The text below has been machine translated.
Experts: Competition between engineering schools must be maintained in the UAC's unified aviation cluster
Mar 18, 17:21
The UAC's corporate aircraft building center, which will include Sukhoi and MiG, will consolidate the functions of managing aircraft programs, and will also become the managing organization for Tupolev, Ilyushin and Irkut corporation
MOSCOW, March 18. / TASS /. Competition between creative engineering teams should be preserved when creating
a unified aviation engineering and design center of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in Moscow, which will include the Sukhoi and MiG companies. This opinion was expressed to TASS by the executive director of the branch information and analytical agency "Aviaport" Oleg Panteleev.
"There is a potential for increasing efficiency, for reducing costs, and this opportunity should be taken advantage of. But at the same time, while carrying out reforms, it is really important to preserve both design schools and the internal competition of creative engineering teams," Panteleev said.
He stressed that, if we talk about military aviation, it is fundamentally important that the UAC could develop, produce, and modernize the entire line of combat aircraft that the Russian Ministry of Defense needs and, importantly, that is in demand on the world market and can be exported.
“From this point of view, it is important that the UAC retained the competencies that both Sukhoi and MiG Corporation had and still have. In recent decades, Sukhoi had experience in heavy fighters, MiG had experience in light fighters and air intercept systems, that is, interceptor aircraft. It would be important that these competencies are not lost within the framework of the merger of companies, "explained the executive director of Aviaport.
With regard to eliminating duplication in auxiliary areas of activity, such as accounting, "it can be assumed with a high degree of probability that this will not lead to the extinction of one or another design school," the expert noted. “As a result, even within the framework of one company, it is possible to organize the internal creative competition of engineering teams so that the sound and strongest ideas can be implemented,” Panteleev said.
The expert noted that it is necessary to determine whether the potential of the savings declared by Rostec from optimization of 130 billion rubles exceeds the possible risks. "If you do the transformation wisely: consult with labor collectives, take such measures that will not force engineers to run in search of a better life for other enterprises, then everything becomes obvious. You can, of course, recall the well-known principle that 80% of value is created by 20% of specialists. , but it must be stated that in general, alas, our aviation industry has already gone through such a "drying out" of personnel that the "extra" 80% went away 20 years ago, "he stressed.
Brands need to be preserved
In turn, Honored Pilot of Russia, Major General Vladimir Popov, fears that the merger of design bureaus may lead to the loss of the factor of competition and, as a result, to the extinction of the aviation brands famous all over the world since Soviet times.
"It is not worth uniting like this hastily and to please the western directions of economic development. There was a good tendency in the Soviet and now Russian aviation industry, when the main design bureaus were divided, which are branded in our country and which were known all over the world," the expert said ...
According to him, a metered approach is needed. “Competition is not just about ripping an order out of the throat of one or the other. planes. Let them do it. There will be more benefits, "he explained.
"If the people who create [the airplanes] are proud to be numbered among the saints [designers] Yakovlev, Ilyushin, Sukhoi, then there will be a result," the expert said.
Design bureaus will remain autonomous
The editor-in-chief of the portal Avia.ru Roman Gusarov told TASS that the change in the structure of the UAC will significantly improve the result of its activities. "The structure of the UAC shows insufficient efficiency - there are effective subdivisions, and there are those whose activities do not give the desired results. The request for optimization of the corporation has been hanging for a long time, and this work should be started," Gusarov said.
Among the possible advantages of optimizing the UAC - improving the structure, getting rid of duplicate assets and optimizing the management and service personnel, the expert believes. "The design bureaus themselves (design bureaus) will still remain autonomous, because each design bureau has its own specialization and they conduct their own projects.
Design bureaus will not be reduced and will remain within the updated structure," Gusarov said.
Optimization will also improve the productivity and quality of labor at UAC enterprises. "Automation and modernization are underway at aircraft factories, machining centers are replacing locksmiths. As a result, productivity increases, wages increase," Gusarov said.
A possible negative aspect of modernization could be a reduction in the number of UAC personnel, the expert added. "Some people will have to leave, there will be a reduction in support services and redundant units," he said.
Similar processes took place in the aircraft industry in Europe and America, Gusarov emphasized. "Once Europe united and created Airbus, and now this company accounts for up to half of the world civil aircraft market," the expert noted.
Unified aviation engineering cluster
Earlier, the press service of the state corporation "Rostec" with reference to the general director of UAC Yuri Slyusar reported that the total optimization effect from the creation of a unified aviation engineering and design center of the UAC in Moscow, which will include the companies "Sukhoi" and "MiG", should be up to 130 billion rubles.
The UAC's corporate aircraft building center, which will include Sukhoi and MiG, will
consolidate the functions of managing aircraft programs, and will also become the managing organization for Tupolev, Ilyushin and the Irkut corporation.
Rostec said that the optimization will not affect the engineering and design personnel. Design schools will remain independent, receive new opportunities for development, as well as improved working conditions in the format of the Unified Engineering and Design Center.
