Time is Precious, Waste it Wisely

In this modern world where the internet makes everything a click away, fast, easy, reliable, why are we still wasting precious time and ignoring K. Bromberg's advice (the author of our title quote)?

“Time is what we want most but what we use worst”. William Penn

In 2007, I sat at the desk of my airline employer, sending out hundreds of self-audits for suppliers to complete, as those suppliers had, doubtless, recently completed for many other airlines and MRO’s.  I knew this task would need repeating in 2 years time and wondered if I'd even have all of the original responses by then, such was the volume of forms sent.  I yearned for time to do my “proper job”, buying aircraft spares, without staying late at the office to catch up.  If I didn’t buy the spares, aircraft would be delayed. If I didn’t stay on top of vendor audits, Quality would raise a non-conformance against Purchasing. The upshot of this could be a hold on purchasing from non-responsive or slow to respond companies.  Potentially this could also delay aircraft as we sought new suppliers.  Neither job could be set aside.

This is a scenario that I know from meetings with counterparts in airlines and MRO’s plays out in aviation engineering globally. Often quality and purchasing departments debate who should take responsibility because nobody wants the paperwork monotony and constant battle to keep everything up to date.

The problem is as bad for the supplier, who no sooner completes the form than something changes, a certificate expires or a process in their quality system changes, and they need to contact all of their customers with the update.  This added to the number of forms received, and the need to complete the whole form for every customer on a two-year cycle equates to an administrative headache.

Wherever the task sits in your organisation, there is a way to liberate the time it consumes. AvSMART.aero was created to release your time and save you the paperwork and administration burden, providing online aviation vendor self-audits, with updates in real time. So if you want to escape the hamster wheel, simply use the system, and ask your suppliers or customers to use it too (we’ve even made this easy with our “Alert my Buyers” and “Request New Supplier” features). 

So whether you’re a buyer or vendor, quality or purchasing, make sure you’re saving time, or at least wasting it wisely.

 “The bad news is time flies.  The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler

For more information see the website, previous blogs, or contact us for a demo.

Saving time: self-audits on-line

Quantifying the amount of time organisations spend on the self-audit task is difficult.  It will vary from one supplier to the next and from buyer to buyer. What is known is that it is a repetitive task, and needlessly so.  

In my experience as an aviation buyer of 20+ years, vendor management often "falls between the cracks" with neither the quality department nor the purchasing department wanting ownership.  Hardly surprising given how difficult and time consuming it can be to set up initially, and then to control.  

I sent out 500+ self-audits to suppliers, with frequent reminders, keeping accurate records as to if/when they responded, and if they didn't reply I was presented with a non-conformance by the quality department. This was hugely time consuming and took me away from my main task of purchasing spares to support the airline fleet.  Having visited many airlines to discuss AvSMART.aero, I know that my 500 suppliers is dwarfed by those of some purchasing departments, making it an even more onerous task. From a supplier's viewpoint, it's understandable how there would be a delay in returning these forms, if they are receiving the same (or similar) form from potentially hundreds of buyers.  A quality department has many tasks  and rarely dedicate an individual solely to completing these forms.  Often they produce a standard pack, but even this can take time to keep updated, and costs money to reproduce and re-send.

This particular buyer decided to do something about the problem and here's one thing that is easily quantifiable: AvSMART.aero is just one form, easy to update, and changes are automatically communicated to buyers using MyAvSMART.  The initial completion may take 20 minutes, with updates taking very little time at all, simply log in and change information as required. 

Please take a look - if it doesn't fulfil your needs let us know why - we can add questions so it becomes the only self-audit tool you need.  One slightly longer form is far preferable to many, many forms repeating the same request for information.  

Be smart with AvSMART.

AvSMART: Create business and reduce technical delays.

Here's a compelling story from one of our airline users: 

"We had an AOG at JFK - the aircraft was en route to Miami.  We located a supplier of the part we required in order to fly on very close to the airport. We hadn't previously purchased from this company so had no history.  It was night time and we couldn't get hold of anyone in the quality department to confirm the company approvals.  As a result the crew went out of hours, we had to sub-charter an aircraft at great expense and fly the passengers on to their destination.  If this supplier had shown their self-audit and approvals at AvSMART.aero, we could have installed the part and issued a permission to fly." 

