Boeing

In a major boost to spare parts support for European airlines, the Boeing Company today officially opened its new Amsterdam Service Center near Schiphol Airport.

It is the eighth such facility in the company's worldwide spare parts network. This network includes the main distribution facilities in Seattle and Los Angeles, and the regional centers in Atlanta, London, Dubai, Beijing and Singapore.

The new Amsterdam center ensures that European airlines and maintenance providers can get spare parts in the shortest possible time. This improves the overall supply-chain management process by reducing the customers' need to hold costly "just in case" inventory, and also supports high levels of schedule reliability.

Initially, the new center will maintain inventory for about 50,000 different types of parts. This inventory supports the entire family of Boeing jetliners.

The center is a leased facility with 68,000 square feet (6317 m2) of warehouse space plus office areas. Designed for growth, it provides space for future expansion of the parts inventory and for a variety of potential service functions including customer accounts administration and other support services.

Boeing has staffed the Amsterdam center with experienced logistics employees hired under contract with KLM Cargo. Boeing business processes and state-of-the-art warehouse technology make the center an integral part of the Boeing spares network.

The center uses bar coding to keep track of all inventory and shipments. In turn, the center's stock is electronically linked to the worldwide Boeing spares inventory control system through a high-speed communications network. For efficient handling of parts stock, the center is equipped with modern, clean battery-powered lift equipment.

Darce H. Lamb, vice president of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services and a leader in developing the company's e-commerce capabilities, said the Amsterdam center is fully integrated into the Boeing PART Page web site.

"This allows customers to order and track shipments, check prices and monitor inventory levels at any of our service centers through the convenience of the World Wide Web," said Lamb. "The Boeing spares network then ships the part from the nearest center for reduced transit time. In the case of Europe, customers receiving shipments from our new Amsterdam center will be served through one of the most efficient transportation hubs on the continent."

Michel Coumans, vice president of Material Services for KLM Engineering & Maintenance, said: "We are very pleased Boeing selected Amsterdam as the location for its Service Center in Europe. For KLM Cargo Air Logistics, this customer fully fits with our core product - warehousing and distribution of components and spare parts in the aerospace market. For KLM Engineering & Maintenance, it offers a perfect opportunity to lower inventory cost and improve on reliability."