Originally Posted by
Hughes500
Cylic Hotline
Really so a manufacturer of parts who knows more about gas turbines than you will ever know, whose father virtually invented the dam things is lying? I think not. Just except facts we are being ripped off.
Here is another example for you. 2 customers needed a clutch for their SA341's. One was an EASA reg ac the other on the YU reg ( Bosnia ). Clutch for the Bosnia one £ 8500, it could not be fitted to the EASA based one as no EASA Form 1 from the factory in Bosnia. The clutch for the EASA reg 341 came from Eurocopter at £ 37000. Now guess what when the box was opened there was the report of the overhaul from the Bosnian factory. So all Eurocopter had done was send clutch to same factory but the piece of paper cost £ 29000, nice work if you can get it.
An argument with you is pretty pointless, as you don't personally know anything about what you are talking about, only quoting what others purportedly tell you. In reply to your assumption (
a manufacturer of parts who knows more about gas turbines than you will ever know) I have previously explained my knowledge of this market, but will further amplify that I actually managed an OEM engine programme, and had visibility to every factor involved, including all aspects of vendor manufacture which also included PMA parts, Engineering, Production, Certification, Distribution and Pricing. I also have an extensive background in every angle of MRO with
all of the major Western OEM's, including airframes and components, and of course, lots of time operating virtually every helicopter type out there. Based on that experience, I will repeat, that the information you are sharing is erroneous and that even a raw manufacturing cost would not be covered by the pricing you shared. The overall cost of a programme is absorbed through the markup on parts, which includes Overhead, Engineering, Product Support, Certification, Inventory management, Insurance, Technical Publications, Sales, etc. So, is there a high markup on a completed part available from stock? Of course there is, being that this is what sustains the product, but also contributes to all the functions that a business has to maintain. There are really too many variables to effectively broadly examine the price drivers, but consideration has to be given to raw material supply, production capability and capacity, vendor availability, manufacturing technology processes, human skill attrition, and a host of other unconsidered risks and delays that inevitably appear to derail even the most efficient and well managed progamme or process.
I do sympathize with you over parts for the SA341, but that is simply an example of an OEM having you over a barrel, and involves certification for existing parts outside the EASA system, and has nothing to do with the cost of manufacturing, simply control over the marketplace. This is an example of the EASA system and that particular OEM, which limits the number of service providers and access to IP and overhaul-level parts to control the market. They are also keen to see many of these older types disappear, and price is one way to achieve it.
Lastly;
As an owner / operator ie the person signing the cheques for these things, the industry is killing itself. Lets take MD helicopters, they took back the overhaul of transmissions , so they are now the sole agency allowed to do it, guess what price for an overhaul up from around $ 85k to close to $130k overnight, easy when you are a monopoly.
MD have wanted to own this market forever and only allowed limited external access to the MRO market, but then, of course, their management was selling all the parts out the back door for cash, so someone had to support the commercial market. MD has always been strapped by a horrifyingly dysfunctional supply chain, which limited the appeal of the MD500 in the marketplace. But their control of the MRO business is no different than all the European manufacturers who limit access to overhaul level parts, overhaul level publications and other IP, with small and highly controlled customer/geographical third-party MRO capabilities which they control through Customer Service Facilities. New products from all the OEM's remain the realm of OEM MRO only, especially in the early days of a program, but some OEM's don't want anyone operating in their space. It will be interesting to see how the new MD fares, because as the sole MRO provider and their past terrible history for product support and parts, there is a serious danger they could kill the entire program off if they don't do it right.