Aviation IT company Locatory.com has deployed a new integration for its marketplace solution with Pentagon 2000SQL™. The partnership is in its third year and integrates the most important Locatory.com marketplace solutions with the Pentagon 2000SQL™ system. This integration brings tangible benefits for all Pentagon and Locatory.com users. Companies in the aviation industry have an opportunity to utilize both tools to support their daily workflow. Shorter procurement cycle time and increased efficiency of business processes are key benefits available to users of both systems through this partnership.

“Our customers realize that we all operate in an increasingly connected industry, and a direct interface to the Locatory.com services provides value that helps to increase revenue opportunities as well as lower overall operating costs. The Locatory.com technology platform has been very robust and reliable for us from an integration perspective, and the support team is very responsive and knowledgeable whenever assistance is required” said Gabriel Mofaz, President of Pentagon 2000 Software.

PENTAGON 2000’s total software solution is always improving. Development is guided by the operational requirements and best practices of their customers, who rank among the leading companies in their industry.

 “We have been collaborating with Pentagon 2000SQL™ for three years and we are very selective about our choice of partners.  Pentagon 2000 Software has more than 30 years of experience in business and serves leading aviation companies such as OEM’S, global operators, repair stations, and distributors. We are an IT company that works with optimization and development of internal processes of client companies. Locatory.com looks forward to implementing advanced supply chain solutions with businesses that utilize the Pentagon 2000SQL™ solutions on daily basis”, comments Dainius Meilunas, CEO at Locatory.com.

Locatory.com seeks to provide the best quality IT services for aviation industry by creating and developing its marketplace and a growing range of smart tools. More convenient and integrated solutions are the way to be innovative and flexible about customer’s needs. 

New service of online shipping quote, order, and tracking for aircraft parts was launched this week by aircraft spare parts and repair capabilities marketplace Locatory.com. Users of Locatory.com platform will receive one more solution to optimize procurement process by offering the integrated online solution for parcels shipment in few easy steps from quote to order.

A new feature of Locatory.com marketplace will solve shipment related problems such as searching for reliable carriers and managing shipping process. There will be a possibility of tracking parcels in real time right from the user profile. Moreover, no additional registration is required to use this online shipping service if you are Locatory.com member and you’re logged in into the platform.

“Our goal is to optimize business processes of our clients by developing services on the marketplace with biggest values”, comments Dainius Meilunas, CEO of Locatory.com.

Shipping services will be carried out by DHL, the part of the world’s leading postal and logistics company Deutsche Post DHL group.

“When people think of logistics we want them to think DPDHL so we are happy to join Locatory.com by providing shipping services for their marketplace users. Convenience and competitive rates will be granted by co-operation of DHL and Locatory.com and we are sure that users of the marketplace will estimate it”, Ausra Rutkauskiene, Sales & Marketing manager of DHL Lithuania said.

Aviation business could now use shipping services for single or multiple parcels straight from Locatory.com marketplace by using only one profile. Moreover, members of Locatory.com will receive exclusive shipping prices offered only for users of the marketplace. The further expansion of shipping services on Locatory.com marketplace is planned in the near future.

More about Locatory.com

Locatory.com is an aviation IT company primarily acting as an aircraft parts locator. It offers the most innovative tools for aircraft parts procurement and exploration via a broad aviation marketplace it manages.

Locatory.com patented one of the most popular tools of their marketplace – Amber A. I. artificial intelligence based assistant for aircraft parts procurement and logistics. From now on representatives of aviation business could buy this tool separately from the marketplace where it was included from the establishment.  

Randy Dean, chief business officer at Sentient Technologies, once said that everything invented in the past 150 years will be reinvented using AI within the next 15 years. He was right looking from Locatory.com perspective as Amber A. I. was created. It speeds procurement process up to 10 times and saves working hours of employees.

“Due to the number of positive testimonials and queries for Amber A. I. as an individual tool, we decided to separate our virtual assistant” – Dainius Meilunas, CEO of Locatory.com.

