The digital revolution of MRO

Clara Bullock spoke to MRO operators and air ambulances about their experiences with the rapid transformation in digital MRO

The use of digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, AR/VR, digital twins, and 3D printing to perform maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations are referred to as digital MRO. These technologies increase the efficiency of operations and reduce turnaround time.

Having a digital MRO strategy is no longer peripheral to an aviation business – it is becoming central to core strategies of organizations, helping them to gain a competitive edge over others. Having the right tool to automate data ingestion, parsing it, and managing various versions of the document, amongst other tasks, can reduce indirect costs by more than 70 per cent.

Nothing is changing the MRO industry and driving the development of new solutions more than digitalization. It is the biggest game changer of this decade. With 50-times more data generated by new aircraft types, and approximately 50 per cent of airline operating costs consisting directly or indirectly of MRO services – further cost reduction can only be accomplished through MRO and operational optimization driven by digitalization.
According to a Market Research Future report, the global digital MRO market is expected to register a 12-per-cent annual growth during the forecast period 2019-2030. The report says: “Digitalization will help the industry to create a continuous stream of data flowing through different levels of the supply chain. The digital transformation in the aviation industry substantially impacts all areas of the supply chain of the industry such as air traffic management, aircraft operations, and aircraft and component manufacturing and servicing.”

No further major cost savings potentials are expected before the next aircraft generation, with new physical technologies introduced after 2030, says German MRO provider Lufthansa Technik.
AVIATAR is Lufthansa Technik’s digital MRO system. Frank Martens, Senior Director of Sales for AVIATAR and Digital Products at Lufthansa Technik AG, told AirMed&Rescue: “From the beginning, our goal has been to provide global access on the conditions and let our customers benefit from faster and more efficient troubleshooting, visualize all relevant indicators regarding aircraft status and flight schedule, and combine health data with work orders and position data – resulting in improved time management, reduced severity of incidents, and minimized ground time and costs.

“At the same time, it is key for Lufthansa Technik to allow all players in aviation and especially airlines to have access to an open, neutral and modular digital platform, which lets them stay in control of their data. In the past few years, several airlines have chosen AVIATAR for this reason. Just recently, United Airlines and Sichuan Airlines have signed up for AVIATAR, which is easy to implement, offers open interfaces for all aircraft types and is independent of airframers, OEMs and MROs.”

The evolution of health monitoring systems in HEMS

For helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) providers, health monitoring systems have historically – almost like cell phones – been very heavy pieces of equipment, which included the need for manual processes and could result in false positives. In the 80s, operators needed specialists to interpret data, which was connected to high costs and little independence. That’s where GPMS saw an opportunity to ‘democratize the tech’: they were one of the companies making dramatic changes to onboard kit, improving the sensitivity rate and reducing weight. In the end, their tech was smaller and cheaper, making it accessible to everyone. The first system was installed in a lightweight Bell 407 – earlier, these systems could only be used in heavy offshore helicopters.

Andrew Swayze, Head of Marketing & Strategy at GPMS, explained: “Nowadays, the star of the show is the algorithm, showing trending information – detecting instances far in advance, pinpoint and diagnose what’s going on – we can tell you exactly what’s going on inside.”The algorithm allows a predictive system – warning operators in time for important maintenance. This gives the maintainer an opportunity to get ahead of these issues and not have a grounded aircraft due to an unforeseen mechanical issue.

“If you’re a maintainer, you can use the system to do schedule-based maintenance and get supplemental information and identify unscheduled maintenance,” said Swayze. “At the end of every flight, we offer the maintainer an optimised tuning, which improves fuel savings and long-term health of the airframe, because it’s undergoing less strain.”

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Tim Alden, Commercial Partner and Special Projects Director at Rusada, details how the ENVISION MRO aviation software aims to meet the aviation sector’s complex needs without compromising functionality and useability.

ENVISION functionality is said to meet three key areas: airworthiness, MRO, and flight operations. How do you ensure useability and user comfort when meeting so many priorities?

Aviation is a very complex, data rich environment, so our job is to make sure customers, who will each have a different focus, can monitor and action their responsibilities in a timely manner. So as not to overload the user with irrelevant information, ENVISION allows users to create personalised dashboards that monitor and alert them of any changes of state or exceeded thresholds.

