A dramatic increase in efficiency at the Rolls-Royce facility at Lachine, Montreal, was highlighted by Group Chief Executive Officer John Rishton at the company’s Annual General Meeting of shareholders in London on May 8.
Rolls-Royce Lachine Québec Plant.
The Montreal facility, which was established in 1947, is the largest of seven Rolls-Royce Canadian sites. Its capabilities include repair and overhaul of civil and military aero engines, with over 5,000 engines serviced to date. The plant, which occupies more than 500,000 square feet, is equipped with five engine test cells, the largest of which can test up to 100,000 lb of thrust. This site is also an authorised maintenance centre for the BR710, BR715, AE3007, Spey, Tay and V2500 engines. It is also a centre of excellence for the repair of fan blades, combustion chambers and turbine vanes.
Logo Rolls-Royce.
Rolls-Royce Canada employs more than 1,700 people in seven provinces. The company is a partner of the Canadian government and plays a vital role in key programmes such as the C130J Tactical Airlift programme, the Canadian CC130 Hercules and the CP140 Aurora aircraft programmes, as well as the NATO Flight Training in Canada (NFTC) programme. Together with a facility in Vancouver, Rolls-Royce in Canada serves more than 600 operators, including airlines, corporate operators and government bodies, in 30 countries.
While momentous political events were happening outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on the day after the UK General Election, inside the centre Mr Rishton used the Montreal facility to illustrate the scale and pace of business transformation within Rolls-Royce.
“Three years ago, I went to Montreal where we repair and maintain engines for business jets. The facility was among our worst performing anywhere in the world – and it was a dispiriting place to visit. The workforce was demoralised and the customer metrics were dreadful,” said Mr Rishton, who retires as CEO in July.
“But,” he said, “Montreal has turned itself around. Since my first visit it has become one of the best performing facilities in Rolls-Royce.”
At Montreal, on-time delivery to customer has risen from 61 to 100 per cent, and inventory turns have increased from 7.1 to 12.6. In September 2014, Mr Rishton presented the Montreal team with the annual ‘Trusted to deliver excellence’ award.
Mr Rishton said: “This has been achieved without any change in its physical location, without any major investment, but simply by the entire team putting the customer at the heart of their business, for example, by bringing customers to meet their Rolls-Royce team, by running red carpet events to celebrate outstanding delivery and by embracing the idea of continuous improvement.
“It is a powerful demonstration of the transformation that is taking hold across the rest of the Group.”
Placing the Customer at the heart of the business is one of the 4Cs that have, under Mr Rishton, become a key business focus. The other three are: Concentration – deciding where to grow and where not to, Cost – continually looking to increase efficiency, Cash – improving financial performance.
“First: the fundamentals of the business are strong, and we are committed to investing in future growth.
“Second: We are clear how to address the growing pains – investing in new facilities and replacing out-dated facilities – that are holding us back.
“Third: We are taking decisive action that will make us a stronger company and hasten our return to profitable growth.”
Shareholders did not need reminding that in 2014, for the first time in a decade, Rolls-Royce saw its revenue and profit fall.
“I understand that this has been disappointing for you. However, I want to leave you in no doubt whatsoever about the intense management focus that is being directed towards improving our financial performance, and at the same time, I want to make three points completely clear.
The Group issued an Interim Management Statement ahead of the AGM in which it said it maintained full-year guidance for 2015. It said it expected performance to be more weighted towards the second half. In Aerospace, deliveries of Trent XWB engines for the Airbus A350 will ramp up. In Land and Sea, as expected, trading continues to be affected by lower oil prices and has, therefore, started more slowly than in 2014.
Rolls-Royce also said that its 2015 guidance had excluded the effects of foreign exchange and warned that the weak euro would reduce revenues this year by £350 million. Rolls-Royce shares increased by 13p (1.28%) to £10.30.
Diplômé universitaire en histoire, journalisme et relations publiques, en 1993, Philippe Cauchi amorce une carrière de journalisme, analyste et consultant en aérospatiale. En 2013, il fonde avec Daniel Bordeleau, le site d’information aérospatial Info Aéro Québec.
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