Amber A. I. is a virtual assistant which is helping managers with aircraft spare parts procurement and logistics. It optimizes business processes by recognizing PNs, quantities, and conditions, locating spare parts on Locatory.com marketplace and delivering RFQs on your behalf automatically. It understands part numbers written in Latin and Cyrillic, almost any type of attachment and works on mobile devices smoothly.  

Alex Khutsishvili, Logistics Manager at Aerovista, after using Locatory.com marketplace for 3 months distinguished Amber A. I. as a tool which brought a high level of usage. “Anytime, any device, any attempt, just drop your requirement on this smart tool, and you will be wondered of its quickest action”, said A. Khutsishvili.

“Due to the number of positive testimonials and queries for Amber A. I. as an individual tool, we decided to separate our virtual assistant for meeting our customers’ needs better. We are considering and adjusting our services constantly to help our clients reach their goals”, comments Dainius Meilunas, CEO of Locatory.com.

Solution to sell Amber A. I. as an individual tool was made for those participants of aviation industry who spends a lot of time by searching aircraft spare parts to procure. Amber A. I. could save managers’ of procurement and logistics time by giving a list of requested parts from the entire world just in 15-20 sec. Furthermore, the workplace of manager is not important as long as the mobile device is carried. Considering the demand of a customer there is an advanced proposition to buy virtual assistant Amber A. I. separately. The price of the tool is adapted accordingly. 

Locatory.com, an IT company supporting the aviation industry with IT-based Supply Chain Optimisation solutions worldwide, has appointed Dainius Meilunas as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Starting November, Dainius will succeed Zilvinas Sadauskas, who will continue in an advisory role, working on different R&D projects.

Newly assigned CEO brings over 5 years of experience working in aviation industry with strong results in establishing business leads and product development. Before joining Locatory.com, Dainius spent most of his professional career at BAA Training, part of Avia Solutions Group, where he was in charge of corporate growth strategies and business expansion. 

“Locatory.com is one of the most innovative IT companies in aviation aftermarket worldwide, focusing highly on industry trends and demands. I believe that the opportunities lying ahead for the company are immense and the possibility for me to head the company towards them is truly humbling. I have no doubt that working collectively with the whole team we will be able to get even better understanding of clients’ needs in order to create more unique products and tools that would be of value to aviation companies globally”, comments Dainius Meilunas, the new CEO at Locatory.com

The company provides comprehensive aftermarket-related solutions including web-based aviation spare parts marketplace as well as procurement tools such as inventory publishing, supplier management tool and others. Locatory.com also offers customers its state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-based tool, Amber A.I., which automatically recognizes RFQs and provides all data and contact information to the customer in a matter of seconds. 

Although the aviation spare parts market is forecasted to grow at a rate of 4% at least until 2018 (Research and Markets report), the percentage of flight delays caused by technical failures is still rising. In fact, various statistics indicate logistics-related delays of spare parts supply still add up to over $20 million per year in the U.S. alone. The solution, however, might be as simple as taking a better look.

Aviation aftermarket has long been notorious for its lack of transparency, translucency in the spare parts pricing processes being just one side of the coin. For instance, while, according to IBM, airlines spend more than $200 per flight hour on spare parts, a study by Research and Markets suggests that during the last couple of years the number of AOGs, including those prolonged by the wait for a spare, kept increasing at a rate of 2%. As a result, not surprisingly, Aberdeen Group’s survey indicates 63% of respondent list supply chain visibility as a high priority for improvement, with additional 28% indicating it as a medium priority.

In the meantime, a study by Aerogistics indicates the top challenge that companies are facing in optimizing their MRO supply chains is “managing the complexities of getting the parts to where they’re needed in a timely manner”. Almost 29% of respondents identified it as the greatest challenge, while 24% more listed finding new suppliers in new markets among their top areas of concern.

Needless to say, in such an environment logistics-related cost estimates become an increasingly important factor in spare parts procurement process. After all, being able to reducing MRO expenditures by as few as 10% could almost double a carrier’s profits. In fact, the same study says MRO companies tend to list increased spare parts replenishment and management of the logistics of spares among their TOP 3 focus areas of improvement. Meanwhile, as surprising as it may seem, it is not unusual for an airline to overlook an attractive offer by supplier, based solely on the knowledge of the supplier’s head office’s location.

