Is your repair partner telling you everything you need to know?

When you get quotes for your aircraft part repair, you’ll often get a single bundle quote. It’s just a rate. Pay it or leave it.

What if you could provide your own piece parts to lower the cost? What if you could use an unserviceable unit, and cannibalize it for parts? What if there was a better option, that had your best interests at heart?

MROs lack transparency.

Transparency means knowing, not guessing

A true repair partner will be transparent about as much as they can. They won’t hesitate to give you a complete breakdown of the total costs, and how those costs affect your quote.

Sure, they shouldn’t tell you how much they pay their vendors or their employees, but a truly transparent operation will absolutely offer a breakdown of all material and labor costs.

If they’re really good, you won’t even have to ask.

What about lead times?

A transparent repair partner will be upfront and honest with you about lead time constraints. They should tell you what to expect without you having to ask.

In some cases, this may mean letting you know ahead of time when something is in high demand, or when it’s just hard to get.

An average repair station may withhold that information because they think you don’t want to hear it.  And maybe they think that if they tell you something you don’t want to hear, you’ll go elsewhere.

Nothing should be further from the truth.

A transparent repair partner will tell you a real lead time up front before you even send your part in for repair. If the lead time is going to be very long, you probably want to be aware of it before you send in the part.  

A good repair partner knows that and will be sure you have an accurate lead time up front.

Transparency really matters when it comes to delays.

When delays pop up, your repair partner absolutely must be transparent about those as well.

An average repair station will wait for you to inquire about the delay. How frustrating is it to inquire about a part you expected to receive last week, only to find out they haven’t even started the repair yet?

A trusted repair partner won’t wait for you to call them when there’s a delay; they will call you… and tell you what they’re doing to resolve the problem.

A great example is a landing gear MRO we were working with. They told us the landing gear will be completed, “tomorrow at 4pm.” Come to find out, they close at 4pm.

Tricky, tricky.

We also called them at 3pm and they hung up the phone before they answered to avoid our calls.

So what could they have done instead?

If a piece part is in high demand, for example, they could have told us that they’re having trouble sourcing the part but have inquired from numerous different vendors, and they could have been clear about any other measures they’ve taken as well as when they expect to have the pieces they need.

If your repair is delayed for some other reason, too, a good repair partner will be sure you know…. And they’ll lay out all the options for you to see.

That’s transparency.