Cessna Customer Support Continues to Add, Refine Resources

Atlanta.– The 2007 National Business Aviation Association annual meeting and convention from Sept. 25-27 in Atlanta signals one year with Mark Paolucci as senior vice president for Customer Service at Cessna Aircraft Company, a unit of Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT).

“With 28 years of working with Cessna customers and products, Mark was able to immediately begin steering our continuous expansion to meet the demands of our growing global customer base,” said Cessna Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jack Pelton.

Paolucci leads an organization that operates 10 service centers in the United States and Europe, a network of authorized service centers around the world and a parts distribution group based in Wichita, Kan.

Some highlights of his first year at the helm of the company’s highly rated customer service organization are the following:

More up-time – Collaboration between Cessna Parts Distribution (CPD) and the Service Centers has resulted in increased inventory levels, more inventory located regionally and improved same day delivery of parts. This project began by converting all domestic Service Centers to the same inventory management system as CPD for better visibility and remote capabilities. Stock room renovations, including high-density storage, has freed up to 40 percent additional parts storage space at the centers, space that will be put to use across the realigned network of company-owned centers. New York, the first center that was reconfigured, has added 2,500 additional part numbers to its inventory base. Six locations will finalize the realignment process by the end of 2007, while the others will wrap up in 2008. Upon completion, target fill rates are expected to be 85 percent.

Faster response time – The number of field service engineers has grown by 20 percent, strengthening the team that addresses customers’ technical, general and business issues.

Reduced maintenance costs –MSG (Maintenance Steering Group) is a collaborative effort between Cessna, its customers, and the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a safe and economical maintenance program. Applied to Cessna Citation business jets, MSG-3 has shown a reduction in maintenance costs of up to 30 percent. The entire lineup of large cabin Citations and CitationJets now has an MSG-3-based maintenance program in place, including the recent addition of the Citation Excel, XLS and XLS+.

“In general aviation, customer service isn’t just about making customers happy, it’s about making them happy and successful,” Paolucci said. “Our team is constantly looking at the next tool we can implement to allow our customers to be successful.”

Future customer service enhancements include:

AOG Support Aircraft – Beginning in the fourth quarter of 2007, a Citation business jet will be dedicated seven days a week to transport parts and personnel to support AOG customers.

Citation Service Center in Mesa, Ariz. – A $20 million service center will open in early 2009 at the Williams Gateway Airport in Mesa. Cessna will build a high-bay, 101,000-square-foot maintenance hangar and will have a 124,800-square foot aircraft ramp.

Mobile Service Unit – The Citation Service Center in San Antonio is prototyping a custom-built heavy duty truck equipped with everything needed to perform small and medium scheduled maintenance, including a hydraulic arm strong enough to easily lift an engine off of a Citation X. Early customer feedback has been positive, but Cessna is still deciding whether to move forward with plans to station one truck at each Citation Service Center.