Thierry Tosi (Collins Aerospace): "Great successes" for the FlightSense flight-hour programmes |
| Romain Guillot in London |
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31 OCT 2019 | 710 words
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Thierry Tosi, Vice President Sales & Surplus, Aftermarket Services at Collins Aerospace. Picture © Le Journal de l'Aviation - All rights reserved |
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The merger between UTC Aerospace Systems (UTAS) and Rockwell Collins almost a year ago has had a major impact on the combined entity's after-market activities. The MRO Europe exhibition which took place in London gave us the opportunity to meet Thierry Tosi, who is now Vice President Sales & Surplus, Aftermarket Services at Collins Aerospace. The Frenchman, who has long held the position of Vice President and general manager, Service Solutions at Rockwell Collins, has seen his role expand.
"I have now taken on the sales and surplus activities and I have moved from Cedar Rapids to Charlotte, with a portfolio which reaches all Collins Aerospace business units and the whole world", Thierry Tosi tells us. "And I've just had a new offer added to my portfolio, the whole range of FlightSense flight-hour programmes", he continues, reminding us that this activity was inherited from the service offer that UTAS had for its customers. In particular, the FlightSense offers comprise FlightSense Repair (Pay as you go), FlighSense Predictable (repair dollar per hour service) and FlightSense Available (asset management dollar per hour offering with guaranteed asset availability). He also tells us that he has taken control over the OSS (On-Site Support) spare parts activity, specifying that this is a solution which is offered to players who already have commercial MRO capabilities.
"FlightSense is a very important activity and we have had some great successes because we are flexible and provide different options, with local offers and integrated offers", explains Thierry Tosi. For example, these offers may only include a flight-hour offer, or an offer which combines repairs and spares, or a pool access offer for exchanges only. He also reminded us that Collins Aerospace has many service centres all around the world.
"We offer flexible solutions to meet our customers' needs and we can also add preventive maintenance offers to them, with one option being Ascencia", he continues. He also specifies that Ascencia, the Collins Aerospace predictive Aircraft Health Management platform, only covers certain type of component, but their number is constantly expanding. "These are generally components which have more mechanical parts and for which our engineers can take the data we collect and estimate and anticipate failures. This then reduces maintenance costs, and particularly AOG costs for airlines".
Six billion dollars on the order book for the FlightSense flight-hour offering
When Thierry Tosi tells us that the FlightSense activity has had some "great successes", his words don't really do justice to the after-market world.
"For the flight-hour programmes, our backlog is around 6 billion dollars in firm orders", he says, stating that a little more than half is for engines, as Collins Aerospace products are used in a lot in Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce engines, with the other half covering airframes. Collins Aerospace is also present on CFM engines, but these products do not concern the FlightSense offering. "And of course we are continuing to work on our offers to increase this backlog further", he says happily.
As to whether contract duration is on the up, Thierry Tosi explains that this varies according to each customer, their needs and their commitments, with contractual periods from 5 to 15 years. However, the share of long-term contracts is clearly on an upward trend. "There was a time when 60% of the market was made up of on-demand contracts (time materials and fixed repair price) and 40% of long-term contracts, but the average has been reversed now with 60% long-term contracts, regardless of their duration".
He also notes that with the emergence of new aircraft platforms, this division is even more contrasting, around 75-25. "The share for this type of contract is on the increase, as customers want better forecasts for their long-term maintenance costs and to control total cost of ownership. This also enables us to better plan long-term spare requirements and refine our global spare location strategy so that these parts are as close as possible to our customers". He also reminded us that for the FlightSense offering, which is based on local maintenance and integrated maintenance, positioning the pools as close as possible to the repair centre network is a strategic choice, as it enables quicker pool returns, which is a real advantage.
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Romain Guillot
Chief editor
Cofounder of Journal de l'Aviation and Alertavia
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