Steve Nichols
"With a lot of change going on in our business we want 2000 to be a year of settlement, a year of making the integration successful and leave all that structural change behind us." - Bob Johnson, president, Honeywell AerospaceHoneywell personnel are out in force as Asian Aerospace 2000 is the first major show since the Honeywell/AlliedSignal merger.
Bob Johnson, president, Honeywell Aerospace, says that the company has gone through a lot of upheaval over the past year, but is looking forward to a bright future.
"We streamlined both sets of organisations going into the merger and spent the second half of the year getting ready for and completing it," he says.
"With a lot of change going on in our business we want 2000 to be a year of settlement, a year of making the integration successful and leave all that structural change behind us.
"We want to focus on our customers and employees and take the time to make the right investment to create the growth and solutions for our customers."
Johnson says Honeywell has tremendous growth potential and an opportunity to invest in new solutions and technologies. He doesn't rule out niche acquisitions either.
The merger has brought together two companies that now has a massive product range, encompassing everything from runway lighting, engines and avionics to satellite systems. "But it's that breadth that gives the company its strength," says Johnson.
The merger wasn't all plain sailing. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and European Commission (EC) forced Honeywell to sell its traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) and AlliedSignal's civil helicopter radar projects before the merger could go ahead. To a major player in the avionics world this could be seen as disastrous, but Johnson is more optimistic.
"Out of a $25 billion company those products had sales of about $250 million, so they were rather insignificant to the total size of the company. We had duplication in those areas too. It puts those products out in the field and makes competition, so it is really not an issue for us," he says.
The European Commission (EC) also stated that the new Honeywell must not "actively pursue the sale of avionics and non-avionics packages." Johnson says that Honeywell agreed to have open architecture to make some of its products interoperable with other companies' offerings.
"That means the customer gets the choice of how much integration they want or how many of our competitors' products they want to plug into it. So now we only bundle our products at the specific request of our customers, which is they way it should be," he says.
Johnson is bullish about the new company's future. "We have a very positive outlook for Asia - there is a lot of growth in these economies and a lot of cities to connect.
"We have had a series of successes in both our electronics service and engines and systems business with a number of MSAs we have signed up including Cathy Pacific, China Southern, A&A and Korean Airlines.
"We have more than 1,200 aerospace employees in the region and many of those are located in our eight aerospace repair centres and five manufacturing sites.
"Honeywell has a long-standing commitment to Asia and also has a number of joint ventures in the area including our Singapore Limited Engine and Systems Facility which does some very sophisticated precision machining.
"We're very excited about a bright future for our business and are very focused on forming unlimited partnerships with our customers," he concludes.
Source: Flight Daily News
