By Matt Tomsic
mtomsic@scbiznews.com
Published Jan. 31, 2012

At a suppliers breakfast, Key Logistics Solutions CEO Sylvester Hester approached Boeing officials with an elevator pitch.

“The key point is they were receptive,” Hester said of the Boeing Co.

The breakfast hosted by the Carolinas Minority Supplier Development Council gave Hester the opportunity to connect with Boeing. From that connection, Key Logistics Solutions bid on a supplier contract, won the contract in April and opened a warehouse in Hanahan on Monday, when Hester, local government officials and Boeing executives held an event to celebrate the new partnership.

Key Logistics Solutions brought 26 new jobs to Hanahan and acquired more than 50,000 square feet of warehouse space for its work with Boeing. The Duluth, Ga.-based company already had a 157,000-square-foot facility in Charleston.

Hester said the process to become a Boeing supplier took about a year from that first breakfast.

Marco Cavazzoni, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, said each bid is unique and each takes its own time to develop.

“There’s a great amount of due diligence,” Cavazzoni said, adding each contract is awarded through a competitive bid process and can take months.

Hester said the bid calls for Key Logistics Solutions to warehouse and provide spare parts and tools to Boeing’s North Charleston final assembly facility. Key Logistics Solutions will also handle waste from glue, paints and other materials.

The company will put together kits with different tools, including wrenches, gauges and tape measures.

The work will provide just-in-time parts and tools, while also increasing organization and productivity.

Each tool will have a radio-frequency identification chip, which allows Boeing to locate tools in its facility, said George Westbrooks, a kitting manager for Boeing.

Boeing is working with Key Logistics Solutions employees on how to use a foam cutter to create the tool kits. The process saves more than an hour per unit than if the kits were assembled by hand.

During the ribbon cutting, Cavazzoni compared the work to a hospital support staff. A surgeon asks for sutures, scalpels and other tools and receives the tools at the moment he or she needs them, Cavazzoni said.

“We are the surgeon,” Cavazzoni said, adding the company needs the infrastructure to provide just-in-time tools and goods.