Aerospace Services Provider Sabreliner Corporation Goes Live with IFS Applications

ITASCA, ILL.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sabreliner Corporation, a diversified aviation services company that is recognized worldwide for keeping older aircraft in flight and supporting new aircraft production, has gone live on IFS Applications.

“So many companies like Sabreliner find themselves in the situation of being middle market companies in a highly regulated and complex industry that requires them to be running systems associated with a major systems integrator or OEM”

The company has implemented a broad spectrum of IFS Applications components including Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Sales and Support, and Human Resources.

“The day we implemented our legacy system 10 years ago, we maxed out its capabilities,” Sabreliner CIO Steve DeBarry said. “With IFS Applications, we know we can grow in a number of areas by implementing new functionalities that already exist in IFS’s solution. With this initial implementation, we have only replaced the functionality provided by our legacy system. In future phases, we plan to replace other standalone systems used throughout the company. In addition, we will build on the functionality in IFS Applications to better manage our business through inventory requirements planning and cross facility workforce scheduling, which will allow us to define labor requirements across our four operational facilities. One of those facilities is a manufacturing environment which requires internal scheduling by work center and is currently being managed on a separate, standalone system. We plan to use IFS Applications to replace that system so we have visibility of our backlog, labor requirements and materials requirements from all four facilities in one integrated system.”

As an aerospace services company, powerful maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) functionality is essential for Sabreliner, which can now benefit from industry functionality in IFS Applications, including the ability to track expiration dates for parts and other standard metrics required by regulation.

“We are live on the MRO functionality now,” DeBarry said. “We were handling this in our legacy system, but because of the manner in which the data was stored and the difficulty in developing effective reporting tools, getting information out of the system was difficult, which resulted in a great deal of manual effort.”

According to IFS North America Vice President for Defense Kevin Deal, the company’s needs are typical of the aerospace and defense industry, including major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the vendors, like Sabreliner, that support them.

“So many companies like Sabreliner find themselves in the situation of being middle market companies in a highly regulated and complex industry that requires them to be running systems associated with a major systems integrator or OEM,” Deal said. “With IFS Applications in place, Sabreliner will be able to offer their customers enhanced visibility into progress of work being performed for them. As they grow their instance of IFS Applications, they will become even more competitive than they have historically been. We look forward to helping them on their way as they grow their operation.”

Going forward, the company plans to implement additional functionality in subsequent phases, including components for streamlined earned value management (EVM) reporting through electronic labor capture on the shop floor.

Aerospace and defense is one of IFS’ targeted market segments. IFS Applications™ provides market leading off-the-shelf component based solutions that support Performance Based Logistics (PBL), Contractor Logistics Support (CLS), and Fleet Operator programs; and solutions for Defense Manufacturing, Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO), Asset & Fleet Management, Supply Chain Management and Product Lifecycle Management.

Customers include the United States Army and Air Force Materiel Commands, British Navy and Army and the Norwegian Navy and Air Force; as well as the Eurofighter consortium—commercial MRO shops and service operators include Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst GmbH, K&L Microwave, Hawker Pacific, Ensign Bickford, Todd Pacific Shipyards and Lufthansa Technik Qantas (LTQ, formerly known as Jet Turbine Systems). In addition, IFS provides solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, BAE SYSTEMS, SAAB, and GE Aircraft Engines.

About Sabreliner

As a specialty supplier to other aviation organizations and to the U.S. military, Sabreliner manufactures airframe assemblies, parts, components and tooling for use in new fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft production and in the maintenance, repair and overhaul of existing aircraft. Many parts and assemblies are produced under contract with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and shipped directly to them for use in new aircraft production or in aircraft maintenance operations. Others are used in aircraft repairs performed by Sabreliner. At our dedicated aerospace manufacturing center, our dedicated assembly center and other facilities, Sabreliner meets the most demanding needs of today’s aerospace OEMs, their major suppliers, the military services and other customers. We also repair and overhaul aircraft engine accessories for power plants from Rolls-Royce, Honeywell, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney Canada.

For more information on Sabreliner, please visit www.sabreliner.com

About IFS

IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. IFS focuses on industries where any of four core processes are strategic: service & asset management, manufacturing, supply chain and projects. The company has 2,000 customers and is present in more than 50 countries with 2,700 employees in total.

For more information about IFS, please visit: www.IFSWORLD.com