Exchange Program Exposes Engineers to the Voice of the Customer

The value of Pratt & Whitney's engineer exchange program with United Airlines is best explained by participant Kyle Craig.

"When you're standing on an airport tarmac next to an engine that's having an issue and you see the people inside waiting to take off, it gives you a different perspective on the end customer experience," Craig said. "Working for Pratt & Whitney for the last 10 years as an engineer, you tend to believe that your engine company is the center of the world. Working directly with the airline has given me a much better understanding of the operating side of the business and their culture."

Craig and fellow Pratt & Whitney engineer Ken Sarangay are embedded in United's engineering group at the airline's Chicago headquarters on a one-year assignment that began last fall. Craig supports the PW4000 fleet and Sarangay the V2500 fleet.

The exchange program with United follows a similar program in the 1990s. Allan Zimmerman, chief engineer for Customer Technical Support at Pratt & Whitney, knows all about it.

"I was the first Pratt & Whitney engineer to take part in the program, assigned to Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis," he said. "Our goal now is the same as it was then – establish stronger relationships with our customers, act as an airline employee while on the assignment to internalize the voice of the customer and, most importantly, bring that perspective back to Pratt & Whitney. We've had meetings with United in which it was clear that Kyle and Ken are part of the United team doing the job of a United power plant engineer."

"The assignment may only be one year, but it provides long-term value," Zimmerman added. "The airline gets the benefit of having a Pratt & Whitney engineer with extensive engine knowledge and, at the end of the year, we get back a well-rounded employee with a customer viewpoint. I still rely on the customer experiences I had at Northwestern in my work today."

"The work that Kyle and Ken do complements Pratt & Whitney's field service group, the difference being they're actually part of United's engineering team," said Matt Teicholz, director of Propulsion Systems Analysis at Pratt & Whitney. "Their work entails a blend of dealing with engine issues that crop up, as well as engine performance analysis."

Craig, who most recently worked in Pratt & Whitney's Performance Analysis Group, said he was drawn to the airline assignment for the opportunity to be integrated into a customer's organization and gain their perspective.

"For most of my career, I was well removed from the end customer," he said. "This gives me the opportunity to be a key part of their operation. In addition, when I began my career I was working on PW4000 engines. This gave me the chance to work on those engines again and be deployed in the field."

Prior to this assignment, Sarangay was a product engineer in Pratt & Whitney's Dallas Airfoil Repair Operations. "Coming from a components repair background, my focus was to have expertise on a handful of engine parts. I was attracted to this assignment because I'm able to work with the entire engine system at the customer level," he said. "So far, this program has given me understanding of the product beyond my expectations. I'm supporting the airline's V2500 fleet of about 150 aircraft, tracking component reliability and dealing with the top engine issues that cause flight delays and cancellations and coming up with solutions."

Craig and Sarangay aren't the only engineers benefiting from the exchange. United Airlines engineer Phil Grilliot is in East Hartford for a year, working on the PW1500G program and actively supporting the Bombardier C Series flight test program.

"I have a team of 10 customer service engineers and Phil brings to the team real-world, real-time experience in supporting jet engines at an airline level," said Joe Snyder, manager of Customer Technical Service at Pratt & Whitney. "It's been extremely beneficial for my team to be exposed to an airline engineer who works directly on the flight line. Phil is thoroughly engaged with our engineering and flight test team and the Bombardier flight test team in Mirabel and was fully functional as a Pratt & Whitney engineer within a matter of a few weeks."

Both Craig and Sarangay have traveled to United hubs to do field work. "Whenever there's an issue and they want a power plant engineering presence for the PW4000, I go," Craig said. "My supervisor here is a strong proponent of having us out in the field to experience issues firsthand."

Dag Johnsen, director of the Power Plant Engineering team at United Airlines, is the two Pratt & Whitney engineers' supervisor in Chicago. "Their involvement here has been very beneficial to us," he said. "We threw them right in the deep end of the pool and put them in our engineering group as soon as they arrived, and they've blended right in with the team. I believe they now have a much different perspective of the engine operation. Issues that might appear minor from the manufacturing environment's perspective can have significant ramifications in service. When you look at the faces in the terminal windows as our customers are waiting to go somewhere, it is a different perspective.

"We've come to rely on their specific knowledge of their respective engine models," he added. "Our airline engineering roles are very broad. We look to the Pratt & Whitney team to be true experts on the hardware. Our job is to understand the physics and science of the engines so we can ask the right questions. Having Kyle and Ken here with their knowledge and background has been invaluable."

Both Craig and Sarangay look forward to bringing their customer perspectives back to the positions they return to at Pratt & Whitney. "I know I'll be able to represent the customer viewpoint better, as I've come to appreciate their unique set of issues and concerns," Craig said.

"It's given me a new perspective on the business, and the experience will help me approach issues with an increased customer focus," Sarangay added.

"Knowing that they're coming to appreciate the voice of the customer is key," Johnsen said. "Kyle and Ken having that perspective is so valuable to us, as we get benefit for years to come from the knowledge they gained while being in the customer's shoes for a year."