Rolls-Royce Holdings plc’s engine-durability crisis has worsened after the company detected new issues that will require extra repair shop visits on a further batch of turbines that power Boeing Co’s 787 airliner.
The glitch concerns a pressure compressor on “Package B” Trent 1000 engines for the wide-body plane, London-based Rolls-Royce said in a statement on Monday last week. Shares of the UK company, which is expected to announce thousands of job cuts this week as part of a restructuring plan, fell as much as 2.2 percent.
Following an agreement with Boeing and safety regulators, some 166 engines that are potentially affected will undergo a one-time inspection to assess the extent of the problem, Rolls-Royce said. Package B turbines have been in service since 2012, with evidence of excessive wear detected on a small number of the most-used units, it added.
Photo: AFP
照片:法新社
While the check-up visits will incur “some additional cost,” Rolls-Royce stood by its 2018 free cash-flow estimate of 450 million pounds (US$604 million), plus or minus 100 million pounds. The reiteration takes into account increased servicing of Package C engines, where the glitch was originally detected, as well as mitigating actions being taken across the group, the company said.
About 80 percent of the Package C engine version have undergone initial checks for cracking or signs of wear and tear on turbine blades, a person with knowledge of the issue has said. Just under a third of those engines failed the initial inspections required by regulators for planes that fly more than 2 hours and 20 minutes from the nearest diversionary airport.
Chief Executive Officer Warren East has said Rolls-Royce will reduce discretionary spending to offset the additional funds needed for overhauls and to keep to a key target of reaching 1 billion pounds in free cash flow by 2020.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
照片:維基共享資源
The company is due to unveil more sweeping measures devised by turnaround consultants Alvarez & Marsal at a capital markets day on Friday. It could cut as many as 5,000 jobs, according to a note from JP Morgan published May 31, which said analysis of restructuring programs at seven comparable businesses over the past decade suggests 10 percent of the payroll may be eliminated.
East, who has already scrapped thousands of posts and earmarked the group’s marine unit for disposal since taking charge in 2015, said on May 10 that the cull will concern middle management and back-office staff in the engineers’ human resources, finance, IT, legal and marketing departments.
“We are proposing to move to a considerably simplified staff structure, with fewer layers and greater spans of control across the group,” a spokesman said last Monday.
(Bloomberg)
勞斯萊斯集團的發動機耐用性危機持續惡化。該公司日前再度偵測到新的引擎相關問題,必須再進廠維修,對波音公司787客機提供動力的另一批渦輪發動機進行檢測。
總部位於倫敦的勞斯萊斯上週一發布聲明,表示這個技術性小問題與川特1000 B型發動機上的壓縮機有關,該型號的發動機主要用於波音787廣體客機。作為重組計畫的一部分,這家英國公司預期還會宣布裁減上千名員工,導致股價跌幅多達百分之二‧二。
勞斯萊斯表示,公司和波音以及飛安監管機構簽署協議後,將對可能受到影響的一百六十六台發動機進行一次性檢查,以評估問題的嚴重程度。該公司補充說,B型渦輪發動機從二○一二年起服役至今,在最常使用的零件中,有小部份數量在檢測後發現有過度耗損的跡象。
儘管這些檢查行程將造成「些許額外的開支」,勞斯萊斯仍會堅守二○一八年度預估四億五千萬英鎊(六億零四百萬美金)的自由現金流,增減幅度約為一億英鎊。該公司表示,此回的重申聲明已算入增加的C型發動機維修服務開銷,以及範圍涵蓋整個集團的緩和措施。這個小型技術性問題最初就是在C型發動機上被檢測出來。
根據一位掌握相關消息的人士指出,大約有百分之八十的C型發動機已經進行初步故障檢查,以檢測是否有裂痕,或渦輪葉片是否有耗損跡象。有接近三分之一的發動機並未通過飛安機構要求的初步檢測,無法達到從最近備降機場飛行超過兩個小時又二十分鐘的條件。
勞斯萊斯執行長華倫‧伊斯特表示,該公司將會減少權衡性開支,以抵銷引擎大修所需的額外資金,並維持在二○二○年度自由現金流達到十億英鎊的關鍵目標。
在週五的資本市場日,該公司預計將揭露更多由週轉顧問奧邁企業所策劃的大規模措施。根據摩根大通五月三十一日發布的消息指出,勞斯萊斯可能會裁減多達五千個工作。摩根大通也表示,根據近十年來七間可供比較的公司所進行重整計畫的分析,勞斯萊斯公司有可能刪減百分之十的薪酬支出。
自二○一五年上任之後,伊斯特已經廢除了公司數千個職位,並且撥出該集團的海運部門以供出售。伊斯特曾於五月十日表示,此回裁員影響的層面包括工程師人力資源相關的中階管理與後勤部門員工,以及財務、資訊科技、法規務、行銷等部門。
公司發言人在上週一表示:「我們打算逐步轉為一個簡化許多的員工結構,層級將會變少,涵蓋整個集團的控制範圍將會變大。」
(台北時報章厚明譯)
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Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce Ltd was co-founded in 1904 by engineer Sir Frederick Royce and motoring and aviation pioneer Charles Rolls. The company initially manufactured cars, which quickly became famous for the high quality of their engineering in addition to the quietness and smoothness of their ride.
After the outbreak of World War I, Rolls-Royce began to manufacture aero engines at the request of the British government. Aero engine development continued between the wars and during World War II the company’s Merlin piston engine became one of the most successful aircraft engines of its time, powering aircraft such as the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.
In 1971 Rolls-Royce went into receivership and was nationalized by the British government following financial problems caused mainly by the development of a new RB211 turbofan jet engine.
The car division was split off from the rest of the company to become a publicly listed company — Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd — which continues to manufacture luxury cars to this day. The remaining nationalized company was eventually privatized in 1987 and renamed Rolls-Royce plc, before being incorporated as Rolls-Royce Holdings plc in 2011. Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is today the world’s second-largest manufacturer of aircraft engines.
By Edward Jones, Taipei Times
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into