East Hartford’s Pratt & Whitney manufactures about 20 engines, all commercial and military.
While that might seem like a relatively low number for a company with $14 billion in annual revenues, the careful coordination needed to ensure those jet engines are quality items delivered to customers on time, and kept in operation, takes a small army.
To prepare for a historic ramp-up in production, Pratt is fine-tuning a new command center out of its East Hartford headquarters to make sure workers at its increasingly global manufacturing facilities have all the parts they need at the exact time they need them, battling everything from weather and logistics to inefficient processes and the great unknown.
“Even a $2 part can hold up a very valuable engine,” said Rita Peralta, general manager of Pratt’s Operations Command Center.
While Pratt sells only 20 engines, they require more than 45,000 parts, which are each made from their own supplies and sourced from a variety of raw materials. Individually, they can delay production on any number of Pratt engines, for any reason.
A supplier’s key production employee may, for example, take an extended vacation, slowing that company’s output. An African mine may run dry, casting doubt over the availability of raw materials, such as tantalum, a key element for electronics. An Icelandic volcano may erupt, delaying shipments from Europe. A military coup could shut down exports from a supplier’s country.
To deal with all these issues and more — most of which focus directly on Pratt’s suppliers operating in 25 countries — the jet engine maker in November opened its East Hartford command center, hoping better communication and advanced analytics would lead to smoother manufacturing cycles, especially as the company prepares for the production of its F135 military engine for the Joint Strike Fighter and the PurePower family of commercial engines, notably for the Airbus 320neo airliner.
“This is the central nervous system, if you will, of Pratt & Whitney’s entire operation,” Peralta said.
Early results already have been positive: Suppliers fully participating problem-solving and continuous improvement practices have reduced delays 38 percent since November. Pratt is having a supplier forum Oct. 2-3 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford to discuss further efficiencies in operations, among other training items.
Through one function or another, more than 400 Pratt supply chain employees work with the command center, the most visible part of the company’s supply chain management. The center is modeled after a similar one built for Pratt & Whitney Canada. Pratt’s parent, United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, is installing additional centers for Stratford helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft and Charlotte, N.C. parts maker UTC Aerospace.
“The whole point is to be looking ahead, so you either have problem resolution or problem prevention,” said Craig Musson, director of Pratt’s global supply chain. “The idea is to solve a problem before it becomes a big problem.”
The key function of the center is communication, connecting the 1,000 Pratt employees on the command center’s software to the more than 400 Pratt suppliers, including 90 in Connecticut.
The system monitors progress of all the parts being made in the Pratt supply chain, including projecting how various situations — like a raw materials shortage — will impact delivery dates. When a delay occurs — typically, a supplier missing a target delivery date — all stakeholders on the system are notified on how it might impact them.
“One supplier notified us that they had a power failure for a day, and that is good for us to know,” said Peralta, who added a one-day power outage at a supplier’s facility is absorbed fairly easily into the process.
Ideally, the command center is always projecting 36 months in advance, so Pratt can adjust to any delays in the supply chain so it won’t impact final delivery dates to engine buyers, Musson said. All of Pratt’s parts are dually sourced to minimize the impact one supplier has on the entire chain.
Keeping that chain flowing smoothly is important for products like the PurePower line, which already sold 6,000 engines and begins production next year. As part of the ramp-up and general need for suppliers, Pratt has entered into long-term deals with 100 of them with a total contract value of $10 billion.
The command center isn’t just needed for the ramp-up of new engines, Musson said. Pratt still makes and services a long line of engines, including the one powering the B-52 Stratrofortress bomber, which was designed more than 60 years ago.
Pratt isn’t making new B-52 engines, but because the engine is still flying, it needs to have the parts. Those are difficult to make, Musson said, because the raw materials aren’t easy to find and the people who remember how to make those parts are getting older and in short supply.
The supply base is becoming increasingly important to engine production, too, Musson said. Twenty years ago, Pratt made 80 percent of its parts in-house. Today, that has dropped to 20 percent, and in the near future it will be 10 percent.
“That is why there is so much emphasis,” Musson said. “Without the supply base, Pratt & Whitney doesn’t deliver its engines.”
The command center sends analytics to all 400 Pratt suppliers to keep product orders on time. The analytics project 12 weeks ahead to see how a supplier’s demand, capacity, input of parts and materials, anticipated yield, work progress, and built-in buffers will influence its on-time delivery.
Pratt wants its suppliers to set up in-house clinics where they can discuss any problems that might arise and figure out how to get production back on track.
“The part goes to the clinic, so to speak, as you would go to the emergency room at Hartford Hospital,” Musson said.
The level of work and the demand on suppliers is increasing, which makes filling orders more complicated, said Al Samuel, executive director of Connecticut trade group Aerospace Component Manufacturers, which represents Pratt suppliers.
“More and more gets passed down the supply chain,” Samuel said. “Owning a small-to-medium-sized business nowadays is a lot more complicated than it used to be.”
Pratt wants suppliers to pass this kind of knowledge onto their own suppliers as well, as sub-tier suppliers tend to be a main reason for delays in delivery dates, Peralta said.
Providing the right information is vital to working around problems, Musson said. When Iceland’s volcano disrupted air shipments for weeks in 2010, suppliers had the alternative to ship their goods via boat. Traveling by water takes extra time, though, so by knowing that in advance, suppliers could work around the problem.
“By having the information about how big of a problem it is, that is so good to know how to manage the problem,” Musson said.n