From a development side, each functional area of ENVISION is managed by product owners recruited from and responsible for that specialisation in the industry. All modules are highly adept at handling the individual challenges while retaining the same experience as the system, allowing users to easily switch areas when the need arises. This grants users the benefits of multi-discipline software, such as increased visibility, de-duplication of effort, higher data integrity.

In March 2021, CEO Julian Stourton stated that ENVISION’s focus would be to meet the aviation industry’s more complex needs. How does this focus enable ENVISION to better support its aviation audience’s priorities?

To truly handle aviation’s intricacies and nuances, you need highly specialised software. Some software providers attempt to alter their generic ERP solutions to try and make them fit for aviation. This rarely works well – there’s only so much that can be changed without it affecting users in other industries. Our approach is to focus purely on aviation so as to meet the most complex challenges faced by aircraft operators and maintainers.

An example of this is a customer who has a core control at helicopter type level and the ability to track individual airframes dedicated to specialised operations – medevac, surveillance, patient transport, Covid isolation – with STC equipment that can also be monitored for usage should the certificate require it. It is scenarios such as this where more generic solutions would struggle.

ENVISION is deployed by customers across 40 countries. What are the challenges in ensuring the software can meet the regional regulatory in a global industry?

This is not as onerous a task as you may imagine. ENVISION can manage multiple programs with differing approvals within the same database, as this is essential to our customers supporting global fleets. The real challenge comes at the early phase of implementation trying to interpret the needs of the organisation who may well be driven by the local demands of their airworthiness surveyor.

We can demonstrate and offer variations in documentation based on the experiences of our extensive customer base and can often find a pre-existing solution to their critical operational reports. The various modules of ENVISION have evolved through feedback from customers far and wide. We have developed the multi-region, multi-base, multi-currency, multi-worktime and multi-flight time duty limitation rules in such a way that customers themselves can mould the solution to their needs.

Investment in digital MRO services is needed, said Martens, because ultimately, that investment pays off several fold: “MRO services will come with reduced costs and increased efficiency as well as automated processes. Reducing fuel consumption through modifications during MRO events will further lower fuel costs and the carbon footprint. Digital partnerships with other players in the aviation industry and advanced digital engineering solutions are further making an impact.”

The system also makes selling or buying used aircraft easier – every minute the aircraft has ever flown is recorded, making it valuable information for a potential buyer. Swayze said brokers have contacted them before to say that their system was key to selling aircraft.

Digital MRO from an air medical perspective

Air ambulance service Air Alliance has an in-house European Aviation Safety Agency-approved MRO service, and additionally offers a wide range of services to other customers for a variety of aircraft. Eva Kluge, Chief Commercial Officer at Air Alliance, says digitalization means efficiency and transparency for the business. She adds that the key factor for an air ambulance service is that increasing digitalization of MRO will reduce aircraft downtime.
Kluge argued that streamlining the existing processes and switching to faster and more efficient digital processes is essential to maintain the company’s competitive ability for the next decades.

“Available digital data required for providing the maintenance services should be instantly available to the competent departments throughout the company, without the need of avoidable or necessary manual interactions,” Kluge told AirMed&Rescue. “Though technically and functionally completely different, the basic principles and EASA rules for maintaining a helicopter are the same as for a fixed-wing aircraft; therefore, there is no appreciable difference.”
Air Alliance recently decided to implement a new and more comprehensive MRO software as part of its future digitization strategy.

Looking to the future

Saravanan Rajarajan, Head of Aviation Consulting at Ramco, believes the future of digital MRO lies in 5G technologies. “We believe the confluence of AI, advanced analytics, mobile and 5G technologies will be game changers and enable MROs to achieve higher operational efficiencies. This may involve bringing together ERP systems, electronic flight bags, mobile and wearable technologies, embedded IoT and seamlessly interlinked external systems. By embracing these technological advancements, MROs are well poised to operate efficiently with the resources they have.”

Kluge added: “Streamlining the existing processes and switching to faster and more efficient digital processes is essential to maintain our competitive ability for the next decades.”
With the digital landscape changing as fast as it does, and subsequent adaption from industry, there seems to be no end to the imagination of where digital MRO could go in the future. Either way, the aviation industry seems set to become more efficient and safer as digital MRO grows.