A chat with Senior Manager GSE Pamela Lanzillotti
Pamela Lanzillotti was born and raised in the Ortenaukreis district, Germany, and has a long history with HYDRO: Her father, who worked at HYDRO for just under 20 years, helped her become part of our team with a summer job all the way back in 2006, right after she had passed the Abitur, the final secondary school examinations. In collaboration with HYDRO, she would then go on to study industrial engineering at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe, obtaining her dual-studies bachelor’s degree in 2009. Then, in October of that same year, she started her career at the HYDRO Controlling Department, shortly after which she would help lay the foundation for setting up our product management operations within the company. And despite all this activity, she kept busy outside as well, completing an advanced certified product manager training program in Heidelberg. In her role as product manager, she would gradually take over supervision duties for additional product divisions – first for Airframe Tooling and then for Ground Support Equipment. Finally, in 2017, she became the manager of our Ground Support Equipment Business Unit.
Pamela Lanzillotti is 33 years old and lives in Ettenheim, in the Ortenaukreis district, Germany.
What exactly do product managers do at HYDRO?
Well, product managers have a pretty wide range of tasks to take care of, but these tasks generally revolve around planning, commercialization, and phasing out products. The whole thing starts with a product idea, a thorough market analysis, and extensive familiarity with our customers’ specific needs and with competing products, all of which are crucial in bringing a product to life. This means that one of the main tasks of a product manager is to define the requirements for new products while taking into account the added value we’re providing to our customers. We then define the corresponding markets, sales volumes, and price to prepare a business case and check whether the product will be profitable. This usually ultimately results in a performance specification document that is then handed over to our Development team.
However, I’d like to point out that a product manager’s involvement with a product doesn’t end there. Instead, it continues during the design phase and goes on to the market validation stage that follows. One of my duties is also to get feedback on our products from our customers and stay in direct contact with airframe OEMs and MROs. In addition, when we provide customers with technical advice during the subsequent product marketing stage, I’m supposed to be there for customer visits and act as an expert on behalf of our company.
Product managers are often interface managers as well. How far does a product manager’s involvement actually extend in a product’s lifecycle at HYDRO?
To start off with, I’d like to confirm that you’re right: My work absolutely does include a lot of interfacing, and this extends to my team as well. What we do is analyze the complete product lifecycle, and our main task is to plan, manage, and monitor the products we put on the market, so we obviously have interfaces to pretty much all the operations within the company. And since you asked about how far it goes, well, I can tell you that we provide Production and Purchasing with forecast figures so that they can properly manage their resource planning and raw material procurement operations. But we also provide Marketing with essential information they need in order to be able to prepare the marketing for a product on the Internet, in traditional print media, etc. Finally, in addition to the interfaces I just mentioned, we’re also in constant close contact with Service, Technical Support, and Sales.
„We also get direct feedback regarding our actual products in use, and this feedback will typically result in product facelifts or modifications that will make our customers' typical workday easier.“
Senior Manager Ground Support Equipment
So how does the idea for a new product come about?
There are actually various approaches for coming up with new product ideas, and I think that, within this context, it’s important to point out that we keep talking to our customers daily in a very open format so that we can make sure we’re keeping our finger on the pulse of our market. That means that, on one hand, we’re constantly getting suggestions from our customers and ideas from their feedback concerning day-to-day issues. And on the other hand, we also get direct feedback regarding our actual products in use, and this feedback will typically result in product facelifts or modifications that will make our customers’ typical workday easier. Then there’s also the fact that some new products and product ideas simply emerge when new aircraft or engine models come on the market. In fact, that usually results in a large number of new product ideas.
What is HYDRO’s positioning on the market?
