While the immense importance of spare parts to the aviation industry suggests that this MRO segment should be one of the most advanced, some of the processes related to the procurement of aircraft spares and components are still largely underdeveloped and conducted manually. However, Locatory.com is here to change all that. Meet Amber A.I., a one of a kind Artificial Intelligence-based tool for aircraft parts procurement and logistics management in the aviation MRO market. Capable of recognizing part numbers, quantities and condition as well as producing automatic inventory availability reports and sending out RFQs in just few clicks, it will significantly facilitate your search processes, all via a simple e-mail.
Are you familiar with that feeling of frustration, when you have to make dozens of manual assessments and multiple copy & paste actions while searching for aircraft spares if your preferred suppliers can’t deliver? Well, forget about all that, because from now on, with the brand new IT solution from Locatory.com you can gain instant access to thousands of spare parts in one click and send multiple RFQs to all suitable suppliers in another. The new tool’s name is Amber and it acts as an artificial intelligence-based spare parts procurement assistant who understands human language.
Amber A.I. is fully capable of recognizing e-mails and identifying any amount of part numbers, their quantities and condition (currently, the system offers 99.09 % part recognition rate), so using it is amazingly easy: you send or forward an e-mail, receive a report, and click reply. After receiving your e-mail, Amber A.I. automatically sends a request to the Locatory.com marketplace for parts availability. The issued report contains information from hundreds of suitable vendors, including parts availability, quantity, condition, location and supplier’s details. After that, a simple reply to that e-mail will send RFQs to all of the vendors that have the parts you need. The whole process takes less than a minute! As a result, anyone anywhere in the world can now easily find aircraft spares and send RFQs in just a few clicks.
“Every day aviation procurement managers are faced with various unexpected aircraft maintenance and repair problems costing sky-high sums of money. But when there’s no possibility to get the part from a trusted supplier, they get into a searching spree and encounter painful headaches. With this in mind, it is hard to believe that the search for spares and components still largely relies on old-school procedures, mostly involving countless phone calls and time-consuming correspondence or using systems that are shockingly out-of-date,” says Zilvinas Sadauskas, the CEO of Locatory.com. “But at the same time, aviation is quite an inert industry, and while technology does have the potential to offer new, more efficient strategies to accomplish old tasks, it can be really difficult to introduce something new. So the question is how to make a change without forcing people to change their habits? And we believe we have found that answer.”
The technology of Amber A.I. is aimed at simplifying the most repetitive spare parts search and procurement procedures by focusing on the existing industry habits, rather than building a new platform. This is why the use of the product heavily relies on e-mail, which is the predominant means of communication in the spare parts trade. Moreover, since e-mail is the most popular business communication tool on a smartphone, Amber A.I. supports any devices, including computers, mobile phones and tablets. All you have to do is make sure that your device is connected to the internet and you can send an e-mail.
“The mobile devices in our pockets are already the most important gadgets for the majority of us: there are more people across the globe who own a mobile phone than those who own a toothbrush. Moreover, today people expect customer support whenever and wherever they need and want it. So we have made all that the core component of our new product: not only is Amber A.I. available on any device (as long as it can send an e-mail), but it also doesn’t require any logins or passwords, as all of our clients are added onto its database. Therefore, Amber A.I. is highly portable and accessible,” shares Zilvinas Sadauskas.
“It’s actually as simple as it sounds. You conduct ordinary actions: write an e-mail, containing the relevant information or forward a request. Moreover, the e-mail doesn’t have to be written specifically for Amber A.I.: you can add Amber A.I. in a copy of your ordinary e-mail to any of your suppliers, and it will automatically extend your search with the capabilities of Locatory.com marketplace. Therefore, we have already done the complicated stuff for you! Well, actually, you still have to do one thing – join Locatory.com. But who hasn’t already?” smiles the CEO of Locatory.com.
Amber is named after the fossilized resin from ancient forests, which symbolizes Lithuania – the country of its origin - and is readily available from now on.