'Unserviceable' parts salvaged; saves millions.
By Rick Sloboda, Communications Specialist, Technical Services.
A team in Technical Services has found diamonds among the dross by finding a way to repair damaged aircraft parts that even the manufacturers had given up on.
The determined group of employees from Engineering Support and Component Maintenance has gone on to save Air Canada Technical services around $4 million in just one year by coming up with creative solutions to repair damaged units, instead of purchasing expensive new parts.
The story started about a year ago, after a survey found over $3.5 million in unserviceable parts.
"These had been declared scrap because there was no repair for them written up in the manuals," said Project Leader Raymond Latande. "We estimated that developing in-house repairs could potentially salvage half the parts."
"Each team member brings a damaged part to weekly meetings, and the team brainstorms to find the best solution," Raymond explained. "The Team Leader assigns action items to each member to finalize the repair and the justifications for it, and their findings are presented to the group the following week."
Most repairs are then approved within Air Canada Technical Services by a Designated Engineer, acting for Transport Canada.
In this photo, holding $100,000 worth of scrap parts are, left to right: Salvatore Russo, Jérôme Légaré, Ray Rouleau, Richard Krauss, Ernest Bernardi, Michel Zamuner, Jean-François Richard, Calvin Vanden Bos, Aleksandra Jankovic, Steve Marandola and Raimo Kivinen.
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