Supplier registration would have benefitted both companies.  The supplier would have a new major airline as a customer and the airline would have avoided huge expense. 

Just one more reason to act smarter with AvSMART.

Who's at AP&M Europe 2016?

AvSMART.aero will be attending the Airline Purchasing and Maintenance  expo in London 1st - 2nd June. 

If you’re there we'd love to meet with you and discuss AvSMART (Aviation Supplier Monitoring and Approvals in Real Time), including:

• For suppliers - how to reduce the self-audit task to just one form, period, and link your ILS inventory.
  
• For buyers - "Private AvSMART", our new tool letting you see ALL your supplier self-audits, always current, on-line, tailored to your organisation.  Please contact us for a meeting and, for more information, please visit our website and read our blog.  

See you there!

Sharing your List with Company Colleagues

Excellent - you've made the decision to use AvSMART.aero to evaluate, select and monitor your company suppliers and to ease the desktop audit burden. 

Now you need to ensure colleagues requiring access view the same information, and don't create their own, potentially conflicting, list.  

To do so use the "Manage my Company Users" tab when logged in.  Simply add the names and email addresses of as many users as you wish to access the information, and they will be sent a welcome email with login and password information. 

They will have "View only" access and will need to ask you, the originator ("super user", or "administrator"), if they wish to add or remove a supplier.  

You can send them a password reset, should they forget, and remove users should they leave the company, or no longer require access. AvSMART.... smart thinking for smarter working.

"Manage my Company Users"

Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Why aren’t all my supplier self-audits on AvSMART.aero?

IT’s a good question – if only we knew…  For us it’s easy to see that one online self-audit is so much easier than many, many paper-based audits.  Not just because it takes a long time to complete the paper based forms, but also because the paper form can be out of date almost as soon as it's emailed, posted or faxed.  Many people don't like change and it may take a while before people see the clear benefits of the AvSMART solution. 

Advising your suppliers that you’re using the system and want to see them listed would pro-actively help to increase the numbers, especially if ALL buyers using the site advise ALL their suppliers.  And we’ve made this easy for you.  Login to MyAVSMART, click on “New Supplier Request” and either enter your suppliers individually or via populating the downloadable spreadsheet.  They will receive an email asking them to give AvSMART.aero their consideration.  Find more on this subject in our “New Supplier Request” blog.

Spreading the word about AvSMART is the easiest way to see more of your suppliers on the system.  Meanwhile we are contacting the suppliers of our major airlines and MRO’s to explain the benefits of the on-line service.

How can I stop buyers sending me paper audits?

The “Alert my Buyers” tab within MyAvSMART enables suppliers to notify their customers that their self-audit is on-line and available for view, evaluation and selection for approved supplier lists.  There is more on this in our blog “Use Alert my Buyers and Forget Paper Forms”. You may come across buyers who insist upon their own audit being completed.  This may be due to questions they consider mandatory being missing from the on-line audit.  If this is the case, please advise us and we will contact the buyer as we can insert additional questions as required.  The beauty of just one, on-line self-audit is that answering a few more questions is infinitely preferable to completing many paper audits.

What is MyAvSMART?

This is where you will find your dashboard, Here suppliers can let buyers know they can find their self-audit on-line, buyers can request suppliers to register, you can add company users so that all your company users view the same approved supplier list.  You can also modify your account (change password or remove your account). You can download your supplier list as a .XLS, .XLSX,  .CSV or .PDF file.

How do I share my approved supplier list with colleagues?

Once you have created a MyAvSMART approved supplier list, you can give view only access to anyone within your company.  View only means your colleagues can’t add or remove suppliers, and must contact you as the main user to request this.  It also means everyone is looking at the same list.  Whilst logged in to MyAvSMART, click on the “Manage my company users” tab from the dashboard.  Then you can start adding as many users as required.   You can also delete users in the same area, should they no longer require access or leave their role.

Frequently Asked Questions (1)

How do I update my self-audit?

