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2. 34
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
35
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
ROADS
FEATURE
THE FLYING
KANGAROO’S
ENGINEERS
BOUNCE BACK
Qantas Engineering
has undergone a major
overhaul of its people
power in recent years
— but the results of
the transformation
have been positive.
COVER STORY
QANTAS ENGINEERING
by Patrick Durrant
The CFM56-7 engine on a Qantas Boeing 737-838. Image: Jeremy William (carry-on.com.au)

3. 36
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
37
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
COVER STORY
QANTAS ENGINEERING
“It’s one of our challenges – an area of improvement
that we are focused on,” he says. Qantas has always been
a leader in aviation engineering. It was at the forefront in
development of such technologies as the flight data recorder,
the Future Air Navigation System and real-time monitoring
of its engines using satellite communications, to name but a
few.
Verkerk explains that Qantas’ performance engineering
team are doing some very advanced research, collaborating
with Boeing and Airbus on fuel prediction methodologies
and developing advanced algorithms. They have also
been working closely with the Australian Centre for Field
Robotics at the University of Sydney – all this in the name
of achieving more accurate predictions on the optimum
flight path for their aircraft. Such work has enabled the
airline to claim the world’s longest route – the 13,800 km,
15 hour-long non-stop flight from Sydney to Dallas-Fort
Worth.
“We’ve built a tool for doing that which we think is world
leading edge,” Verkerk says. “Both Airbus and Boeing are
actually asking us to help them.”
Another achievement by the Fleet Engines and Aircraft
Performance Team is a world record of 50,000 hours of
‘on-wing’ performance for an engine in commercial service.
As the third oldest airline in the world, Qantas was
established 94 years ago with a staff of three, including one
engineer, W. Arthur Baird. Since then it has maintained its
position as a respected airline with a safety record second to
none – AirlineRatings.com recently rated the airline as the
safest of the 449 airlines it monitors.
But commercial pressures were beginning to have an
impact on Qantas’ ability to compete. Verkerk remembers
only too well having to stand before his staff in 2011 to
outline the strategic vision for the Engineering Services
department.
The airline, Verkerk told his staff, like many others,
was facing some stark choices and needed to adapt in
order to survive.
“I likened it to the dinosaurs facing the coming Ice Age,”
Verkerk says. “To survive we were going to have to learn to
live like mammals.”
Despite some great advances, much of the culture and
the processes within the airline’s engineering section had
become antiquated and inefficient. The system wasn’t being
challenged enough – engineers weren’t asking ‘why do we
do it this way?’ Often the philosophy, decision or rule set
that had put a process in place one or two generations ago
was no longer valid, according to Verkerk.
“I’ve often said that our history has been our greatest
strength but it’s also our greatest weakness.”
In the last decade, engineers were getting bogged down
in the bureaucratic process, and many of them were no
longer using their technical expertise to good measure,
he says.
“If you wound back the clock about 10 years and
surveyed the professional engineers within our business,
there would have been a fairly high level of frustration
around having spent four or five years at university only to
find themselves working as a glorified clerk – moving bits of
paper around; a slave to an old IT system,” Verkerk says.
There was no mobility within the department, he
added, with engineers spending decades within one sub-
I’VE OFTEN
SAID THAT
OUR HISTORY
HAS BEEN
OUR GREATEST
STRENGTH BUT
IT’S ALSO OUR
GREATEST
WEAKNESS.
I
t’s no secret that of late the global
airline industry has been up against
some tough challenges. Increased
competition in both domestic and
international markets and ageing gas-
guzzling fleets coupled with, until recently,
high fuel prices are just some of the difficulties
airlines like Qantas face. Its engineers –
indeed Qantas staff in general – have not
been immune to this as the business pressures
resulting from the changing landscape of the
industry force the airline to transform itself
into a leaner, more competitive carrier while
retaining the technical edge and proud safety
tradition it has upheld for many years.
Engineers Australia magazine talked to
engineers at the Qantas Mascot Jet Base in
Sydney about the role that leadership has
played in this transformation. Despite recent
challenges, they were proud to share with us
their continuing ability to deliver world leading
engineering achievements and also spoke of
the contribution engineers can make toward
innovation and commercial viability in the
airline industry. New approaches to personnel
management within Engineering Services such
as talent management, improved mobility and
frequent performance feedback have started to
reap rewards.
In 2012, CEO Alan Joyce announced “we
are undertaking a wholesale transformation
of Qantas to make it better and stronger, the
premium Australian airline for our times”. The
winds of change were upon Qantas and no part
of the business would be spared.
