Boeing

Boeing [NYSE: BA] and Thai Airways International announced that the airline has acquired cutting-edge materials-management and maintenance systems. The Bangkok-based airline is at the forefront of airlines that are using e-Enabled tools to achieve greater efficiency.

Thai Airways becomes the 11th customer of Boeing's Integrated Materials Management, a program under which Boeing manages supplier-owned inventory at airline maintenance locations. The program promotes reduced inventory holding and reduces supply-chain management costs for the airline.

Thai Airways will only pay for parts as it uses them, thereby significantly reducing inventory holding costs and improving its return on assets. Boeing takes responsibility for purchasing, inventory management and logistics of the carrier's expendable aircraft parts.

In addition, Thai Airways will use Maintenance Performance Toolbox to streamline maintenance on its Boeing fleet of Classic 737s, 747-400s and 777s. Toolbox, which is becoming a must-have software package for efficiency-driven carriers, represents the industry's first set of productivity tools to unify an airline's maintenance and engineering operations from start to finish. Thirty-five carriers have acquired Toolbox since the first customer signed up in late 2005.

"Thai Airways is successful because our customers know they will be treated to a superior flying experience," said Tummasak Chutiwong, managing director, Technical. "That means we must constantly improve our performance, which is exactly what these e-Enabled tools help us do. We are pleased to have Boeing as a partner in striving for the high standards we set for ourselves."

Increasingly over the last 12 months, airlines are embracing the value of adopting multiple Boeing e-Enabled products and services that interact seamlessly and help drive efficiency and performance.

In late 2005, Thai Airways became one of the world's first airlines to sign up for Boeing Airplane Health Management.

"We're seeing growing momentum in terms of airlines choosing multiple Boeing products and services as they see how these offerings can be combined to provide tailored solutions to unique challenges," said Mark Owen, vice president of Material Management for Boeing Commercial Aviation Services. "Thai Airways has a strong reputation for focusing on its customers, and we're gratified that the airline sees these tools as a way to improve its service."

All three e-Enabled programs acquired by Thai Airways represent core technologies in Boeing's strategy to provide an integrated suite of products to e-Enable the air transport system. Central to the effort is the idea that data, information and knowledge are collected and shared across an entire enterprise so that airlines operate at the highest levels of safety, security and efficiency.

Integrated Materials Management represents the next generation of integrated supply-chain services. It can help reduce costly and time-consuming supply problems such as stock-outs, late delivery and low-inventory turn rates while at the same time reducing the substantial investment a carrier must normally make in inventory.

Thai Airways has signed up for two popular Toolbox modules, Library and Authoring, which will help the airline manage source maintenance data, as well as efficiently customize maintenance information, based on its own systems.

Toolbox today comprises six different tools in one easy-to-use suite of software products available via an Internet browser as a secured, hosted service.