Aftermarket: A Fusion of Concepts: Pratt & Whitney’s Customer Training Centers

Pratt & Whitney’s Customer Training Centers deliver a comprehensive learning experience to a global market of aviation students. Whether time allows for a two-hour interactive distance learning session or 20 days for a heavy engine maintenance training course, P&W offers an effective menu of maintenance, engineering, and leadership.

Continuous education and certification are vital to any evolving career. Pratt & Whitney (P&W) manufactures a vast array of engines and the company’s catalogue of courses can be as valuable to those just entering the workforce as to management with a lifetime of experience. P&W’s two Customer Training Centers (CTC) in East Hartford, Conn. and Beijing, China hold classes that educate and enlighten.

AM spoke with Laura Holmes, general manager, P&W East Hartford CTC, and Robert "Mac" Maciorowski, training operations manager from the same facility, to learn more about what that location has to offer. Holmes has worked with P&W for nearly eight years, and has a background in marketing, sales and customer service. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s in business and has always worked in an industrial manufacturing environment.

Maciorowski manages the instructors. He has his bachelor’s in electrical engineering and a master’s in technical management and has worked at P&W for 18 years. He came to the training facility about six years ago when he taught on the engineering side. The bottom line of what both Holmes and Maciorowski had to say was said by Holmes, "We have two world-class training facilities, but we’ll train you wherever, whenever you want and will make the course fit your needs."

The Facilities

The CTC in East Hartford, Conn. is an historic site founded in 1935. It was built as a service school and was bought by P&W while still being used as an experimental test hangar. Engines were created, installed and flown out of 400 Main Street by such aviators as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. As the aviation industry evolved, P&W grew and required additional space. The company bought the test hangar and, more than a decade ago, carefully renovated the building for its usage as a CTC.

As part of the site’s living history, the East Hartford facility displays Lindbergh’s desk in an on-site museum and photos from the early years line the halls. The building still contains the art deco style of architecture popular in that time period and half of the remodeled ceiling bears the original wood from the test hangar. The remainder of the ceiling is the metal that was installed in 1994 when the building was transformed into P&W’s 48,000-square-foot CTC. The building now hosts students from around the world and ensures they feel at home.

The East Hartford facility caters its menus to meet both health and dietary restrictions and will serve a vegetarian or diabetic menu if requested. The facility contains two ablution rooms for Muslims that are equipped with a foot bath, perpetual prayer card, rug and a compass pointing to Mecca.

The 35,000-square-foot Beijing facility, which opened in 2002, is next to an Airbus training center that offers an integration revolving around the "one-stop-shop" revolution. Customers receive their airframe training and then walk across the street to study detailed engine maintenance. Less travel, less expense. The P&W China site has instructed clients from 19 different countries since it began operation.

The East Hartford facility is wholly owned by P&W and Beijing is a joint venture between United Technologies Far East Ltd. and China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Corporation. P&W engines are always available for hands-on training, the instructors are certified and the classrooms are filled with training guides and reference materials. P&W has a global network that allows them to conduct training anywhere in the world whether it’s in Norway or New Zealand.

When asked what percentage of training takes place at the P&W East Hartford CTC, Holmes surmised a 40-60 split, with the majority coming to the facility. The options to be educated by P&W seem infinite. A company can send any number of employees to a P&W facility or the company can send one of their own trainers who would use P&W’s facilities to conduct their own specific training. Alternatively, P&W recently flew an instructor down to Santiago, Chile several times in order to train the majority of LAN Airlines’ maintenance staff on-site. P&W shipped the test engine to them instead of having the entire team come to the U.S., saving LAN time and money. "Training is driven by the customer; we conduct a lot of tailored training [too]," Maciorowski said.

An Uncommon Education

The P&W catalog of CTC courses includes everything from engineering or jet engine introduction to a standard practice course. There are multiple line and base maintenance training classes and the company recently introduced a leadership training program. P&W wants to ensure that students are receiving exactly what they need. "[If] a customer is having more issues on the fuel system, we’ll tailor the course to cover that fuel system," stated Maciorowski. If an airline wanted to take one of P&W’s 10-day line and base maintenance courses, but the airline fleet is having some particular maintenance issues that aren’t included in the off-the-shelf course, P&W will tailor that course to fit the airline’s needs. Heavy maintenance can take three weeks, but if someone needs training only on a specific part of an engine, P&W will again, tailor the course. The company said it is always striving to create new classes that are based on customer input. "What we’re trying to offer here at the P&W facility is human performance improvement and provide an environment that effectively delivers training so an individual can go back and begin working the next day with the knowledge gained," Maciorowski stated.

P&W employs Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE), a methodology that is based on Japanese manufacturing and lean operations and operates with a strong emphasis on the human element. The company said it not only instructs on borescopes or heavy maintenance, but also uses human performance improvement techniques and adult learning principles within the training materials and the classroom environment. P&W said it wants the customer to return home with coursework knowledge and how personal biases and stress, artificial deadlines, poor communications, etc., can and does affect performance.

