While the COVID-19 pandemic has waxed and waned since its emergence in 2020, one of its distinct effects on industries around the world has remained consistent — the disruption to the supply chain. Aviation has not been spared from the stress the pandemic has put on the supply chain.
While it was merely month’s old, Captain Lee Collins, senior vice president of Industry and Government Affairs at Paragon Flight Training, said he first felt the impacts of the supply chain disruption in April of 2020.
“It wasn't too long after most of the shutdowns. The entire country was shut down by April of 2020 and by that summer, we were already starting to see a slowdown in availability. Certainly by the end of the year, moving into 2021, that was becoming an even greater issue for us. It was everything from very small parts like you would use for filters, and things that were used on minor inspections, up to and including engine cores and engine accessories, the larger, bigger things that we need when we're trying to keep an aircraft airworthy,” Collins said.
For Patrick Hynes, director of maintenance for Hampton Roads Helicopters, by the end of 2020, they were starting to feel the same impact, but come May of 2021 it was in full swing.
“We keep extra parts and consumables — oil, spark plugs, oil filters, air filters, etc. — on the shelf. Back in May 2021, I was working on a big project and realized the spark plugs needed to be replaced. After going online to place the order, the supplier did not have any and were on back order. I did some more searching and other supplies were the same way. I would say as early as the end of 2020, but most definitely May 2021. I remember needing an ELT battery around November 2020 and could not find any, they were on back order,” Hynes recalled.
Parts across the entire supply chain are in short supply, said Collins. “Everything from things as small as filters and fittings and relief valves. The small things that sometimes need to be changed out, all the way up to and including, for instance, on engine changes now. We were normally a four-week lead time to get the aircraft into the shop to begin an engine change or an engine overhaul. Now we're out as far as 15 weeks on some of these engines.
“It's not so much engine cores, those are slow, but they're available. What we're finding are not available are some of the other parts necessary for that change, or overhaul, or accessories on the engines that are just not readily available as they used to be,” Collins said.
Pandemic Problems
The problems with the supply chain are entirely the work of the pandemic, Hynes said, adding that prior to it, he never had an issue with parts being on back order. “I think in general the supply chain has gotten worse. You hear about it in the news, see it at the grocery store and even when it comes to buying furniture,” Hynes said.
Luckilly, Hynes noted the issue doesn’t seem to be getting worse for them and it hasn’t caused any major issues. “Overall, we have not had any big issues. Being a small operator of aircraft, jets, turbo props, helicopters, we seem to be able to continue without many delays. At times if one of the jets are in for inspection, we might see a delay in the completion time of the inspection due to lack of parts or shortage of labor,” he said.
Collins said they, too, have not seen the issue becoming greater but notes that it isn’t getting better. “It's not getting better. I can say that with all due certainty. As for getting worse, the only thing that we've seen in recent weeks is that, for instance, Lycoming, the engine manufacturer, there are several types of engines in their inventory that we're being told by their district distributors and dealers, they have made a business decision to not support, that's Lycoming, to not support overhauls and replacements on these particular models of engines, just because they themselves, as the manufacturer are not able to get parts from overseas to support that function of their dealers and distributors to the industry,” he said.
“And so that is something that they've said is going to transcend at least the next six, eight months, into the first quarter of next year, which is a concern.”
Compounding the issue is the global nature of the supply chain. Parts need to not only be made in regions where COVID-19 could still be imposing lockdowns, but then when ready, must be shipped to far away places. The nature of the problem is forcing the industry to ask itself questions, Collins said.
“This heavy reliance on parts from overseas, how does the industry respond to that with the major manufacturers? Do they push for greater manufacturing of those parts here in America, where they are readily at hand? Or is that even possible? I think it's a question that the industry has to ask itself,” Collins said. “Do we continue to stretch our supply chain around the world in a way that makes it unsustainable during a time like we've been through or something else that might happen in the future? Because it impacts aviation so heavily.”
The labor issues COVID-19 has exposed is also factoring into the disruptions.
“I think it is a combination of things. First, the manufacturer not being able to get what they need to make the item. Take spark plugs, I happened to call Tempest and they explained the difficulty in getting material to make certain types of spark plugs. The second part might be finding workers to produce the product. I guess the supply chain could be an issue if you think about getting the product to the customer. You might have to rely on UPS or FedEX and they are un reliable due to shortage of people,” said Hynes.
