Aviation Maintenance^ |^ avm-mag.com^ |^ June / July 2016^15news
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Gulfstream Repairs 1,000th APU IN State-of-the-Art Facility
Operations Underway at Gulfstream’s New Distribution Center
Gulfstream Adds Maintenance Services at London Stansted
Gulfstream Aerospace announced that its
Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) repair and overhaul
department recently completed its 1,000th
APU repair.
“Beginning with the opening of our APU
test cell in March of 2009, we have built our
APU department into a world-class group that
can repair more than 30 APU models found in
the aircraft of 10 different fixed wing and rotary
wing manufacturers,” said Derek Zimmerman,
president, Gulfstream Product Support.
“Reaching the 1,000th APU repair milestone in
such a short time demonstrates the expertise,
efficiency and reliability of our team.”
An APU provides air conditioning, electricity
and the power for engine starts for an aircraft
on the ground. It also serves as a backup
power source when the aircraft is in flight.
The Savannah APU shop, located in the
Gulfstream Savannah Service Center, performs
the bulk of the company’s APU maintenance
as one of five authorized repair facilities
worldwide for Honeywell, the industry’sleading APU manufacturer. The shop includes
a team of seven APU technicians and a Quality
Control inspector. Team members also work
in Gulfstream Savannah’s APU test cell, a
308-square-foot/29-square-meter facility that
was recently upgraded.
Savannah’s entire APU operation, shop
and test cell, is now certified for the repair,
inspection, maintenance and overhaul of the
Honeywell 36-100, 36-150, RE100 and RE
series, which includes APUs for all large-cabin
Gulfstream aircraft as well as the G280 and
G200; Dassault Falcon 20/50/900/2000/7X;
Bombardier Global Express, Challenger
300/600/601/604/850; Learjet 45; Cessna
Citation VI/VII/X/Excel/Sovereign; and some
models manufactured by Hawker Beechcraft,
Dornier and Saab.
Gulfstream Savannah recently added a
fuel nozzle test bench, which enables on-site
inspection of that component. The Gulfstream
service center in Appleton, Wisc., is certified
to work on APUs manufactured by HamiltonSundstrand. These can be found on several
aircraft, including the Cessna Citation 650,
Learjet 60 and some Falcon 50s.Gulfstream has begun the core operations
of shipping and receiving parts at its new
Product Support Distribution Center (PSDC).
The 405,868-square-foot/37,706-square-
meter environment-friendly facility consolidated
several of the company’s material distribution
departments near the main Gulfstream
Savannah campus. The climate-controlled
PSDC, which was announced in January 2014, is
home to more than 300 employees. Gulfstream
maintains a worldwide spares support inventory
of more than $1.6 billion.
“Spare parts distribution and management
play a crucial role in Gulfstream’s day-to-
day business, and this cutting-edge facility
ensures our parts distribution network will
continue to be the standard in business
aviation for years to come,” said Mark Burns,
president, Gulfstream. “We are very pleased
with how the automation technology and new
processes have already helped us improve
delivery times to customers. The investment in
this facility and the high-tech equipment used
in it will allow us to support our customers’
needs more efficiently as the Gulfstream fleetcontinues to grow in established locations
and expand to new ones.”
Gulfstream’s parts distribution team
manages approximately 500,000 unique
part numbers for 18 aircraft models at 11
warehouses and service centers worldwide.
The PSDC is the centerpiece of the network.
The facility includes eco-friendly material
handling equipment and ergonomically
designed workspaces. Additionally, it
is equipped with touchscreen-enabled
workstations, which allow users to seamlessly
interact with the customized automated
inventory and workforce management
system. The system intelligently stores andretrieves inventory based on intuitive storage
volume calculations, in addition to workflow
optimization rules.
“These systems cut the time it takes to
pull parts from minutes to seconds while
improving accuracy,” said Derek Zimmerman,
president, Gulfstream Product Support.
“What you are able to do with a system like
this is optimize and prioritize the operations
and placement of parts.”
The facility comprises 337,407 sf/31,346 sm
of storage/production area for aircraft parts
and materials and 67,779 sf/6,297sm of office
space extended over three levels.
Earlier this year, the PSDC was awarded
U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Silver certification recognizing the green
elements of the facility
The PSDC is located in the NorthPort
Industrial Park near the Interstate 95 and
Georgia Highway 21 interchange in Savannah.
The Savannah Economic Development
Authority assisted Gulfstream with site
selection.Gulfstream has expanded its support of
customers based in and traveling through
Greater London by adding line maintenance
and aircraft-on-ground services at London
Stansted Airport.
Gulfstream’s resources at Stansted include
technicians and support personnel, dedicated
hangar space at Inflite The Jet Centre Ltd.’smaintenance facility and access to Inflite’s
state-of- the-art fixed-based operator
services. Gulfstream has also repositioned
its custom-outfitted Field and Airborne
Support Teams (FAST) mobile repair vehicle
to Stansted from Gulfstream Luton, its service
center approximately 55 miles/89 kilometers
away at London Luton Airport.“We’ve added more depth to the services
we already offer in one of the world’s busiest
business jet hubs,” said Derek Zimmerman,
president, president, Gulfstream Product
Support. “Stansted’s main role will be to
support Gulfstream Luton when that site
is near capacity. It also gives operators an
additional option for maintenance."04_AVM_JunJul16_Intel_Signoff.indd 15 6/27/16 5:34 PM