Rockwell Collins Southeast Asia Address Challenges of IFE

When you fly to Asia, particularly from America or Europe-when there are many, many air hours to kill-you want the inflight entertainment (IFE) to work. Increasingly, that's become the responsibility of Rockwell Collins Southeast Asia, which has become a major player in IFE since the company bought Hughes Aviacom and Sony Transcom and their inflight entertainment products.

IFE work accounts for 30% to 40% of the shop's work today, according to David Tan, general manager of the Singapore facility, located in the Loyand Aviation Park. Tan expects that figure to rise to 50% as Collins rolls out new IFE products.

Repairing IFE systems has been a challenge compared to repairing the company's usual radios and radars.

"We are governed by so many airworthiness authorities," said Tan about Rockwell Collins. "We have to satisfy all airworthiness requirements before we can get a station up and running. You need the proper training, test equipment and piece parts to be on-site. For IFE, it is voluminous.

"It is different from the air transport world. Radios in an aircraft are a maximum of two; for IFE every seat has a display unit and controller."

In addition, airlines have become particularly sensitive to the maintenance needs of IFE equipment, as well as passenger expectations that the inflight movie will work properly. The airlines in turn are pressing the IFE companies to make sure systems are operational.

"We're trying to cope with the requirements of the customer," said Tan, referring to the airlines. "Every customer wants quick turnaround time."

Collins is trying to cope with that need by instituting the parent company's "lean electronics" philosophy into its 80-person Singapore shop.

Tan explained how "lean" is being applied in one instance. "In the dock area, for example, we try to make sure that the product pushes right into the shop area within two hours, and then someone has to take a look at it in the next two hours." The goal is to speed the dock-to-repair-to-invoicing process.

Tan said that employees in Singapore need to get over the urge to "hold an iron bowl," which relates to an old Chinese saying about how an iron rice bowl cannot be broken. In work terms, it relates to the fear that finishing a job quickly means you'll be out of work that much sooner. It also reflects a belief that if someone passes knowledge along to someone else, that person becomes better than you. Both beliefs run counter to the philosophy of "lean" in manufacturing and MRO operations.

By Barry Rosenberg