On the Record with
JAMES E. SCHUSTER, CHAIRMAN & CEO, RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY

Raytheon Puts Its Hangar in Order

Three months in the left hand seat at Raytheon Aircraft Company (RAC) have left CEO Jim Schuster both amazed and determined.

Amazed that the company launched its first new product in more than 20 years not only its first jet, but a composite one at that, and then follow it up with the largest aircraft it has ever built; and determined to put back on track both the business itself and the way it looks after its customers.

Schuster explains that under his command RAC has made a fresh start, symbolized by no fewer than three composite-fuselaged business jets sitting on the ramp--two Premier Is, and the very first super-midsize Horizon, which flew for the first time only last month.

"My No.1 personal objective is to meet as many customers as I can so I can listen, because they are still telling us we have a lot to do," he told Show News. " I have to make sure I understand what that means specifically so we can put in the right action plans.

"I am not here to make sweeping grand pronouncements about how everything is OK and explain how well our programs are working."

As he addresses the immediate problem of unsatisfactory customer support, Schuster must also help RAC recover from the birthing pains of launching two very ambitious programs. While the Horizon, he says, stretches RAC's product line nicely into the high end of the market, it has also stretched the company.

"It sure has!" he adds for emphasis. "The company has labored under a number of problems for a long time, including the burden of launching two new aircraft one right after the other. That has stressed the company, and allowed or caused some parts of the organization to lose their focus on some of the things that need to remain important. And I think some of our customers would say it is them."

Schuster noted that while RAC has proved it can develop and produce "the Premier, one of the most exciting aircraft to come into the market in many, many years," it has yet to demonstrate it can also produce reasonable and predictable financial results. "Most companies can do one or the other," said Schuster. "To do both is quite a trick."

That's why his first priority is to make customers happy, the second is to support the Premier I, and the third is to press ahead with the Horizon while capturing and incorporating all the lessons learned in developing its smaller stablemate. "I have to make sure the Horizon comes through development successfully in all respects ­ that it performs as advertised, on time, and within the cost parameters set for it," he said. "That takes a lot of focused attention".

What went wrong before? "If I had to point to a couple of things I would point to a lack of rigid process disciplines with specific steps and gates to ensure you were doing all of the right things before you proceeded," he explained.

Schuster said it was really quite remarkable that the Premier was only two years late, given what RAC had set out to achieve. "It was audaciously ambitious," he said.

-John Morris