Business Communication and Influence (BCI) for Engineers

BCI Case Study – “Anti-lock Brake Systems (ABS)” for Airplanes

For questions, contact pfillmor@uottawa.ca
Introduction
You are an Engineering Team member at WOW Engineering Corp. (founded as “World of Wheels” Engineering)
This Case looks at a significant safety concern, and a superb technical solution, Anti-lock Brake Systems (ABS).
These solutions combine the engineering talents of
mechanical, materials, electrical engineers and others to
achieve compelling safety advantages. Use your
imagination and have fun as you consider the business
aspects of this real-world engineering challenge!

The Early Market for Anti-lock Brakes – Potential Buyers

In the early days of anti-lock brakes, when the technology
was new and expensive, commercial aircraft were the first
target market. Engineers and design teams who had
crafted these early devices needed to communicate with
managers at airlines who had only slight awareness of the capabilities. They had to find ways to influence
these managers by discovering information about their business, specific multiple problems that could be
solved, and how solution of those problems could lead to buying drivers for the expensive new technology.

The Problem – Situation at a small airline (“Nordair”)

When an aircraft lands on a rainy, windy day, it may experience hydroplaning on the wet runway surface, and
have difficulty staying on the runway. For every airline the scope of the problem is different. In the case of
Nordair, they have had 2 off-runway incidents each year
on average for the last 3 years, enough for them to have
concerns, and agree to meet with you and your team.
In discussions with your crusty, grey-haired engineering
Director (he reminds you of your BCI Prof), you have been
warned that potential buyers may focus on the technology
you offer and product features. However these topics
often end up revealing only “technical problems” (e.g.
plane slips off runway, cost of repair) and not revealing
the more subtle “business problems” (e.g. cost of lost
revenue, cost of reputation damage, etc…).
Hence as an engineering leader, you realize you will need
to elicit a lot of information about multiple problems and their implications for Nordair, and their impacts
across the whole company.

The Business Organization – Specialty Roles

Although the whole Nordair business will gain from the added safety of your “Skid-Guard” system, there is not
just one person or position who could see all the value you can bring.
There are several viewpoints among managers – and each does not necessarily know what the others know –
several key positions would be:

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 Business Communication and Influence (BCI) for Engineers

- Operations Director
- Maintenance Director
- Marketing Director
- Finance/Admin Director
Your meeting is with the Directors of Operations and Maintenance. Still, you sense a need to prepare
questions for all four of these key management areas.
About the Airline Company
The company is “Nordair”. They own and operate 20 small jets and serve mostly connections in the north of
Canada. Headquartered in Montreal, they fly out of Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Winnipeg and Calgary.
Most of their flights are going north to various towns in the north of Canada. Maintenance is done in Montreal.
They also lease aircraft to Sun Vacation companies to fly south to the Caribbean destinations popular with
Canadians during the winter. These leased aircraft situations are very important to the financial health of
Nordair, as they pay well, and keep the planes (8 of them) working during
the January-March winter season when their basic Canadian routes are
usually less busy.
Their 20 small jets each fly an average of 200 flights/year. They frequently
encounter rain, snow and ice on runways at Canadian airport
destinations. The average passenger load is 60 people per flight at $500
each of revenue. There is also some freight shipped on each flight north,
providing an average of $3000/flight of freight revenue. The gross revenue is offset by the costs of crew, fuel,
airport fees, maintenance, financing and insurance.
Your technical solution
Your Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), also known as anti-skid braking system, is
called “Skid-Guard” and has been developed over a 3-year period by your
company (WOW) working with the National Research Council. The major
components of your system include:
- Wheel rotation speed sensors
- Ultra-fast-responding brake calipers
- Rugged feedback control system
- Cabin communication with cockpit control (pictured)
A pilot project has been done with Air Canada, who have validated the safe,
consistent operation of your brake control subsystem on smaller jets. However
they are still not willing to deploy on all of their 200 aircraft, of various sizes.
To convince Nordair, cost is a factor, as your wheel control system has an average price of $10,000 per wheel
set (3 per aircraft). Thus your estimate of the fleet cost for Nordair would be $30,000 per aircraft x 20 planes =
$600,000. To justify this investment, you seek a deep understanding of all areas where your product can
deliver a solid benefit to Nordair – i.e. you need to discover all the Business Drivers and Takeaways, for all
aspects of their business.

Assignments for BCI Students (Specific assignments given separately)

In general, Team Case assignments will practice “So What … to TIRES” to uncover potential problems, and
- Create a question list to elicit deeper understanding of the buyer’s situation
- Imagine multiple Takeaways, for all the pertinent Buyer management roles

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