Press Release

Issued by Leonardo Helicopters.

March 2, 2015

Finmeccanica – AgustaWestland introduced significant changes in 2014 to its customer support and training services as the first of three stages of its “Service Excellence” project, part of the company vision revolving around the “ThinkCustomer” ethos. The first stage is now complete with the second and third stages to be implemented in 2015.

Excellence is being pursued in preventive maintenance optimisation, scheduling improvement and includes improvements in material delivery, more value delivered by AgustaWestland products and top class advanced services. The “Service Excellence” project is spanning support and training delivery performance and the way it is offered to customers, from the way operating costs are reduced to the last logistic step to deliver a spare part to the customers. This project encompasses not only the customer support and training function but all all company functions across the three macro-geographies (Italy, USA and UK) and more than 300 managers and specialists.

The project exploration stage took place between April and June 2014 with more than 40 customers dedicating time in assisting the company map their needs, and providing valuable suggestions into the improvements that are now being implemented. Customers are already benefitting from AgustaWestland's improved ability to meet delivery dates for all commercial aircraft models.

The company is heavily investing in improvements to supply chain and manufacturing plants with the results of this being reflected in meeting the Delivery Schedule Adherence (DSA) commitments made to the customers, improving in incremental steps in the coming months. Through these improvements, AgustaWestland continues to maintain its top class 24/7 AOG support from the three fleet operation centres located in Italy, US and UK. This guarantees 24 hour delivery time at its gates for all AOGs. DSA on urgent orders has increased to 75% and is being formalised and published in a new service policy for civil operators of AW109/119/139 and AW189 models. By 2015 year end, AgustaWestland anticipates a further major step forward with an increase of delivery performance to above 90% DSA.

A corresponding new service offering based on the service policy guarantees performance levels along with cost control and predictability. The level of performance will continue to improve as all high rotation parts are now delivered in 12 days for commercial aircraft models and will reach to six days during 2015.

Service Excellence is also focusing on improving maintenance services through both AgustaWestland service centres and third-party authorised service centres. An intensive lean activity, in collaboration with world class experts of maintenance operations, has achieved significant savings. These include a 25% reduction of time taken for major inspections at main AgustaWestland maintenance centres in Italy and USA. This will be rolled-out to all AgustaWestland network in 2015. The Cascina Costa and Philadelphia maintenance centres can now guarantee a 30% reduction in turn-around time for an AW139 600 flight hour/two year and 1200 flight hour/four year inspection, in comparison with the 2014 baseline. This is a result of a new methodology summarized in an internal best-practice handbook, which looks to impact the AgustaWestland service network in this year, for all the civil products.

A revised AW139 maintenance plan with 12% downtime reduction is being published in the first half of March. Up to 35% reduction of scheduled maintenance burden of AW139 is now in progress for 2015, with a plan to extend it concurrently to all of the AW family (AW189 and AW169).

To increase the transparency and communication levels with customers, CS&T issued a brand new Customer Support and Training Worldwide Directory in December 2014. AgustaWestland has continued to expand its 'Leonardo' customer portal, adding additional functionality and improvements, with further additions being implemented in the next few months.

In subsequent customer newsletters and on the new AgustaWestland website, the company will share the progress of the further performance improvements. AgustaWestland will also provide information and detail on some of the advanced services that form additional Service Excellence elements. These include: the introduction of the new E-commerce system, the new electronic flight planning tablet applications, the new HUMS services and a range of operational training solutions.

It is the company's intention in the coming months to make Service Excellence the normal process of supporting the customers, in order to provide sustainable performance to their day to day operations. AgustaWestland is continuing to listen and improve, to make sure that all of its customers achieve operational success.