34-year-old Xiang Yao (Huth) thought about being a pilot as a child. At university one day, an airline came to recruit pilot students, but he didn't pass the physical exam. However, a doctor said why not look into aviation maintenance as a career. He says, "I agreed and have been working for aviation maintenance since I graduated from the university."
Richard Ugarte, FedEx Express managing director, says, "Some team members hit the ground running and excel early in their career. Their dedication, achievement, and commitment cause them to stand out from the rest. We have found that to be true in Xiang Yao."
Huth began his aviation career at Shanghai Airlines after graduation and spent seven years there where he grew from an aircraft mechanic to a project engineer of line maintenance. After Shanghai Airlines was merged by China Eastern, he started to work for FedEx Express in Shanghai, China. His current job is Lead AMT at PVG Line Maintenance, and he is responsible for keeping the daily operation running smoothly, improving the PVG station airplane dispatch reliability, and most importantly making sure everything is safe.
He was trained by CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) for his CAAC certificates, and has attended advanced training at Shanghai Airlines and FedEx Express including the FedEx “GOLD” manager course and Lean/CI/QDM course. Huth holds both CAAC-66 AV and FAA A&P certificates.
Huth is a student of lean manufacturing and has been certified by FedEx as a Lean Green Belt. The utilization of lean concepts is firmly ingrained in Huth’s work ethic. He uses his lean skills daily to support the Shanghai operation and to promote safety on the job. Recently, Huth led Shanghai aircraft maintenance technicians utilizing lean processes on a project to prevent aircraft damage caused by maintenance high lift equipment. The team modified all of the lift trucks with anti-collision bumpers. Huth also used lean practices to set up maintenance kits for all of the aircraft types in Shanghai and rearranged the station tool room to allow AMTs more efficient access to the tooling they need. This effort resulted in a decrease in the amount of time required to find the required tooling to troubleshoot aircraft which, in turn, contributed to minimizing aircraft departure delays and aircraft departing on time. In yet another project, Huth organized the station office supplies area by utilizing Lean 5S and a Kanban system.
Xiang says, "My mentor was my master (Shifu)-Jun Dai, he put me in the right direction at the very beginning and helped me to grow up in Shanghai Airlines."
No stranger to recognition, Xiang was awarded the Shanghai Airlines “Top 20 Outstanding Young Employee” in 2007, and at FedEx Express the “FY14 Q4 Quarterly Employee Star Award” in 2014 and “Purple Wing Award” in 2015.
