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F A Q 
EXPENDABLE FAQ
Expendable FAQ Section What is an "Extendable" and where did that term come from? An "Extendable" is a term coined by Absolute Aviation for expendable components that we've repaired using our Exclusive DER Approved Engineered Repair Process. Since we are extending the life cycle of an expendable, we decided to call it an Extendable. Repairing electronic expendables is a new concept, and to avoid confusion with a repairable or rotable, we chose to brand our repairs as Extendables. Can you repair any expendable into an Extendable? We'd love to, but no. There are many expendable components that are best replaced with new. The best Extendable candidates are components that are high-cost and/or high-removal. How much can repairing an Expendable save? Some expendable repairs save as much as 80% of the cost of buying new. How much savings is determined by how many engineering improvements can be applied. Each component is evaluated as an individual business case based on repairability weighed against the amount of removals and cost of new. If an Extendable repair can't save an operator at least 50% of new, we don't usually consider an engineered repair. What is the upfront cost for Research & Development? Nada, zero, zip, nothing. We believe it's a reflection of good character to not nickel and dime our aerospace partners to death. We have mastered the art of engineering analysis and don't believe a customer should be charged for allowing us the chance to earn their business. BER FAQ Section Can your repair any BER unit? Not really. There are some units that just can't be repaired. However, many BER'd units have been sent to us for analysis, and we've been able to engineer DER approved repairs (or product improvement repairs) and return them to service. In one case, an airline sent us all 37% of their BER units, on which we were able to engineer repairs and return all of them back to service. How much can repairing a BER unit save? BER repairs save our customers millions in lost costs. Many units are tagged BER because of unavailable or high-cost sub-components. This is where our engineering expertise makes all the difference. We engineer DER approved procedures that enable us to offer exclusive repairs on subcomponents that are difficult to find or excessive in cost. One of our major airline customers approached us with a 37% BER rate from another component repair shop. The other repair shop refused to fix the BER components citing the airline's line procedures as a contributing cause of failure. We looked at the 'cause of failure' and engineered a simple fix using our DER expertise. Absolute was able to repair and return all 100% of the previously BER units back to service at a cost less than the other repair shop's standard price. In the end, Absolute developed a total of three DER engineered repair improvements for original components reducing the cost by $1000 per unit for a more reliable repair. What is the upfront cost for Research & Development? Nada, zero, zip, nothing. We believe it's a reflection of good character to not nickel and dime our aerospace partners to death. We have mastered the art of engineering analysis and don't believe a customer should be charged for allowing us the chance to earn their business. What is the advantage to repairing a BER unit? Savings and reliability —in a word, value. Many BER units can be repaired with skilled engineering. It's the high cost of piece parts that price repairs into BER. Because we are an engineering-focused repair facility and build engineered product improvements into every component possible, we can create DER engineered repairs for BER components making them significantly more affordable and even more reliable. Averaging the cost of a repair against a much longer life-cycle saves money. Eliminating capital expenditures for new aircraft components means the airline can keep more of its much- needed money. REPAIR FAQ Section What does Specialized Capability mean? Specialized Capability means that our approach to repairs focuses on airlines' highest-cost and highest-removal components. Sure, we can throw down an exhaustive capability list like other repair facilities, but neither the airlines nor we have the time. What really matters most are the items that are burdening the airlines with lots of unnecessary costs. We would rather spend our valuable R/D efforts on generating repairs that will make the biggest financial impact for the operator. Let me just say, we are by no means limited in our capability, but rather build our capability based on an airline's greatest needs. We believe that airlines are going to realize that the mega-vendor approach really doesn't offer the value that our continuous improvement approach provides. How long does it take to create capability for a repair you aren't currently performing? To be prudent, we like to have 30 days. In all honesty, we've turned around repair procedures in a matter of days and others have taken us several weeks. It's dependant really on the sophistication of the unit needing repair. In most every case, any time spent waiting is usually due to a supplier's ability to ship us parts. That doesn't mean we'll just wait though. If you really need the unit turned, we'll spare no expense to get the parts we need until the supplier gets on line. We are in the business of solutions, not excuses. Are DER repairs all you offer? Not at all, that's only one of the core services we provide. We are a fully fledged 145 repair station. We offer maintenance, repair and overhaul of many types of aircraft components. In addition to standard repairs, we also offer component preventative and precautionary solutions, DER solutions, and reliability data information on the components we repair. What are Preventative and Precautionary Changes? Preventative and precautionary changes are exclusive internal repair procedures that we use to save an airline repair costs. This is where the value of detailed component analysis really pays off. By analyzing each component every time, we build up a detailed history of the component's performance. That history allows us to determine when sub-components are going to fail, and pre-emptively replace them while in our facility for repair. This method saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary maintenance costs spent on re-repair and line maintenance. Our component repair specialists found one such preventative repair