When you created your self-audit you were sent a password.  From the home page click on “Your self-audit”, enter your login (email address) and password, click on “My Self-audit”, and then click through and work your way through the pages making any necessary changes.  If you’ve forgotten your password you can use “Forgot my Password” to be sent a replacement.  N.B., only the AvSMART administrator for your company can make updates.  If you are unsure who this is, please contact support@avsmart.aero

Why are some suppliers red flagged on the system?

When a supplier self-audit goes beyond a year since last updates were made, the audit shows a red plus sign.  This is to make users aware that there may be some outdated information on the audit and to check the last updated date fits with their company procedures.  Suppliers receive 3 system emails prior to red flagging to ask that updates be made.  Buyers can also send a request for updates via the system, simply by logging in and clicking the envelope icon next to any overdue audit, and we encourage all our buyers to do this to keep as many suppliers as possible green flagged (current).

How often should I update?

Any time your company has changes that affect the information on your self-audit you should make updates.  We ask that you update at least annually, if there have been no changes you can just check and re-submit the form.  You will be sent reminders 4 weeks, 2 weeks and 1 day prior to the renewal date. 

I have my self-audit and approvals on my company site.  What is the benefit?

Depending how efficient your processes and I.T. team are in submitting and publishing changes, any updates may suffer a short (or long) delay before they show on your company site.  You are also relying on busy buyers to check numerous websites and search out changes.  Using AvSMART.aero means changes can be made at any time from anywhere, simply by logging into your account.   These are instantly visible and are communicated by email to any buyer who has your company selected, via MyAvSMART, for their approved supplier list.  Moreover, we proactively remind you when your certificates are about to expire, and when your audit becomes due for renewal.

What is the Smartlink and how does it help my business?

ILSmart is the world’s largest and most active aviation marketplace.  A buyer finding spare part availability or repair capability from a new supplier will need to add them to their approved supplier list before purchasing.  In time critical or AOG situations, without self-audit and approval information, the buyer may have to look elsewhere.  Having the link from ILS direct to your self-audit and approval information within AvSMART means your company can receive instant approval, be added to approved supplier lists, and start business immediately.

When first completing your self-audit, or when making updates, you will see the question “Would like the ILS Turbolink?” Click “Yes” and enter your unique ILS I.D. and we will do the rest. You will see the AvSMART logo appear in the "Self-audit" column on the part search landing page, next to your inventory or capability.  Clicking this takes the buyer directly to your self-audit information at www.avsmart.aero. 

Check out our "New Supplier Request" feature

If you read our "Alert my buyers" blog, you will know that AvSMART.aero not only displays self-audits and approvals but the system is also there to help you encourage others within the aviation to community to stop paper forms and get on-line. A frequent comment from our users is, "We love the system, but how can we get all our suppliers on there".  Well, here at AvSMART.aero there's nothing we would love better than for every aviation supplier to be on board and so we created "New Supplier Request" so you can ask your full vendor list to give AvSMART.aero their consideration.   The more buyers who use this feature pro-actively, the more suppliers will understand your acceptance and support of the system. Just follow these simple steps:  login by clicking on "MyAvSMART Login" select the "New Supplier Request" tab  enter your supplier emails individually or download, populate and upload the spread sheet (to contact all of your suppliers at once) * an email will immediately be sent, asking your suppliers to consider using the system.   *The contact information you upload is not retained by the server and will not be used for any other purpose.

Use "Alert my Buyers" and forget paper forms

Our aim at AvSMART.aero is to entirely remove the paper self-audits you are asked to complete and to simply complete and maintain just one on-line self-audit.  So, if you're still receiving paper self-audits from your suppliers,  you will find the  "Alert my Buyers" feature within "MyAvSMART" really useful.  To  let all your customers know where to find the latest self-audit and approval information for your company:  login by clicking on "MyAvSMART Login" select the "Alert my Buyers" tab enter your customer emails individually or download, populate and upload the spread sheet (to contact all of your customers at once)* an email will immediately be sent, advising the buying company exactly where to find your information.   *The contact information you upload is not retained by the server and will not be used for any other purpose.

