouse at Le Bourget has become too small with the increase in spares. We have taken the opportunity to move it to a new site very close to CDG airport, which will reduce part transport time". The new site will double the warehouse's capacity, with 16 500 m˛ of floor space and will be equipped with a modernised stock management system.
The Command Center, centralised skills to reduce AOG
With the launch of Falcon Response in 2015, Dassault has brought the best AOG resolution practices together in a single solution. It has created three "Command Centers", in Teterboro, Boise (Idaho) and Saint-Cloud. As the key point of contact for an operator which has suffered a AOG, the Command center is available 24/24 to launch and coordinate rescue missions. Around fifty people work in these three centers which are available 24/24, between customer services engineers, system specialists - who are able to identify faults and provide repair advice - and the teams in contact with the spare parts stores - to check the availability of the parts needed for repair.
Once coordination is in place, a team of engineers and mechanics heads out on-site with the equipment needed for the repair. The Command center can also provide an alternative transport solution.
Two Falcon 900s are available as part of this support solution. The center based in Teterboro can cover the whole of North America and transport teams to Hawaii, while the center at Le Bourget works for the whole of Europe, to Africa and the Middle East. Sébastien Martin, the head of the Paris Command Center (based in Saint-Cloud), specified that Falcon Response carried 100 missions in 2016 and resolved 80% of AOG in under 24 hours.
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Emilie Drab
Assistant editor
Civil aerospace, Air transport
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