"ONE MAN MAKES NO TEAM""Military Industrial Courier", 07.12.2005
RESOURCES CONCENTRATION TO DEVELOP NEW MARKET SEGMENTS
Leonid Belykh, General Director of Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant JSC (UUAP), shares his views on establishing an integrated helicopter structure and discusses the pros and cons of enterprises merge into a single helicopter group.
PERSONAL FILE
Leonid BELYKH
He was born in Buryatia on 23 November, 1950. After graduating from the Ulan-Ude Aviation Technical School in 1969 he entered the aircraft plant, the operation shop as assembling fitter. He rose from the rank of production foreman to Deputy General Director on Marketing and Sales and he was voted Director General of UUAP at the general meeting of shareholders in 1998. Continuing to work he graduated from the Higher School of Trade Union Motion and Leningrad Academy of Civil Aviation. He is a Doctor of Economics. He runs the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of the Republic of Buryatia and he is a board member of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. He was awarded the “Order of Honor" for the production of new combat helicopter type in 2004. He is also conferred the honorific title "Emeritus Worker of Industry of the Republic of Buryatia".
- Leonid Yakovlevich, UUAP bears the title of the best Russian exporter in the aviation sector for three years. How did the plant develop in the first half of 2005?
- The major task we pursued to attain in 2005, in its first half, in particular, was to lay the foundations for medium-term development of the plant. Sales volume and profit are certainly vital factors, but to achieve stable economic growth during a long period one should sometimes sacrifice short-term gains. Nevertheless I should mention that in the first half of 2005 we did not neglect these economic gains and kept them at the level required for stable work of the plant.
It is clear that the main achievement of the plant in the first half of the year is the completion of Mi-171À helicopter certification procedure in Brazil that actually opened for us the entire market of Latin America. I suppose the Brazil Aviation Register is the most authoritative register in the region and our plant jointly with “Mil” Moscow Helicopter Plant JSC had to make considerable efforts for successful completion of the certification procedure lasted for seven years. We achieved one more goal – we delivered the first Mi-171A helicopter to a private operator in Brazil.
In the first half of the year we also managed to expand the geography of our helicopter operators and, consequently, we laid foundations for further promotion of the helicopters in the most advanced markets – Europe and South-East Asia. Jointly with Federal State Unitary Enterprise (FSUE) “Rosoboronexport” we began delivery of the Mi-171Sh helicopters to Czechia under one of the major European helicopter contracts in 2005. We managed to deliver several Mi-171 helicopters to South-East Asia, our new operator in accordance with the helicopter tender we had won. Besides, we began to produce helicopters for another new operator of the region in the second quarter (helicopters were shipped in October).
We made considerable progress in establishing service centers abroad in the first half of 2005. We opened our representative office in Sharjah (UAE) to use it as a base for establishing a service center and consignment spare parts warehouse in 2006.
We also managed to accelerate our work in the field of aircraft building. The state tests of the Su-39 fighter are nearly completed, FSUE “Rosoboronexport” schedules to organize delivery of the Su-25UBK fighters abroad. All these factors offer good medium term as well as long term opportunities.
- The helicopter holding is as good as formed. What pros and cons of such consolidation do you see as the General Director of one of the major Russian helicopter manufacturing plants?
- Establishment of integrated helicopter structure was inspired by the impelling need rather than by the spirit of the times. Being alone you can only survive but to make progress you should pool all your efforts. If we concentrate all our manufacturing, financial and intellectual resources, we will gain an opportunity to develop and introduce jointly new helicopter types, to solve effectively issues of production and to develop new market segments. It is of crucial importance that while working in the holding we solve such major problem as elimination of competition between Russian enterprises in the markets worldwide. Practice shows that this problem leads to losses only. As a result we will be able to increase our competition capacity in the global market and to achieve most efficiency of work of each holding member.
- What niche, in your opinion, must Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant occupy in the production structure of the helicopter holding?
- Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant will be undoubtedly one of the principal members of the holding and I am sure that later on it will remain an enterprise that covers the entire helicopter production cycle.
For 66 years of work there has been developed a unique production system in the plant. This system embodies the experience of cooperation with almost all Aviation Design Bureaus of the former USSR. We are among those few enterprises that use aircraft production technology in helicopter production process. It is necessary to keep all these traditions and to use them in the production process of existing helicopter types as well as new ones.
Notwithstanding that Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant is an equal member of the holding, it will play a special role. This role results from the fact that the plant manufactures both rotorcraft and aircraft. The field of aircraft production is now actively developed and it is of strategic importance not only for the plant, but also for our country, as Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant is the only manufacturer of Sukhoi fighters in Russia.
- What are the main trends of further modernization of Ìè-8/171 helicopters produced by Ulad-Ude Aviation Plant?
- The main trends of modernization of helicopters produced by the plant are determined by potential customers. In this field we work on a number of projects such as: improvement of Mi-171 powerplant (installment of VK-2500 engines, Safir and Ta-14 APU), installation of new integrated flight and navigation suite with display indication. We have already delivered abroad several batches of Mi-171Sh helicopters equipped with Safir APU. The specialists could become familiar with the integrated flight and navigation suite of Mi-171 helicopter at the MAKS-2005 Air Show, where it was displayed in the full-scale mock-up of the cockpit.
- How do you solve the problems of helicopter after-sales support?
- We are currently working on new types of after-sales support. It means establishment of regional service centers and consignment spare parts warehouses. Several months ago Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant opened its representative office in the UAE, that is responsible for organizing regional service centers in Sharjah. We schedule to open it next year, it will render all types of maintenance and repair of Mi-8 and Mi-171 helicopters, pilots and technicians training and delivery of spare parts. The center will be established within the framework of unified services network concept worked out by the members of the holding.
- As you mentioned earlier, the special feature of UUAP production system is the use of aircraft production technologies and quality requirements for helicopter production. Could you dwell on this special feature? What are the benefits of this approach?
- Aircraft production technologies and requirements are higher than those required for helicopter production. The result of their introduction is evident in every process beginning with the preparation of production process and finishing with qualification of workers and engineers. In the manufacture of helicopters we use the methods of installation and manufacture of tooling tested on the aircraft - the number of the machined parts on the aircraft is considerably more than that on the helicopter. As a result we have a large park of numerically controlled machine tools and it is much easier to transfer processing of parts from the general-purpose equipment to NC machine tools.
In the manufacture of helicopters we use more complex and more qualitative aircraft technological methods of production of similar parts and units and we attempt to unify materials, parts, designs of helicopters with those of aircraft. The greater number of tests and inspections is conducted in the process of aircraft production; it requires high qualification of engineers who can use their skills in the production of helicopters. There are still many nuances I can point out.
- At what stage is the production assimilation program of the Su-39 fighter?
- As we know, the Su-39 fighter is a derivative of the famous "Gratch" (Rook) Su-25 fighter. Our plant has been produced its training-combat version – Su-25UB operational trainer and Su-25UTG trainer.
At present the UUAP has proceeded to the production of the first Su-25UBM upgraded operational trainer with new avionics. This equipment ensures all-weather capability and 24-hour of tactical employment, improves attack efficiency of ground and overwater objects due to improvement of precision characteristics of air ordnance delivery. After its production the aircraft will be subject to the state tests.
We schedule production of the second Su-25UBM aircraft, which will participate in the state tests program. We also intend to upgrade the operating Su-25UB aircraft fleet to the Su-25UBM version. After completion of Su-25UBM state tests the plant can proceed to series production of this aircraft.
With regard to the Su-39 aircraft our plant produced two Su-39 fighters for the state tests. The state-of-the-art airborne equipment installation program is now realized on the aircraft. After modernization the state tests also will be continued at the plant. We plan to carry out this work in the near opportunity. I can say that the plant is now ready to carry out series production of the Su-25UBM aircraft and the Su-39 aircraft.
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