“I would say domestically here, certainly there have been labor issues, and you will hear that from organizations that you're talking to on the phone, and their part supply folks, order supply, whoever it happens to be,” Collins echoed. “And they'll say, ‘Well, we're running behind on production because our facility is only at three-fourths capacity or one-half capacity,’ whatever that happens to be. So, certainly, returning to full-time, fully-staffed production is important, but I think another significant factor is that we are relying on production from overseas facilities that do not have the same imperative that we do for whatever reason.”
Coping with Disruption
The supply chain disruptions are throughout the industry, with the only difference being how each segment is handling it.
“At the major airlines, at the larger corporations, those who have the financial resources to go ahead and begin stocking these parts and ordering in quantity, knowing that there's going to be a shortage for a while, they've been able to alleviate some of the problem. The issue on the other side of the business spectrum, the small, individually-owned shop, the small individually-owned flight school, or the smaller to medium sized organizations that don't necessarily have the opportunity to take these very expensive parts and put them in inventory over time, because of course, even when it's sitting on the shelf, it's costing you money. The cost is not just to buy it, but to hold it in inventory,” said Collins.
To get ahead of potential shortages they may run into, Hynes said they have begun trying to keep an extra amount of items on hand. “Basically, the items that are used the most we try and keep an extra amount. For example, if we normally have 12 oil filters on hand and that lasts three months, we would double that amount. You can’t really guess what a shortage in three to six months might be. We are so used to having what we need when we need it. I have tried to think of everything, but it will drive you crazy,” he said.
And when the parts are out of stock, it calls for difficult decisions to be made. “When I wasn’t able to find sparkplugs for our customer, I had to make a decision, were the current plugs good enough to fly with and hope new plugs will be coming soon or just tell the owner, 'Sorry, no sparkplugs and you will have to wait until they are not on back order',” Hynes said.
Collins said that they have also taken a proactive approach to the issue.
“The first thing we've done is we've reached out to suppliers and noted from them and their position of expertise, where are the sticking points? Where are we going to have issues? What particular parts or types of parts may we have to begin stocking in inventory, rather than just using just in time. The second thing is then doing that, because if you're waiting more than two to three weeks on something, each aircraft that's down, out of rotation and out of operation, again, is another impact to profitability and cashflow,” Collins said.
The supply chain issues have forced Paragon to be able to program only one aircraft at a time being out of service out of its fleet.
“What we've also noticed, I think, and this is one of the other things we have to do with our suppliers, is look at shipping methods and shipping mechanisms that we can rely on for shorter timeframe orders. The larger institutional shippers, your FedEx, your UPS, etc., right now, are not as good a resource for our industry and our companies as they have been in the past, because they are involved, to a great degree, in supply chain management for the very large customers, very large segments of our industry,” Collins continued.
To mitigate, Collins said they are moving towards using more regionally-affiliated shippers that they feel have more reliability right now.
Solution Shortage
For the maintenance shops feeling the brunt of the supply chain disruption, there is little they can do to help the problem other than wait for it to resolve, said Hynes. “I think in time it will get better. We all just have to be patient and let the situation work itself out,” he said. “Most mechanics and owners have figure it out and worked their way through it. We all just have to be patient and let the situation work itself out. You can not control those things that you are not in charge of.”
While mechanics can do little but wait for the problems to be solved, Collins stresses that the industry should be self-examining why this has happened to prevent it from reoccurring in the future. “And I think it's important … for the folks in the aviation maintenance industry to really sit back and do an analysis of what's happened, not just during the pandemic, but as we've begun to wake up from that pandemic. How we've responded and how we've been able to respond are critically important,” he said.
Collins continued that aviation and aerospace are at a turning point and the industry is poised for long-term growth. Growth that is unable to happen without the critical aspect of aviation maintenance being met. “It's an issue that the industry has to demand from itself. We have to solve it. We can't just sit back and say, ‘Well, we're going to wait on these parts from China that we've been told are going to take three months.’ Well, that's not really a solution. That's a reality in present time, but it's not a solution for the future,” he said.
