Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company (NYSE: TXT), completed another successful year of Maintainers and Operators (M&O) Conferences during 2013, providing the opportunity to connect with more than 900 customers from approximately 20 countries. This year, the Customer Support and Services (CSS) organization hosted conferences in several new locations including Beijing, China; Shanghai, China; Prague, Czech Republic; and Melbourne, Australia.

The M&O conferences serve as a key differentiator in Bell Helicopter’s support and services profile, providing insight and training on maintenance and support topics to operators of Bell Helicopter’s light and intermediate product lines. In addition, key suppliers share technical updates and maintenance practices.
“We received very positive comments from our customers on the quality of the materials, the practical nature of the information and the superior customer support of Bell Helicopter,” said Steve Woolston, director, Product Support for Bell Helicopter’s Customer Support and Services organization. “This feedback reinforces our M&O conferences are a unique service offering unmatched in the industry.”

This year, Bell Helicopter incorporated optional, hands-on training sessions at five of the 10 conferences. In these sessions, customers received training on key maintenance and safety issues including maintenance troubleshooting, FADEC troubleshooting, elastomeric bearing inspections, non-destructive test lab inspections and pilot pre-flight checks.

“We regularly ask our customers for input on what they want to see incorporated into the conferences,” continued Woolston. “The hands-on training sessions were a direct result of their feedback and were very well received.”

The 2014 M&O conference schedule will be available on the Bell Helicopter website after the beginning of the year.