Story ID: 
Bombardier to build ‘super warehouses’
By: David A. Lombardo
Caption: Expeditors International of Washington has teamed with Bombardier Aerospace to establish super warehouses with Caterpillar Logistic Services as part of a s
Word Count: 234
Expeditors International of Washington has teamed with Bombardier Aerospace to establish super warehouses with Caterpillar Logistic Services as part of a sustained program to improve Bombardier’s parts availability, tracking and shipping operations.Expeditors, an established air consolidation and forwarding specialist, will deliver the majority of high-priority AOG components to Bombardier Learjet, Challenger and Global operators internationally within 12 hours of receiving their request. Bombardier Aerospace has already started working with Expeditors to ship components worldwide for its fleet of regional airline operators and will now begin shipping to corporate jet operators as well.Based in Seattle with some 50 offices worldwide, Expeditors provides customer-specific air-freight programs and guarantees door-to-door service. By using Expeditors for high-priority shipments, Bombardier will be able to provide customers a single tracking and tracing capability via the Internet.Bombardier selected Caterpillar Logistics Services early this year to establish two super warehouses in Chicago and Frankfurt, each located to support the 12-hour order-to-delivery goal for North America and Europe. Construction of the facilities is on schedule, with Chicago slated to begin operations in the second quarter of next year and Frankfurt in the third quarter of next year.According to a company spokesman, Bombardier has also improved forecasting and adjusted its inventory to increase its off-the-shelf fill rate to 92 percent, up from 84 percent early this year. Also, AOG orders are now routinely ready for shipping within one hour of a customer order.