Rolls Royce’s innovative “power by the hour” service model shook up the aerospace service industry, says Kris Oldland, editor of Field Service News. The company is about to do it again with a concept it calls “disruption-based availability.” Oldland and a colleague recently spoke with Dan Gordon, program director for Rolls Royce’s Defense Aviation division, about performance-based service models the company is exploring. The following excerpt originally appeared on Field Service News and is republished here with permission. 

Yesterday’s revolution is today’s best practice. And the only true revolutionaries are those who continue to innovate, continue to push boundaries and continue to look for ways they can further improve tomorrow.

Both Gordon and Rolls Royce fit into this camp.

“As we look to the future, we’re starting to work with the customer to go beyond just an availability solution and say, ‘What’s really disrupting that customers operation? What is really stopping them doing their job?’” Gordon says.

“We want to get to a point where they are no longer thinking about my propulsion system. They’re just focussed on prosecuting their operation. To do that we need to know a little bit about the nature of the disruption and what we can do to help.”

He adds with a definite hint of excitement of that future being within touching distance. It is this concept of ‘“disruption-based availability” that Gordon and Rolls Royce clearly believe to be the next evolution of their service offering as they continue to lead the industry from the front.

“Understanding that it’s not just about guaranteeing the engine time on wing but actually understanding when the engine does have an incident that causes some disruption to the customer, even something as minor as a delayed take off, still that clearly has a cost. What we have been trying to do is work with our customers to understand very clearly what that cost is.”

Read the full article on Field Service News.

 

ABOUT Field Service News

Kris is the editor of Field Service News, a UK-based resource for the field service industry. He has been working in business-to-business publishing for nearly a decade. As a journalist, Kris has covered a diverse range of industries from fire juggling to terrorism insurance. An intimate understanding of what is important when it comes to service and a passion for emerging technology means that in field service he has found an industry that excites him every day.