By March 2014, the airline had closed the
Boeing 747 heavy maintenance facility at
Avalon in Melbourne, a move that resulted in
significant engineering job losses. Qantas had
begun retiring its fleet of ageing Boeing 747s
and 767s – the primary long and medium haul
stablemates for many years – and was replacing
them with more modern, fuel efficient types
such as the Airbus A330, A380 and the Boeing
787 Dreamliner.
At the time, Qantas Domestic CEO Lyell
Strambi said the retirement of the 747s meant
“there’s just not enough work to keep the base
at Avalon viable and productive”. The airline
shifted the majority of its heavy maintenance to
Brisbane, and now work for the A380s and the
remaining 747s is done at specialist facilities in
Hong Kong and Manila. The times have been
tough for the airline’s engineers as they have
farewelled a number of their colleagues but
the consensus of those engineers with whom
we spoke was that they had definitely turned
a corner – and were continuing to achieve
groundbreaking innovation.
Head of Engineering Services Adrian Verkerk
and HR manager Daniel Flannery are quick
to talk about some of these wins – something
that Qantas engineers haven’t always celebrated,
Flannery admits.
(Above) Qantas aircraft undergoing maintenance at Brisbane Airport. Image: Qantas (Opposite) The next generation LEAP engines will be used on the new
Airbus A320neo aircraft, due to enter service with Jetstar group airlines in 2016. Image: CFM international and Popdotmedia

4. 38
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
39
ENGINEERS AUSTRALIA MARCH 2015
sought were actually further down the leadership hierarchy
than they should have been, so we started to bring them
forward.”
The two settled for a structure that had five or six
managers reporting to Verkerk, with the next most suitable
25 reporting to them. These two tiers of leaders are all
usually degree qualified engineers who ideally also have an
MBA. They might not be the oldest or the most technically
proficient but they are in positions where they can use
their leadership skills to performance manage their teams,
ensuring they are properly trained and the business is
appropriately financed.
“They have an eye to the broader strategy and are able to
communicate this effectively to their teams,” Flannery says.
Qantas was also able to retain enough engineering
expertise in the business by recognising those who were
technically very proficient but not necessarily the best in
terms of management skills.
“We call them chief engineers, and their people-oriented
roles are mentoring and setting standards,” Flannery
explains.
Verkerk adds that the whole process is geared towards
trying to identify when there is a mismatch between a role
and a person.
“If this is the case, we then try to get them into a role
where they can shine,” he says.
The practice of engineers spending their entire careers
with Qantas working in just one corner of the business is
now a thing of the past, according to Verkerk.
“Unless they are one of those unique individuals who
is going to become a chief engineer and the technical
mentor in that particular field, they must move every few
years – mobility is important so that people get a broader
experience base,” he explains.
Advances in everyday technology have certainly helped
– Luke Edwards, head of design, remembers spending half
a day sifting through microfiche files and illustrated parts
catalogues searching for information about a component.
Now he can take a photo, embed it in a document and send
it via email.
“That just wasn’t something I could do when I first
joined Qantas 15 years ago. Flexibility has been enhanced
and this also means as engineers we can support
maintenance remotely – there is no longer a
requirement to be physically there,” Edwards
says.
Ranath Fernando, manager fleet support feels
that he and his peers now feel more valued by
their superiors as they are now involved in making
more decisions.
“They’ve recognised that we have a lot of
intellectual property capability and they’ve shifted us
into the decision-making cycle and empowered us,” he
says. “Now we have everything at our disposal in order
to make a decision and make it quicker.”
Fernando goes on to say that these decisions result
in better utilisation of assets. He sees it as part of his and
others’ responsibility to drive the value-add to the business
and make it as competitive as it can possibly be. Verkerk
sums up with a very simple but succinct philosophy that
partly explains the reason Engineering Services needed to
take the path it embarked upon three years ago.
“People need to know when they go home at the end of
the day that they’ve made a genuine difference, that they
aren’t just digging holes and filling them in. Their work
must be purposeful so that they can feel proud of what they
have done on any given day,” Verkerk says.
Coupled with this, he explains, is management’s
improving ability to provide engineers with that line of
sight between what they do and what the Qantas
customer experiences.
“There might be 16 different processes, people and
departments between [engineer and customer],” Verkerk
says. “But to really know what they are doing is making
a difference to the customer experience; why that person
is choosing to fly with Qantas and not someone else –
that’s important.” l
division. Promotion was very much based on seniority, so
that when the manager of one team retired, the successor
would usually be the oldest and longest serving member
remaining.
