Case Study: Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is a British manufacturing company founded in 1904, in Manchester, United Kingdom. The company has come a long way from being a loss making corporation to being the second biggest manufacturer of jet engines. This success is owed to their brand name and operation capabilities. However, they only reached this stage after facing almost two decades of crisis (Rolls-Royce: Britain 's lonely high-flier, Jan 8th 2009). In the year 1960, Rolls Royce faced fierce competition from a company called Pratt & Whitney. Pratt & Whitney were leaders of the industry, holding 90% of the market share. Whereas, Rolls Royce’s catered to a fairly small European market as they lacked the resources and technology. Hence, their operations were not aligned

Rolls Royce’s new engine designs offered exactly that and proved to be an ‘order qualifier’. The design was an advantage for all airline companies as they could consider entering exclusive deals with Rolls- Royce for their various airline models and could possibly benefit from generous discounts as a result of bulk orders. And this in turn would lead to repeated business for Rolls-Royce giving them a competitive advantage of being the preferred engine manufacturer. (Rolls-Royce: Britain 's lonely high-flier, Jan 8th 2009) Rolls-Royce’s innovative idea of ‘Power by the hour’ is a true example of an order winner. Most airline companies try and avoid responsibilities associated with projecting costs for maintenance and equipment break down. They prefer service providers doing it and this is precisely what Rolls-Royce offered through ‘Power by the hour’. The program qualifies as an ‘order winner ‘ for multiple reasons, firstly, the risk is transferred from the customer to Rolls Royce, secondly, Rolls-Royce will strive for more preemptive maintenance and offer better designs and lastly, the customer receives an economic benefit by saving un-necessary costs. Hence, ‘Power by the hour’ gives Rolls-Royce one more competitive advantage. (Netessine, 2014) Another order winner is the ‘in service remote engine monitoring’, these are a set of integrated services through which Rolls Royce provides engine management and predictive maintenance for over 3,500 jet engines globally. (Rolls-Royce: Britain 's lonely high-flier, Jan 8th 2009) The services help to collect data that helps with preventing failures, planning schedules, extending asset life and other such things. Hence, it offers total care and increases reliability, an aspect that is greatly valued by customers. (Rolls-Royce,