Rolls-Royce (Booth U105) is here at the EBACE show proclaiming its leadership in the large-cabin/long-range market for all of that time, a position it attributes to “the value we create for our customers.” In turn that value derives from a maintenance-management program dubbed CorporateCare that aims to provide business sense for customers “by reducing risk and improving aircraft availability.”
Measuring leadership by delivery value, the engine manufacturer acknowledges that the top position is largely due to its introduction of the AE3007, BR710 and BR725 powerplants that equip the Cessna Citation X, the Bombardier Global and Gulfstream G550 and G650 models. But the UK-based group hasn’t been able to take its dominant position in this sector for granted, having last year lost out to Pratt & Whitney Canada in the bid to power Gulfstream’s new G500 and G600 aircraft.
According to Stephen Friedrich, Rolls-Royce sales and marketing vice president for civil small and medium engines sales, the manufacturer has been “able to weather the recent recession better than most” because of its positioning in the large-cabin sector: “And by large I mean 1,000 cubic feet cabin volume and 4,000-nautical-mile-range aircraft, including the [Embraer] Legacy 650, [Bombardier] Challenger 605 and Globals, [Dassault] Falcon 2000, 900, and 7X, and [Gulfstream] G450/G550/G650.”
The company's long-established Tay also is included in the CorporateCare fixed cost/flight-hour plan, which Friedrich says aligns customer and manufacturer interests since “the operator only pays for engines that perform well.” The program covers almost 1,800 aircraft, including an overall 70+ percent (and in some cases 100 percent) of new Rolls-Royce-powered aircraft entering service.
Friedrich points to “a paradigm shift” in business aircraft support, based upon the increasing proportion of new aircraft covered by long-term service agreements (LTSAs). “Owners no longer need to take on the risk of managing maintenance on a time and materials basis. OEMs are offering and sharing the benefits of LTSAs with owners,” he said.
“LTSAs enable owner[s] to experience an outstanding level of service at a fixed price far less expensive than the time and material business model that had [them] assume all maintenance risk and [the] volatility of cash flow. We have seen market share in LTSAs for current production aircraft [approach] and exceed 70 percent, with up to 100 percent of new deliveries for certain aircraft enrolling on the program this year,” according to Friedrich.
Investments aimed at improving customer support have included a new operational service desk opened in Dahlewitz, Germany, in 2013 and efforts to improve product-service delivery team responsiveness. The company also enlarged parts distribution with a new outlet at Los Angeles International Airport and has been expanding its support network around theworld.
Reduced risk for Rolls-Royce customers and enhanced aircraft availability have followed the manufacturer’s introduction of new policies, procedures and protocols “to improve our responsiveness,” according to Friedrich. “We are seeing the benefit: we have significantly improved ‘averted missed trips’ to over 97 percent and our average aircraft-on-ground (AOG) response-resolution time is under 24 hours. We continue to develop our network of parts-distribution centres and are delivering world-class performance in ‘time to ship’ and exceeding customer expectations.”
Friedrich also highlighted Rolls-Royce’s planned establishment of “a globally distributed provision of On Wing Care specialists and loaner assets.” This is expected to enable customers to benefit from having the OEM’s specialists based in local regions, with all necessary tooling and materials to return an unserviceable aircraft to the sky in the shortest possible time.
“In addition, we have made significant improvement in our technical publications,” says the official. “With the entry into service of the BR725 engine, we introduced ‘3D’ [documents and now] have released the [equivalent] for our BR710." RR also has introduced automatic engine health monitoring data downloads for the G450, G550, and G650 and “enabled” the service for additional aircraft,” says Friedrich.
The company continues to focus on reducing the need for manual downloads and improving overall data acquisition from in-service aircraft, and is working to expand automatic download capabilities to other aircraft types. “Having real-time data available will further enhance our ability to monitor the performance and behaviour of our engines, which will further our ability to react quickly to any issue that may arise,” concludes Friedrich.