“In every case that sets you up for sub-optimal
performance, if not failure. You’d have to be extremely lucky
that the second oldest person in the department happens to
have strong people skills and commercial skills to go along
with their technical skills,” Verkerk says.
Qantas’ Engineering Services had always been purely
technically focused but as part of the restructure they
would now need to take on a commercial responsibility as
well. For the past three years Verkerk, Flannery and the
Engineering Services leadership team have sought to turn
these older work practices and traditions around to improve
service delivery and add more value to the business – with
a reduced number of engineers.
“We had to find a way of making the most of our
talented people, to get them to focus more on the
innovation rather than the bureaucracy,” Verkerk explains.
Since 2011 when the transformation began, there has been
no real change in volume of output, according to Verkerk,
in fact he says there has actually been an improvement in
the quality of output, despite the department taking on the
extra responsibilities.
“That’s occurred partly by leveraging on new IT systems
and technology but also by getting the guys to focus on
what is really important – not just moving pieces of paper
from basket A to basket B,” Verkerk says.
An added effect of releasing the team from the weight
of bureaucracy has been to encourage more
innovation, which in turn
has had a positive impact on costs for the business. For
example, Flannery says that improvements in the way the
airline manages assets and burns its fuel has achieved cost
savings of more than $200 million – a conservative estimate
– in just 12 months. Newer, reliable and less maintenance
intensive engines such as the GEnx and the soon to be
in service LEAP-1A (p. 37) have and will continue to
contribute to these savings. Further, he notes that each
section has achieved productivity improvements ranging
from 20% to over 80% in the past 2-3 years.
Verkerk explains that as a cost centre, the predominant
reason for engineering services within the airline is of
course mandatory compliance with air safety regulations.
But he adds that the costs of compliance have been paid
for almost twice over because of the value-add of the
innovation projects his department is now engaged in.
Verkerk likens it to a doctor managing patients while at
the same time doing research that is radically negating the
effects of the disease affecting them.
“If we’re doing that and finding innovations and savings,
it is a win-win,” he says.
Flannery and Verkerk had to be careful not to lose
the intellectual capital and experience within the
department, particularly in an industry that is
so highly safety focused.
“We studied it really carefully and
took a lot of time to consider
who the best people were,”
Flannery explains.
“Some of the
people with the
mindset we
Internal view of a General Electric GEnx engine on a Jetstar
Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner. Image: Jeremy William (carry-on.com.au)
COVER STORY
QANTAS ENGINEERING
Gas
guzzlers
flying
into
history
Lean
next-gen
liners
of the
future
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A333
A332
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
B737-800
A330
A320
A320
B787
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES FY162
– 7 FLEET TYPES
A380
B747
(reconfig)
– Young average fleet age of ~8
– B747: 7 non-reconfigured air
– B767: all 15 retired by 3Q FY1
– B734: all retired by February
1 As at 31 December 2013.
2 By end of financial year 2015–2016.
B747
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A333
A332
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
B737-800
A330
A320
A320
B787
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES FY162
– 7 FLEET TYPES
A380
B747
(reconfig)
– Young average fleet age of ~8 year
– B747: 7 non-reconfigured aircraft r
– B767: all 15 retired by 3Q FY15
– B734: all retired by February 2014
1 As at 31 December 2013.
2 By end of financial year 2015–2016.
B767
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A333
A332
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
B737-800
A330
A320
A320
B787
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES FY162
– 7 FLEET TYPES
A380
B747
(reconfig)
– Young average fleet age of ~8 years in F
– B747: 7 non-reconfigured aircraft retire
– B767: all 15 retired by 3Q FY15
– B734: all retired by February 2014
1 As at 31 December 2013.
2 By end of financial year 2015–2016.
B737-400
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
A330
A320
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES
–
–
–
–
1
2
A380
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A
A332
A
B767
B737-400
B737-800
B
A330
A320
A
B787
B
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES F
A
B
(
–
–
–
–
1 A
2 B
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
A330
A320
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES
–
–
–
–
1
2
B737-800
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
A330
A320
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES
–
–
–
–
1
2
A330
A380
B747
(reconfig)
B747
(non-reconfig)
A333
A332
B767
B737-400
B737-800
A330
A320
B787
FY141
– 11 FLEET TYPES
–
–
–
–
1
2
A320neo
B787