Mutt,
You consistantly make inordinately good sense, but I'm a little puzzled by the rationale of your company policy spelled out in your recent posting -
In our case, we dont account for optimized Vspeeds, clearway/stopway. FMC speeds are only adjusted for MEL's and contaminated runways.
Is it true that you don't take any credit for Clearway / Stopway ? Perhaps your Company's operations are on good long runways and CWY/SWY credit is not needed. Where possible we do not use them if unwarranted, but will immediately do so on shorter runways where an operational advantage exists. (This requires a policy statement to pilots re the use of FMC speeds. Certainly, we adjust FMC speeds for MEL / Contaminated runways). I'm interested to know how you can justify this penalty (although the good long runway explanation might be all that's needed).
When you state that you don't account for optimized Vspeeds, are you referring to their 'fine tuning' due to CWY/SWY, or to Vspeeds optimized for V2 overspeed / Improved Climb which is not considered by the FMC ? In the case of the former, OK, I'm with you, you don't use CWY/SWY, but if it is your policy to not use the latter, I cannot see the justification. On a recent departure from JED at 43°, we squeezed on another 2600 Kg of payload in using 'Improved Climb' (I hate that Boeingism). These higher speeds most certainly require over-writing of the FMC balanced field speeds.
Genuinely interested to see your reply, we're always looking at Company policy improvements for maximising commercial advantage, or similarly towards operational simplification if there is no commercial penalty involved.