Air freight is subject to increasingly strict safety regulations. This results in high costs and loss of time. Only for certified "known senders" does everything run smoothly - LÜTZE and its customers can now benefit.

Since December 2012, LÜTZE has met the strict safety regulations of the Federal Office of Civil Aeronautics LBA – confirmed by the certification as "known sender". As such, the shipments from LÜTZE will no longer in future be subject to the especially strict controls for air freight. "Our goods now pass through the multi-stage safety process much more easily with less checks", says the Project Manager of the certification project at LÜTZE, Patrick Villing.

"For example, X-raying is no longer necessary, which would otherwise be charged for." For cable drums which cannot be completely X-rayed, each shipment would have to be opened and checked manually, which delays the runtime significantly. "However, in order to facilitate the process, first of all we had to acquire the certification", Mr. Villing explains. A safe supply chain is thus ensured: from the collecting transport company, which needs to be certified as "regulated agent" up to the air carrier. This is the only way the shipments get directly into the airplane and declared as "safe".

"A large proportion of the air freight travels in normal passenger aircrafts, which makes the whole thing so sensitive. The benefit for our customers: The expected goods lift off without delay, saving a lot of time which often also means saving a significant amount of money", Project Manager Villing explains.
 
A long six months of hard work had to pass before LÜTZE was ready for certification for the LBA: From June 2012, the project team determined the measures to be taken from the status quo as baseline. The pros and cons of the considerable effort were considered before the team got started: for example, a hermetically sealed air freight space had to be created. Only here the goods, which are packaged and secured against manipulation, are protected from external access, or strict access authorizations are to be established for qualified and trained personnel.

Villing praises the commitment of the project team: colleagues from the finished part warehouse/shipping, materials management and personnel as well as quality management, manufacturing, automation and IT, and cabinet manufacturing and industrial engineering. In October, LÜTZE filed its application for certification with the LBA. At the on-site audit on 4th December, following a positive decision we were entered in the EG database for "Known senders and regulated agents". From now, the LBA can come by for any unannounced inspections. Furthermore, an annual internal audit is to be carried out, and certification be renewed every five years. In any case, we can all board a plane which carries goods from LÜTZE to its customers with peace of mind.