Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
A major restructuring at Rolls-Royce will see the aero-engine arm divided into a series of smaller, market focused, units, in a bid to co-ordinate product strategy across the group and its growing tally of international partnerships.
The existing umbrella Aerospace division, which covers all R-R aero-engine activities, will disappear and be replaced by new units defined by customer groups and reporting directly to the main board. The new structure, due to be put in place this week, is designed to help tie together strategy within R-R, its US Allison arm, and the various alliances with BMW, Turboméca and the International Aero Engines venture.
The mainline airline business is already largely focused around the Trent engine programme at Derby, while military markets will now be served by new units in Europe and North America. The regional and corporate aviation business will be based at Allison in Indianapolis, as will the helicopter business. Aero-engine services, will also have its own division.
Although the new units will not have direct influence over the alliance businesses in which R-R has no control, the group says that it will attempt to take "team decisions" together with units such as BMW Rolls-Royce or the R-R Turboméca engine venture.
The operations side of the aero-engines business will continue to be overseen by the current managing director of the Aerospace division, Colin Green.
The restructuring, which sees the stripping out of a layer ofmiddle management, is part of a broader streamlining effort which includes the "Better Performance Faster" campaign, designed to save hundreds of millions of dollars in the manufacturing process.
Source: Flight International
