Accenture: Aerospace Companies Struggling

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

Ninety one percent of Aerospace manufacturers said they need to further reduce costs to provide these services; 78 percent said they need to increase customer satisfaction; and 69 percent cited a need for improved service quality. This from  new Accenture (NYSE: ACN) research that has found that manufacturers of commercial aircraft need to make several improvements in delivering aircraft in-service performance to airlines.

These findings are reviewed and analyzed in a new Accenture report, Aerospace—Aircraft in-Service Support Survey: a Drive for the Full-Service Offering. The report investigates the growing movement towards “total fleet management,” in which airlines designate one or several manufacturers to service and maintain their entire commercially active (“in service”) fleets.

The research further revealed a disconnect between manufacturers and airlines in their definitions of best-in-class, aircraft in-service offerings. Fifty-six percent of manufacturers defined these best-in-class offerings as delivering “high customer satisfaction and a retention enabler”; none of the airlines said so. In a similar vein, of those airlines who indicated their desire to move to total fleet support models, all of them expect those services to cover their entire product lines, new and old. By contrast, only 50 percent of manufacturers intend to provide across-the-board coverage.

The research included interviews with 51 executives with manufacturers of commercial aircraft and airlines based in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Singapore, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. The telephone interviews were conducted in April and May 2012. Twenty-four percent of the respondents’ companies had revenues of more than $10 billion; 39 percent, $1 billion to $10 billion; and 37 percent, below $1 billion.