AvSMART.aero and ILSmart, Smarter Together.

Those of you who are AvSMART advocates will already know that you can link your ILSmart inventory and capability to your self-audit and approvals at www.avsmart.aero so this is just a quick update, or a bit of information for those who weren't aware. ILSmart is the world's largest and most active aviation marketplace, it's where buyers find the best supplier for their often hard to find spares. With thousands of suppliers listing hundreds of thousands of spares, the likelihood is you'll find what you need listed on ILS. A delay in purchase can, however, arise when the supplier is unknown or new to the buyer, and therefore not on their approved supplier list. The paperwork involved to achieve approved status can delay a purchase, and even a flight. This is particularly problematic out of hours, in AOG or critical situations, when the Quality Manager at the supplying company isn't around to complete paper forms and provide the quality information necessary prior to purchase. As well as the possibility of grounding an aircraft, this may mean the loss of a sale before it has started. You can't account for this, it's an unknown loss of "nearly sales". ILSmart and AvSMART created the "Smartlink" taking you directly from the part search results page on ILS to the supplier's self audit in AvSMART. Now the buying company can confidently and instantly approve a new supplier. And that could be the start of a beautiful business relationship turning "nearly sales" into "really sales" :) AvSMART with ILSmart..... Smarter together.

AvSMART.aero for Buyers

AvSMART.aero was created from the frustration of an aviation buyer sending hundreds of paper self-audits to suppliers and receiving quality department non-conformances when this information was not received in a timely manner. We all have different priorities, certainly AOG or critical purchases take priority over maintaining the approved supplier list, and in the rush to keep aircraft flying, the approved suppliers list can be neglected or overlooked.  Wouldn't it be perfect to find all your suppliers and their approvals in one place, be able to select them for your unique company approved supplier list, receive automatic updates as they happen, and give access to others within your company so you all use the same list?  Whilst we can't yet promise that every aviation supplier is on board, by using "New Suppier Request" from your FOC MyAvSMART account, you can encourage all of your suppliers to register, making life easier, and smarter, for all concerned. Our "Smartlink" from ILSmart, the world's longest established aviation spares marketplace, means that any supplier with the AvSMART logo in the "Self-audit" column, is also registered at AvSMART. Consequently, in an AOG situation you can buy with confidence from a new supplier. More on this in a future blog.

AvSMART.aero for Suppliers

Whether you're an OEM, MRO, supplier, vendor or distributor, you will be asked on a regular basis to complete supplier self-audits or vendor surveys.  Not only will you complete the same information for numerous buyers, you will be asked to repeat the same number of forms at least every 2 years, and you will need to notify all of your customers in between times, any time you make a change to anything on the form or whenever you gain new approvals. In completing just one form, and uploading your approval certificates, at www.avsmart.aero you can sit back and relax, and using the "Alert my buyers" tab within MyAVSMART, you can tell all of your customers exactly where to find your self-audit and approvals.  They will be automatically notified whenever you make updates, so no need for you to waste any time conveying the information repeatedly to each buyer. An extra benefit is the ability to link your ILSmart inventory and capability directly to your AvSMART.aero self-audit, thereby satisfying prospective new customers that you have all the right approvals and quality procedures in place, with real potential of increasing sales.

Approved 4 Business now AvSMART.aero.

What's in a name? Well quite a lot, we believe, so our new name, AvSMART.aero, is an acronym of exactly what we're about - Aviation Supplier Monitoring and Approvals in Real Time. Suppliers complete just one self-audit available for buyers internationally to view, select and monitor. There is no more need for endless, repetitive paper forms and new updates are communicated as soon as they are made. Along with the new name comes a shiny new website, where you can register and update your self audit and approvals by login and password.  This "Next Generation" system saves time over the "Classic" since you can update at any time, from anywhere in the world, by login and password, without requesting a link. If you've yet to create, or have forgotten, a password, please go to www.avsmart.aero, click on "Your self-audit", "create" or "update", and then on "Forgot my password".  And if you've yet to discover the time-saving, smart way to show off and select supplier self-audits and approvals, please take a look at the whizzy new site, www.avsmart.aero.