JD: Can you describe the audit/check in process?
BG – How often are they going to do it? I don’t know. They do have the capability to audit us at least a couple of times a year. Actually, I believe it’s whenever they so desire. On the last audit, we had no issues or signs for concerns.
We knew they would preform audits, and it was part of the requirements that we were well aware of from the start. We have all of those incorporated into our business process, so it’s not a big concern for us if they want to audit weekly.
BD – We complied to the agreement. In aviation, audits are a way of life for compliance. For example, we audit on site every one of our suppliers, including our own internal shop. It’s just a matter of full transparency.
JD – Has everything run smoothly with your suppliers?
BD – There’s always something that comes up in every customer relationship. It’s a matter of working together to solve it, and we have our onsite yearly audits. We also have a yearly supplier symposium [close to 95 people attend], where we bring our global suppliers together for three days. We have frequent visits by our contract administrator, who are now known as supplier account managers. We’re constantly talking to our supply chain. It’s back and forth, a partnership.
BG – One other thing we do as well to secure on-time delivery is capacity planning. Daily, our supply chain director reviews our capacity on each of our suppliers, so we know where we have room.