Posted: April 15th, 2015

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Course: Operations and Supply Chain Management

Task: Produce a 10 year plan (starting 2015) for Rolls-Royce which is a major player within the civil aviation industry. The plan should reflect an understanding of operations and supply chain management, apply the relevant theories and research within the engine manufacturing discipline and how they integrate with other disciplines (aircraft manufacturing / airliners). The plan should exclusively discuss and focus on the following concepts:

• Quality:
  1. Quality Control and Total Quality Management (TQM).
• Reliability and Maintenance Management:
  1. Reliability Vs maintainability.
  2. Condition and performance monitoring.
  3. “Make/buy” of maintenance processes.
  4. Customer relationship management.

Topic: Rolls-Royce 10 year plan with specific emphasis on Operations and Supply Chain Management aspects related to quality, reliability and maintenance management.

Grade Requirement: Grade “A”

Thus the report should

• Reflect a strategic view of a realistic 10-year plan.
• Demonstrate an excellent understanding of quality, reliability and maintenance management core issues and relevant theories.
• Reference to appropriate and relevant literature.
• Consider Systems, standards, and regulations.
• Account for plans of ; joint ventures with or competition forces by
  • Engine manufacturers (suppliers): General Electric Inc.; Pratt and Whitney Inc. / United Technologies Corp.
  • Aircraft producers ‘airframers’ (customers): Boeing Inc. , Airbus

Report Structure:

1. Introduction/Problem Statement.
2. Literature Review (to include relevant theory and research)
3. Research methodology (to discuss the process undertaken in reaching your individual conclusions and recommendations, including the data you have used and where they came from, how you have analyzed the data – secondary research, primary research, quantitative, qualitative, interview, negotiation, meeting, air show, questionnaire/survey, case study, field work, etc.)
4. Results, Analysis and discussions (to include the 10-year plan, an action plan for implementing the plan and the rationale behind the plan.)
5. Conclusions and recommendations.

Helpful Materials:

• Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A, and Johnston, R. (2011) Essentials of Operations Management, 1st edition, Pearson Education.

Preliminary drafted 10 year plan objectives:

1.     Introduce 2 new engines: Advance engine and the Ultra fan engines. Both utilize the CTi fan system, aiding in making the engine more lightweight and also quieter. Both will be more fuel efficient, reducing the amount of fuel and emissions burned.
2.     The introduction of the Trent 7000, the newest member of the Trent family of engines. It is made specifically for the Airbus A330neo. It provides a 10 decibel reduction in noise which, when discussing with the Airbus team, was a popular trait they wished we could improve for our engines.
3.     Focus on expansion in the Asian Market; recently the first Trent 1000 engine was built in Singapore for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  This is a big step for the company as now it will be easier to build the engines for the Asian market in the region rather than building them in the usual plants, (i.e US and UK for example) helping to insure the reduction of expensive shipping costs to ship the engines to countries like Singapore. The Asian airline market is very up and coming and is predicted to be double its current size in ten years. We want to ensure we are a large part of the booming airline market by establishing a manufacturing plant in the area.
4.      A large part of our current research and development is the reduction of fuel used in our engines and likewise an alternative fuel (Solar Energy) to lead to a more cost efficient use of our engines. We hope to also reduce our level of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 to a level of 50% in compliance with the International Aerospace Environmental Group.
5.     Our last main objective for the ten years is for the noise reduction in our engines. The Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe’s has set a goal of reducing the noise by 65%. With the introduction of our two new engines we hope that after thorough testing, by the time they hit the market they are able to prove that this reduction is quite possible.

Note: The above doesn’t include objectives related to quality, reliability and maintenance management.