'Our focus is on state-of-the-art asset management programme'

Colin Mahoney, Senior Vice President (International and Service Solutions), Rockwell Collins, had an in-depth conversation with Jayant Baranwal, Editor-in-Chief of SP’s AirBuz, on the company’s plans in India and Asia-Pacific. Excerpts:

SP’s AirBuz (SP’s): Could you give a brief overview of Rockwell Collins?

Colin Mahoney (Mahoney): There are a number of things we do in aviation electronics, such as commercial entertainment systems in transport planes, in business airplanes, in flight entertainment, electro-mechanical systems, pilot control systems on a Boeing 787 and more. Our portfolio includes core aviation electronics, displays, autopilots, flight management systems, communication navigation surveillance and mission computers.

SP’s: Could you outline the range of Rockwell Collins technologies and services in commercial markets?

Mahoney: Aviation, navigation and communication— we are a leading player in all the three domains. We have been aviating with flight displays, autopilots and flight management solutions. In commercial, you will see displays have trended from steam gauges to CRTs to LCDs to big LCDs and now touch-screen LCDs. We are very big in the display systems business, auto flight, flight control, computing in a fly-by-wire environment, flight management. And in communications, we have all kinds of communications such as satellite communications, high frequency, VHF. In navigation and in surveillance, weather radar is the baseline on many aircraft in commercial environments.

We are big in air transport and in business aviation. We take our capabilities to both the domains. Add to that the head up guidance systems, pilot control systems, fly-by-wire technologies, etc. All the core information management on airplanes like Boeing 787, A350 and infrastructure comes from us.

In India, we are entrenched in the commercial aviation market, providing a wide array of avionics, communications, electronics and services to commercial and business aircraft OEMs and airlines.

SP’s: Could you tell us about the design centre in Hyderabad? What is the agenda and is it an extension of your research and development?

Mahoney: The design centre is the operating arm of engineering business. Our vision for Rockwell Collins’ India Design Centre (IDC) is to support local and international governments, aerospace OEMs, and contractors with engineering design services and systems that can help customers achieve a shorter time to market, at a lower programme or project life-cycle cost, with the highest quality innovative solutions.

SP’s: Rockwell Collins service and support network spans to many countries. What has been the expansion strategy and which are the target markets for your company?

Mahoney: We are present in 27 countries and have service centres in 13 countries. Our focus is on state-of-the-art asset management programme. Let’s take the example of Air India which has entrusted us to manage all their avionics assets on the Boeing 787. They have decided not to own any but we guarantee availability. They leave everything to us — logistics, management, maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO).

In business aviation, which is growing in India though there are infrastructure challenges, we have appointed partners and trained them. We have a tie-up with Airworks for our service infrastructure. Global asset management pool is important for us. We move spare parts to make them readily available to the customers. We take about 82 hours to repair something across the board and spare parts availability allows us to be efficient with our global asset pool. It is an important tool to drive customer affinity.

We have a multifaceted expansion strategy for our Service Solutions business. Today, we have close to 8,000 aircraft under performance based agreements. More than 1,000 parts/repairs/exchanges shipped every day and we have over 3,000 satisfied customers. We plan to grow our Service Solutions business by offering customers—in mature and new growth markets—these flexible, performance based programmes, such as FlexForce for military customers, dispatch for next-generation commercial aircraft, and corporate aircraft service programmes for business aircraft.

SP’s: Apart from Air India, who else have you partnered with or have strategic alliances?

Mahoney: We have wonderful relationship with Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet. We are proud of the relationships with these companies.

SP’s: Could you give us indication of strategic alliances with airlines in the region, and are they growing?

Mahoney: It’s a new day with the Boeing 787 and A380 fleet. When a company buys a new airplane without any fittings, the airliners have to think of infrastructure and MRO or whether they need to outsource that. At least half of them partner strategically and Rockwell Collin takes on that responsibility. Air India is an example of that and there are examples in China, LOT Poland and others globally, who do it for good cost-effective reasons. With the exchange rate challenges and fuel burn, it makes sense to have these in place here.