opportunity for coffee makers that we repair. Even though our cost of each repair went up by about 10%, the removals dropped by more than 60%, saving the airline hundreds of thousands each year. What is the advantage of Preventative and Precautionary Changes? Preventative and precautionary changes are exclusive internal repair procedures that we use to save an airline repair costs. This is where the value of detailed component analysis really pays off. By analyzing every component ever time we build up a detailed history of the components performance. That history allows us to determine when sub-components are going to fail and replace them while in our facility for repair. The method save hundreds of thousands of dollars in unnecessary maintenance costs spent on re-repair and line maintenance. Our component repair specialists found one such preventative repair opportunity for coffee makers that we repair. Even though our cost of each repair went up by about 10%, the removals dropped by more than 60%, saving the airline hundreds of thousands each year. RELIABILITY FAQ Section Why is reliability data important to Absolute Aviation? Its simple... Knowing what is failing, how often, and why gives us the ability to analyze a component for engineered repair improvements. There is no better way to measure the effectiveness of our repairs than to evaluate the performance of the units once they are in the field. Our ability to increase reliability and lower costs are all predicated on what is happening to the component. What kind of reliability data do you offer? We track reliability on the components we repair. Repairs are tracked by serial number, aircraft tail number, and list all the details pertaining to the repair, including cause of failure. We put these into easy-to-read reports so our customers can see how well the parts we repair are performing. The benefit to our customers is that we can tell them with a high degree of accuracy how often a particular component is failing and why, whether it's sub-component quality, design flaw, environmental issues, or even airframe-originated. Our transparency gives our customers more understanding into their reliability concerns and allows us to work more efficiently together to solve the problem. How often do you review reliability data? Every time a component is entered into repair. Our component repair specialists review and evaluate the repair history on every component every time. We are all trained to look for failure trends and research improvement options. If none are easily available, we have R/D engineers work with the repair specialists to evaluate a more sophisticated engineered repair option. DER FAQ Section How long is the DER process? Truth is, it depends on several factors. It can range from several weeks to several months depending upon how sophisticated the repair is. However, once the initial approval is completed, our turnaround time (TAT) can be as little as seven days. How does your DER warranty compare? We love this question. It doesn't. We offer the best personalized warranty program in the industry; our customers say nothing compares to it. Every single warranty claim (of which we receive too few to really mention) is presented to our warranty committee. Not for approval or declination, but to determine how much more we can offer our customer for their trouble. All our repair warranties begin once the part is on-wing, not the shelf. But even more, we guarantee our customers' complete satisfaction. What is the upfront cost for Research & Development? Nada, zero, zip, nothing. We believe it's a reflection of good character to not nickel and dime our aerospace partners to death. We have mastered the art of engineering analysis and don't believe a customer should be charged for allowing us the chance to earn their business. Can your repair solutions actually compare to new OEM products? Absolutely. We recently proposed a repair solution to one major US airline against several new product replacements offered by OEMs. Our design converted the unit into a solution that quadrupled the life cycle, just like the OEM's claims, but at about 60% less than the OEM products, and without the airframe changes required by the OEM. Our solution took several months longer, but when you retrofit an entire fleet to the tune of millions, what are a few weeks, really? We were awarded the contract, but the airline was the real winner — they saved millions for a better, more customized solution. Is there any advantage to being the first one to collaborate on a repair solution? Of course. It wouldn't seem fair not to extend some type of price incentive for presenting us with an opportunity and collaborating on its design. The first one to collaborate on a solution receives a pricing advantage. Everyone else gets competitive pricing. We offer repair solutions that are often less than half of new; it's really hard to get much less expensive. We've even gone so far as to engineer a solution for net cost on occasion as consideration for the loyalty of our customers. Is there traceability for a DER repair? Absolutely... Every DER engineered repair is certified by an FAA approved engineer who generates an 8110. The 8110 accompanies every repair along with the 8130. The 8110 certification process does not change the form, fit, and function of the major assembly. We collaboratively work with an airline's engineering team on our DER repair procedure. In doing so, the airline has both input in the process as well as a copy of the DER repair procedure to reference in their technical library. BUSINESS FAQ Section Why is Absolute so effective? It's simple really. We get to Why. Every repair station focuses on the what; what failed, what do we have to replace, how much can we charge? We believe that uncovering why is the better approach. Why did a component fail, why do we continually replace certain parts, and why is this so expensive? Asking Why allows us to more effectively resolve the customer's component repair issues. How big is Absolute Aviation Services? We operate out of a 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art shared research and repair facility housing 25 full-time employees. Our facilities are much smaller than the competition, but it's our size that gives us the agility and resourcefulness and makes our services superior. We think of it as global capability with local service. What's most important to your company? Character. We believe that character is our values in