We see ourselves as a premium supplier, and this is something that is part and parcel of what we do at Product Management. Our goal is to make sure users are happy, to be able to provide them with added value, and to help them optimize their processes with our products. When it comes to Ground Support Equipment, for instance, we’re a one-stop shop for our customers. Our core products consist of tripod-jacks, axle-jacks, tow-bars, landing gear changing equipment, and engine changing equipment, and in order to really be able to cover the wider range of GSE products, we also work with carefully selected partner companies. In fact, these include aviation suppliers that are well established on the market, including TEST-FUCHS, Newbow, and Liftsafe. Now, another one of our tasks as product managers is to make absolutely sure that the only partners that are added to our portfolio are those with products that match our brand promise. This is crucial, since it’s the only way we can make sure that our customers will get a premium experience every single time, all the time. And as you well know, the only way we can achieve that premium level is with extraordinary quality that ultimately results in long service lives. We have customers with HYDRO products that have been in use for 30 years or more, and that really is the best proof anyone can ask for when it comes to our brand promise.
What does the market want? Off-the-shelf products? Or customized solutions?
From our perspective, the market wants both. On one hand, off-the-shelf products without comprehensive features such as traditional pneumatic tripod-jacks. But on the other hand, it also wants customer-specific developments, modifications, and products with the maximum amount of features possible. For example, a tripod-jack set with a fully automated EJAL system, an Electronic Jacking and Leveling system, that makes it possible to centrally control the corresponding tripod-jacks and raise and lower them in a coordinated manner fully automatically.
Basically put, this is the targeted decision we made in terms of our positioning on the market. Sure, we could simply offer standard products, sell them directly without providing any technical advice, and have our customers buy them through a webshop. But that’s not what we’re aiming for. And taking a different approach, in fact, is another way in which we can draw a distinction between us and our competitors on the market: We meet our customers’ specific needs. Our area sales managers are experts in aircraft maintenance and, during on-site consultations, provide our customers with concrete added value in the form of know-how and advice optimized for their needs.
"Ever since the crisis started, we've seen an increase in orders for products with just the standard options, that is, without comprehensive extras. Needless to say, that decission can probably be traced back to reduced budgets."
Senior Manager Ground Support Equipment
What do the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic look like for suppliers like HYDRO?
The coronavirus pandemic is having a massive impact on the entire aviation industry – and on us as a result. Flight numbers are still significantly down and airplanes remain grounded or are being removed from service, such as is the case with the A380 and most airlines. Basically put, airlines are incurring enormous losses with this situation, and the end is nowhere in sight yet.
Needless to say, all of this also affects maintenance operations in which our equipment is needed. In other words, when fewer kilometers are flown, there’s less maintenance required. And as I already implied, the fact that certain parts of existing fleets are being phased out also has consequences for us as a supplier.
On top of all this, it’s important to point out that new aircraft deliveries have slowed down to a crawl as well, which of course means that airlines need less equipment for new models in their fleets.
As a result of all this, we’re seeing used Ground Support Equipment become a much larger part of the market right now.
Has the low demand due to the crisis narrowed down? Are customers doing anything differently?
What we’re seeing is that decisions regarding the acquisition of new maintenance equipment are being postposed as much as possible. And yet when investment requests are approved by a customer, they want the corresponding deliveries on an ad hoc basis. That means they don’t want long maintenance or lead times. So we’ve responded to these changes and have significantly increased our inventory levels so as to offer extremely short lead times.
Another tendency in what our customers are doing differently is related to their choice of features. Ever since the crisis started, we’ve seen an increase in orders for products with just the standard options, that is, without comprehensive extras. And needless to say, that decision can probably be traced back to reduced budgets.
CLOSE-UP WITH PAMELA LANZILLOTTI
A good day at work starts with …
a delicious cappuccino.
The first time I earned money was …
as a dance instructor at my dad’s dance school.
If I could choose my seat neighbor on an aircraft …
I’d keep the seat next to me empty and choose an aisle seat.
I lose track of time …
when I’m out with friends.
The most expensive thing I’ve ever bought in my life ...
was my apartment's renovation.
I have always …
maintained a close familial relationship with Italy.
If you want to get somewhere at HYDRO …
you need to have passion for your job and really live that.
When I was 18, I wanted to …
travel the world.
To me, home is …
having my closest friends and my family around me.