At the Van’s Aircraft forum this morning from AirVenture, CEO Mikael Via and COO Shawn Ell outlined the company’s path forward and were commendably honest about the internal and external issues that led to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. “We let you down and we know it,” said Ell in his detailed presentation that outlined the steps the company is taking on the path to recovery. In addition to emerging from bankruptcy protection, which happened June 1, the company is investing heavily in so-called enterprise tools that should allow it to design, manufacture and communicate more effectively and efficiently.
In addition to changes at the top, the company has undergone a reorganization. Ell noted that the company had a lot of talent but not everyone was “in the right seat.” Currently, Via oversees the whole with Ell reporting to him as well as Jeff Allen as CFO, Greg Hughes as Sales Manager and Kelsey Hickman as Marketing Specialist. Perhaps more significantly, engineering has been split into development, headed by Rian Johnson, and “operational excellence,” run by Sam Ozenbaugh. In essence, this splits design and manufacturing engineering roles. There are also managers of supply chain, manufacturing, customer service and warehouse, all reporting to Ell.
On the customer service front, Ell outlined how the company aims to have 24-hour turnaround on questions and will move toward one-touch interactions, meaning that it wants to respond quickly and thoroughly enough that follow-on questions aren’t needed. Similarly, changes are taking place in the production planning and supply-management sides to better use modern best practices for planning and manufacturing. Ell noted how Van’s would often build items in large batches that might sit on the shelf for weeks, months or even years, which is not how modern manufacturers work. He also outlined how the company is going to apply its newly reorganized engineering divisions to “improve the builder experience, shorten time to build, provide low- to no-cost improvements to kits and fend off inflation.”
Changes to the manufacturing side of the house have already been rewarded, with Van’s shipping 792 kits since the first of the year, building 14 S-LSA RV-12s and delivering 674 kits from those who re-ordered under the new, higher prices implemented during Chapter 11; that amounts to delivering 45% of those orders on the books. It has also delivered 86% of the needed replacement parts for customers replacing laser-cut parts in their kits.
Ell concluded his presentation by saying that “trust and loyalty must be re-earned” and that “transparency, humility and candor will lead the way.”
Van’s was also showing a heavily revised RV-10, the actual first prototype, at the show and provided an update on the RV-15 as part of this presentation.
Would have been nice if they had addressed the logic behind the rejection of the (solicited by RVG) buyout offer from the Dynon CEO and his investors versus declaring bankruptcy. Maybe they could have avoided Chapter 11 altogether and the pain that inflicted on 1800+ customers plus many employees who lost their ownership stake when the ESOP was terminated. Might have been a more honorable thing for RVG to do and there would have been no need to “re-earn trust and loyalty”.
Dynon has a stellar reputation within the experimental aircraft community and their CEO certainly knows how to run a business (actually multiple businesses simultaneously).
They saw a clear path forward, and decided not to sell. Any business owner can relate. The idea that Dynon could somehow bail them out and make everyone whole is a pipe dream. The kits were so far underpriced considering the gross cost increases we as manufacturers were absorbing, then there’s the Lycoming deposit issues…