Of course, building new infrastructure in new markets to adequately support the operations, or outsourcing parts needs to a logistics partner can help solve what many operators identify as a key priority for supporting increased capacity in their MRO value chain. However, without local knowledge or easy ways of vetting new suppliers in an emerging market, the companies can expose themselves to great risks. In the meantime, according to Locatory.com, it is not uncommon to be able to find a part from a trusted supplier on a remote location. The trick is just being able to see it.

“The math is really very simple. If the spare parts market is expected to be worth over $6 billion in ten years, it’s not that the aviation aftermarket that is scattered, it’s the visibility and communication that’s messed up. What we suggest, is that rather than sticking to stocking critical parts in strategic locations, airlines should be investing in relevant IT solutions ensuring they have access to all the necessary information, including warehouse locations. The bottom line is that we actually don’t need as much new warehouses as it might seem. Rather than shooting ourselves in the leg by using some old-school procedures, we simply need to draw a proper map of all the aftermarket. It’s bigger than we think, and in this particular case, size matters,” comments Zilvinas Sadauskas the CEO of Locatory.com.

Despite successfully cutting down their aircraft spare part pools and eliminating certain inventory costs, airlines, MROs and other industry players these days still find themselves entrapped in vastly inconvenient component procurement processes. Some experts even state that by 2020, most operators will have abandoned their inventory stocks at all. Such transition would translate into an increased focus on third-party providers. Nevertheless, many argue that such procurement processes are mainly outdated, extremely costly and time-consuming.

Just to get a grip on how much this practice costs, consider the following example: a single carrier, American Airlines, spends more than $18 billion annually to locate and procure their parts via an extensive list of suppliers. In addition to the price paid, there’s the time spent on contacting each and every vendor. For instance, according to the data of Locatory.com, in Latin America alone, a medium-sized carrier has on average from 50 up to 70 approved vendors. Even if a single e-mail took only a minute to compose, preview and send, it would require an hour or more just to reach out, let alone receive prices, analyse and select the proper part. And we all know how valuable a part can become in an AOG. 

Costs for operators are clear, but this practice also largely affects the counterpart of the procurement process – the suppliers. Under the aforementioned conditions, there is no other option but to try and become an approved supplier. And this goal is not amongst the easiest. It takes approximately 3-6 months to get onto the list and there is no guarantee that you will hear from any clients any time soon, as airlines and MROs have unimaginable amounts of approved vendors. For instance, airlines in India are estimated to have around 80 suppliers on average, while some maintenance facilities in Eastern Europe have lists topping 100 vendors.  

“Expenses and time are of course the key issues, however, there are even more challenges surrounding cumbersome component search,” comments Zilvinas Sadauskas, the CEO of Locatory.com.” Amongst the main values in this industry is accuracy and the ability to act quickly. Such power to act is highly diminished by the fact that an outdated way of locating the right parts does not allow browsing through historical data, which would allow comparing and analysing parts in order to attain the much needed agility.” 

Achieving the utmost efficiency is on everyone’s mind and, apparently, there are ways to make it possible. According to SITA, 75% of all airlines will increase their spending on new IT solutions in order to optimize their costs and spare part procurement processes in the near future. In fact, it is expected to be one of the key focus areas in the next several years. “Companies which opt to invest into the area could save up to 35 working days and cut on average 15% of the inventory price with the help of some clever IT solutions,” says the CEO of Locatory.com. 

“As the spare parts market is heading towards the value of $6.2 billion, by 2025, the major players in the segment are expected to reconsider their operational processes in order to get the largest share of this pie. Still, the majority of operators and MROs to date keep using the same, inconvenient techniques to acquire the components they need. Despite having to complete 9 steps from sending RFQs to issuing POs, some IT tools, such as SMT, can offer a quicker as well as more efficient solution. By automating most of the process, users do not only save time, but also gain access to highly valuable data, which allows making significantly better decisions in the future,” concludes Zilvinas Sadauskas, the CEO of Locatory.com.