Martin Marietta's Coutts takes lead

Who is this guy, Bob Coutts?

Is he the future of Martin Marietta Corp.'s Middle River complex, or the person chosen to write the final chapter in the history of a once-proud plant that served as the backbone of the nation's aerospace industry?

This is what the 1,400 workers at the Aero and Naval Systems division are wondering as they nervously await word on where, or if, they will fit into the proposed merger of Martin Marietta and Lockheed Corp.

The questions also haunt Robert B. Coutts, the stocky, 42-year-old executive who recently took over the corner office at the sprawling Middle River complex where Glenn L. Martin had his desk for more than two decades.

Mr. Coutts is a straight-talking, down-to-earth, mechanical engineer with a strong background in manufacturing. Martin Marietta dispatched him to Middle River in late August to fix a troubled production operation that is losing money and facing one of its biggest financial crises since it was saved from bankruptcy by the Korean War in the early 1950s.

The plant opened in 1929 and for many years served as the company's primary manufacturing center and corporate headquarters.

It once employed 53,000 workers and turned out such well-known aircraft as the China Clipper that opened the world to commercial aviation in the 1930s; the B-26 Marauder bombers that helped turn the tide of battle during World War II, and the Titan rockets that powered the two-man Gemini spacecrafts into orbit.

When asked directly if his assignment includes phasing out Middle River, Mr. Coutts, vice president and general manager of the division, doesn't hesitate in response.

"No!" But he is just as quick to add: "That may or may not end up being the case. But, that is not why I was sent here. Not at all.

"I guess if you want to say Bob Coutts was the guy brought in to do something, I think as much as anything, I was the guy sent in to make sure we get this Pratt and Whitney program out of development and into production."

The plant is producing a new line of composite thrust reversers as a subcontractor to Pratt and Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. Thrust reversers, parts of jet engines, act as brakes to slow down aircraft after they land.

The $300 million contract from Pratt and Whitney is one of Middle River's biggest programs. It accounts for about a third of its thrust reverser business. The plant also makes reversers used on jet engines made by General Electric Co.

Design and production problems with the Pratt and Whitney program are being blamed for the unprofitable operations of Middle River this year. While the company does not issue financial results for the local plant, insiders say it has had a checkered existence in recent years and has not been a big contributor to corporate earnings.

Mr. Coutts is counting on his manufacturing experience to turn around the Middle River plant.

"I'm a production background person," he said.

His strengths contrast sharply with the scientific background of his predecessor, William F. Ballhaus Jr., the respected aerospace engineer who headed the Middle River division from April 1993 until late August of this year.

Without criticizing Mr. Ballhaus, who was recently designated a top executive of the proposed Lockheed Martin Corp., insiders in the company say that he was not the right person for the job in Baltimore.

They see Mr. Coutts differently.

"Bob Coutts is the right person at the right time for Aero & Naval Systems," said Thomas A. Corcoran, president of Martin Marietta Electronics Group.

He said Mr. Coutts has the production skills that are needed plus a management style "that stresses cooperation, candid

communications and a can-do spirit."

Donald Carson, a spokesman for the Middle River plant, describes Mr. Coutts as "a person who knows his way around the factory floor. He knows the machines and what they do. He understands most of the operations out in the factory and can talk to workers about their jobs.

"He likes to interact with workers, pick up on their concerns. He walks through the plant with his shirt sleeves rolled up and he'll stop and ask people, 'What's going on?' He's a high-energy guy who never sits still. He likes to get involved. He likes solving problems."

Others who have worked with Mr. Coutts, including union representatives here and at a plant in Syracuse, N.Y., where Mr. Coutts headed manufacturing before coming to Baltimore, describe him as "a straight-shooter" who is honest with workers.

"He will tell you the way it is," said Kenneth Miles, bargaining chairman for Local 738 of the United Auto Workers union, which represents factory workers at Middle River. "You feel like he's someone you can trust. You can't say that about some of the others that have had that job."

Mr. Coutts came to Martin Marietta in 1993 as a result of the company's $3 billion acquisition of General Electric Corp.'s aerospace division.