action. Nothing is more important than demonstrating our values. It's the only way a customer really knows we'll deliver what we promise. All the marketing in the world can't hide a lack of character. Every repair station says they offer better pricing, improved reliability, and quicker turn time, but very few actually deliver when the numbers are scrutinized. That's why we live by a "show me, don't tell me" approach. We don't promise the moon or pretend to be your buddy. Our customers want to see results. They don't have to ask for better pricing; if it's possible, we present it to them. What differentiates you from other Repair Facilities? Our customer-centric approach. We believe that involving you, the customer, in the solution gives you skin in the game. Collaboration not only allows us to give you a solution more specifically designed to meet your needs, but allows us to react more quickly and keeps costs low. Any repair station can engineer a repair, but we've mastered the art of controlling costs on the design engineering side and passing along the savings. Is your company a Green company? I'd say we are the Ultimate Green Company. We take trash (expendables and BER's) and turn them into cash (cost savings over new). We save tons of items destined for the landfills and give them new life, all while saving the airlines millions of dollars in the process. Everyone's a winner; us, the airlines, the environment, and our future. Our services are built upon a business model that allows customers to green up their supply chain and work towards a more zero-waste solution. How do your services fit in with the supply chain model used by more and more airlines? Well, unless we've missed the mark, airlines use supply chain to reduce costs and retain greater control over vendors competing for the same piece of the repair pie. I suppose we're cake eaters really. We are not directly competing against the mega-vendors for that piece of pie. We offer customized engineering solutions for high loss-cost items which OEM's conveniently ignore. Our repair processes and supply management conform nicely with supply chain best practices, but in the more practical sense, we aren't trying to become 'just another vendor on the front lines'. We are supply chain's special forces for uncontrollable loss-cost items. What is the future of Absolute Aviation? As we see it...to revolutionize the aerospace industry. We hope to bring integrity and transparency to the industry. Everyone in the industry knows that many aircraft components are overpriced. The system rewards proprietary vendors who have poor reliability with the purchase of new, overpriced replacements. If we manufacture a repair for a part and the OEM decides to lower their prices or improve reliability, and we are no longer competitive, we say great! Everybody wins. Besides, there are tens of thousands of parts waiting to be repaired with our Simple Engineered Solutions. What are the biggest challenges Absolute faces? There are two: Educating the industry about our approach, and controlling our growth. There has never been a niche repair business model like ours before. It is a radical, but effective concept. Getting potential customers to realize the value is tough; the old way of thinking can really cloud their understanding. Big savings on small parts can sound insignificant at first; that is until you start adding all the small parts. The savings over time is exponential. I don't know of a single airline in today's economy that couldn't use an extra couple million cost-free dollars. The second challenge is that we've practically doubled our size every year we've been in business. We want growth. The airlines need us to grow. But we don't want such massive growth that we lose our agility and responsiveness. We take extra steps each week to ensure we are making the right, best choices for us and our customers. It's a problem we're fortunate to have. What if an OEM lowers their price or improves reliability on a component you've improved? We say great! Everyone's a winner. For us it's a matter of integrity. It's not just about beating the competition; it's about helping the airlines and bettering the industry. There are thousands of components in real need of our product improvement repair solutions. Losing one to good competition can be a good thing. It helps keep us working hard to maintain a competitive edge. CAPABILITY FAQ Section Do you offer repair solutions on any platform? You bet. Naturally, aging fleets, aircraft no longer supported by the OEM, or no longer under warranty seem to have the greatest savings opportunities. But our BER, Extendable, and standard repairs save even the operators of the newest fleets millions in repair costs. What does Specialized Capability mean? Specialized Capability means that our approach to repairs focuses on airlines highest-cost and highest-removal components. Sure we can throw down an exhaustive capability list like other repair facilities, but neither the airlines nor we have the time. What really matters most are the items that are costing the airlines lots of unnecessary costs. We would rather spend our valuable R/D efforts on generating repairs that will make the biggest financial impact for the operator. Let me say, we are by no means limited in our capability but rather build our capability based on an airlines greatest needs. We believe that airlines are going to realize that the mega-vendor approach really doesn't offer the value that our continuous improvement approach provides. How much engineering can you perform on a component? Not to sound coy, but it really depends on the unit. We have made DER engineered repairs that range from adding preventative procedures to reengineering high-failure and unavailable sub-components. Our reverse engineering expertise allows us to create repair procedures for components that are deemed unrepairable and do not have adequate repair procedures. How much flow-through can Absolute Aviation handle? I'd love to say that we can handle anything, but that's simply not reality. That being said, we are in a continuous state of growth and planning. We have never caused a delay or sluggish turn times because of growth. Our operational strategy is to already have the capacity to accommodate customers' needs before they need it, whether that is inventory or personnel. We've been fortunate to achieve 50% growth year after year and are already in the planning phase to double the size of our brand new 2007 facility. |