According to Holmes, ACE defines P&W’s way of doing business. "It’s our quality operating system here at P&W and starts with the voice of the customer and ends with their feedback so that we can engage in continuous improvement." An ACE school means that processes are certified and market feedback analysis is collected on a regular basis. ACE awards bronze, silver and gold certifications and both Beijing and East Hartford have been awarded the gold.

Instructor Certification

There are six commercial instructors at the East Hartford facility and five that work on the military side of training. Beijing, a smaller facility, employs two instructors. The requirements for training the trainers are stringent.

All maintenance instructors have their A&P certificates and basic certification for the position includes previous experience with a minimum of three years line or jet engine maintenance work. After completing the minimum amount of time in the field, they then must complete an instructor certification course. During the instructor course, would-be teachers develop techniques on how to deliver the training. Then they audit the class they will teach and then co-teach with a certified instructor. Finally, they are re-evaluated, and depending on their capabilities, they will teach the course with a master instructor and an auditor before they are able to teach on their own.

Instructors are hired from P&W overhaul shops or sometimes from an airline operator maintenance facility. Military instructors are generally military jet engine mechanic retirees. "Our instructors are one of our most valuable resources. They have the technical knowledge but also the skill to deliver the learning experience to the students," said Holmes. When asked if there tends to be a shortage of instructors, Maciorowski felt that, as it is industry-wide, it’s not easy to recover when people move on. "But," he added "the airline industry has allowed us to take some people that aren’t retired but have decided that they are interested in teaching or are just looking for something different; P&W scoops them up." Approximately 65 percent of the instructors come from the commercial side with the remaining 35 percent from the military.

Beyond the Classroom

The work that keeps the East Hartford CTC busiest is with the Pratt & Whitney engines entry into service and the related maintenance training. One of the newer engines, the GP7200, which will power the Airbus A380, is hitting the market next year. Also, in a few years, P&W’s geared turbofan engine will enter into service. The East Hartford CTC trains 15,000 student days a year (a five-day class equating to five student days) and more than 4,000 students are in the facility annually.

During any session, whether engineering or maintenance, students are made aware of any potential environmental impact of their work. For example, P&W said the CTC will educate students on airline engine fleet management and will then discuss how to make different systems more fuel efficient. Even in entry-level courses, CTC talks about alternate fuels, aviation emissions and the combustion process and how P&W handles those issues in terms of new designs.

One course that has seen a recent rise in attendance is P&W’s Leadership Program. The MRO Leadership Program was launched in 2006 and provides a forum where industry leaders can share ideas and best practices from lean operations, regulatory or future maintenance issues to managing change. All sessions for this program, to date, have been held in East Hartford, but can be conducted anywhere in the world. As this article is being written, the five-day program is being taught to 35 students from China. The Chinese students that are in-house are there as part of the Aviation Cooperation Program. P&W participates in this program that provides students the opportunity to come to the U.S. to participate in training from different U.S.-based companies.

By the close of 2007, P&W said it plans to offer Web-based training. The company will have to authenticate the process for the FAA and other auditors so users will follow a standard sign-in process. P&W is implementing a new learning management system where customers can register and are able to manage their on-line records. The Web-based courses will be launched October 15, 2007 with GeoLearning hosting the software, which will be accessible from anywhere in the world. P&W has been working with GeoLearning for eight months.

To further ensure online legitimacy, some exams will be proctored. P&W will launch its Web training by offering Level 1 courses, general familiarization classes such as jet engine introduction and human factors awareness. The company doesn’t think they will offer Level 3 training on the Web at this point because of the extensive hands-on training that needs to be performed at that level. As always, they are looking at ways to offer training solutions to the customer.

P&W has been conducting computer-based desktop training for more than 10 years and has recently found that more operators want the Web training. Current animation technology for Web-based training is amazingly advanced from the Web-training of yesteryear, so CTC students are able to obtain a more cutting-edge education through the Web.

Time Well Spent

Students can add another certificate of completion to their folders and leave the facility with additional knowledge that will help garner more pay or seniority. However, to receive FAA or other official certification, students must return to their airline or MRO and request that they enroll in those classes and take those exams. P&W does offer EASA certification, allowing those students to return to their facilities with official certification to perform line maintenance. When questions arise in the field (and they always do) P&W CTC students can call their instructor directly to get the answer, no extra charge. Also, CTC students leave the course with extensive training materials and training aids.

P&W plans to launch new services as part of its global network and work has already begun in East Hartford. By the end of 2008, the company will launch V2500, CFM56 and GP7200 engines entry into service training programs. The GP7200 is expected to arrive at the East Hartford by the end of 2007. According to Holmes and Maciorowski, P&W recently hosted a GP7200 split-shift demonstration where key entry customers like Emirates, Air France and Korean Air came into the facility, split the fan case from the propulsor (for engine shipment) and then put the engine back together again.

With worldwide technical classes, human performance improvement training and some philosophical insights, the P&W Customer Training Centers already has, or can create, a program that will make for a well-rounded education anywhere in the world.