target,” Goodspeed continues. “Te MD keeps us agile in our airspace and gives our tactical flight officer strong visibility so that he can accu- rately update teams on the ground.”
A New Era When Pedersen took the helm of MD Helicopters last year, he brought more than 35 years of aviation expe- rience, from test pilot to C-suite, and a track record of rescuing strug- gling organizations. Pedersen worked at Hughes Helicopters in 1983 and lived through the McDonnell Douglas acquisition and the Boeing merger. “When I heard MD went into bankruptcy,
says. “If our customers aren’t flying, they’re not making money, completing missions, serving communities. Comprehensive service and support are required for us to run on all cylinders.” He immediately made support
Brad Pedersen had worked for nearly every prior incarnation of what is now MD Helicopters, from Hughes to McDonnell Douglas to Boeing, returning when the opportunity to guide the company arrived in 2022.
Step one, Pedersen shares, was surrounding
I wanted back in,” Pedersen says. “I love this product—its performance, its quality, its technology, its style. Te day I got the offer to return was one of the best days of my life. Now I’m laser focused on getting MD back on its feet.”
himself with smart people who had a common vision and then getting out of their way so they could apply their expertise, enhancing the efforts that are earning the company success and making changes where they’re needed. “We are a team with expanded industry
intel, and we call on each other’s expertise daily,” says Pedersen. “We’re not emotional. We’re not angry. We’re not looking to the past. We listen, we identify challenges, we seek out opportunities, and we pursue those opportunities step-by-step. It’s not magic. It’s commitment applied daily.” Another cornerstone of
Pedersen’s management style: communication. “Most people come to work
and want to do a good job,” he says. “By keeping our employees informed about where we’re going, why we’re going there, and how we plan to get there, we empower them with infor- mation that helps them to achieve their best.”
Level 5 mechanic Mike Gayler installs a main-rotor transmission into the test cell in the company’s aftermarket operations center.
48 ROTOR SEPTEMBER 2023
Parts of the Whole One thing that quickly became clear to Pedersen was how poorly MD was supporting customers in the field. “If we can’t support our helicopters, nobody will buy them,” Pedersen
priority one, hiring Weeks to rees- tablish and maintain long-term stability on the service-and-support side of the organization. “In the past, customers have had
a hard time getting spare parts from us, or even getting in touch with us to find out if we have a particular
part and what that part’s price is,” says Weeks. “We’re not going to solve all of those problems overnight, but our improvements are moving ahead based on annual timelines, and they’re aggressive.” According to Weeks, MD has just over
1,700 aircraft located around the world: about 40% in North America and 40% in the Asia- Pacific region. It also has about 30,000 unique part numbers. In a single year, MD sells around 3,000 of those parts, with 700 of those ordered 80% of the time. Weeks and his team began by focusing on
the 700 parts identified as key. In less than a year, the company has determined how many of these parts it needs annually and has placed orders to ensure adequate inventory. By the end of this year, Weeks expects to
be “healthy” on approximately 80% of MD’s most common part numbers, meaning that there will be enough parts on the shelf to handle the orders that come in. Te Huntington Beach Police Department
is already seeing the improvements. “When we were considering switching helicopter brands, MD service wasn’t at its best, but its leadership was changing,” says Goodspeed. “Now, even when we have issues with a part, we have it in hand within several days. And MD wants to be faster. They take it personally.” MD also has a five-year demand plan in
play and has shared that plan with its supply chain as it works to reestablish relationships and place orders for broader future need. According to Weeks, some of those orders
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