Meet Lori Morris – Director of Repair and Overhaul: Tulmar focuses on growth of R&O operations in Canada.
Hawkesbury, ON, Canada (August 8th, 2017) – Tulmar Safety Systems, an established leader in providing MRO services to the Canadian military and civil aviation industries, will be exhibiting at the Canadian Business Aviation Association (CBAA) show this year in Abbotsford, BC – Booth #237.
Since 1992, we’ve been providing civil aviation R&O services for inflatable safety devices in Hawkesbury. We’ve increased our capabilities and customer base, and today Tulmar is a major player in Canada for the provision of R&O services to military and aviation customers. We are uniquely positioned to answer the needs of the market: we are located near several major airports and airlines, we have the ability to provide bilingual services to our clientele and we now have a strong Director on board to lead the R&O in the achievement of its full potential.
Lori Morris was selected 7 months ago and was given the mandate of developing Tulmar’s MRO operations and capabilities.
In this interview, she shares her vision for the future of Tulmar’s R&O.
Hello Lori, tell us a little bit more about yourself. What is your background?
I started at Tulmar in December 2005. Before Tulmar, I worked as a Work and Material Planner for Bombardier in Toronto. There, I gained a lot of aerospace experience which I was able to bring to Tulmar, where I applied it as our Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Program Manager for our defence clients, including one of our biggest customers: GDLS (General Dynamics – Land Systems). In late fall 2016, I was offered the opportunity to lead our repair and overhaul facilities and have been there since.
Since you joined, what has changed in R&O?
The first thing that comes to mind is that alongside many changes throughout Tulmar, the facilities have been modernized and re-invented.
Many workstations were moved to increase performance and improve process flow. For example, we relocated the seat belt overhaul area into the main body of the department and moved the ELT equipment next to the raft overhaul and packing stations. Along with these relocations we have also increased the plant’s foot print to gain more space allowing us to take in higher volumes of incoming business.
We have increased our capabilities with the early implementation of RFID and the acquisition of additional rafts for our rental raft inventory.
Another helpful addition was having Amanda Howes join R&O full time as our MRO Solutions Specialist, for support in sales and customer service. We really want to offer the best R&O service to both the defence and the commercial markets.
What projects are you currently working on?
In addition to our commercial aviation business and the capabilities mentioned before, we are working on 2 major DND (Canadian Department of National Defence) contracts: Flotation & Life Support Equipment, and the Aerial Delivery Equipment Contract. The Aerial Equipment contract includes the modification of our raft and the packing of the Air-Sea Rescue survival kit. The Flotation contract allows us to overhaul and warehouse life preservers for DND, to ensure full life cycle support of those products. This also leads to us increasing the services we can provide to customers in terms of logistic support. We are working on increasing our inventory management capabilities in R&O, so that we may offer overhaul, warehousing and full logistic support to our commercial aviation clients as well.
Our AOG (Aircraft on the Ground) line is open 24/7 with a dedicated team ready to answer these emergencies. We normally get a few of these calls every week and we strive to answer them to the client’s satisfaction.
In 7 months, you’ve achieved a lot. Could you tell us more about the one or two achievements that have marked you the most?
I’m proud of how dedicated I’ve been to ensure our raft technicians remain well trained. We had a technician travel to both Eastern Aero Marine and Winslow for specialized training to ensure they not only remain certified but to have a team of true experts at our customers’ disposal.
As I mentioned above, we obtained the RFID capability, which has been an exciting addition to our R&O, and we are still developing its extended functions to be able to offer even more services to our clientele.
What do you see for the future of R&O at Tulmar, say for the next 5 to 10 years?
There is a lot of potential for R&O. We definitely want to continue to increase our capabilities and acquire more services that we may provide to our clients. The true aim is to become indispensable to our customers, to have that ‘one stop shop’ available for them. More than that, we want our customers to become partners with us and build strong, lasting relationships with them.
Another point that we are looking into is our contribution to environmental protection initiatives. I would really like for the R&O department to ‘go green’ by looking into solutions to become paperless and more automated. This will not only make us a company conscious of the environment, but it will improve our overall efficiency.
Do you have any closing word?
I have enjoyed the challenges in becoming the Director of Repair and Overhaul. I see a lot of good things for us in the future and continue to learn and keep an eye out for interesting venues that will help us evolve and better serve our markets.
For More Information Contact:
Vicky-Ève Lovvorn
Marketing Coordinator
613- 632-1282 x 307