For airlines around the world, fleet maintenance is increasingly challenging. In the United States, for instance, airlines have endured a 15 percent increase in maintenance costs over the past five years. Meanwhile, there’s been a 14 percent increase in the share of flights delayed. This has raised the pressure on already thin margins in a competitive industry.
Although maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) organizations endeavor to provide efficient aircraft maintenance while controlling costs, traditional levers such as lean management and enhanced scheduling are becoming insufficient amid a shifting industry landscape. New approaches are needed.
MROs may accelerate improvements through AI-powered solutions that have the potential to enable better performance—helping, for example, to predict maintenance needs so proper labor-and-materials resources will be on hand and then sequencing tasks for maximum efficiency. To seize this digital advantage, MROs should become comfortable with adopting technology that could disrupt the status quo. Some might be weary of hype about digital capabilities, feeling that associated results did not materialize in the past, but more than ever it is now possible to capitalize on modern advancements in technology and analytics.
To understand the shifting digital environment within aerospace MROs, we conducted a global survey of the industry in 2023, asking 45 executives and managers at MRO organizations around the world about the current state of and future aspirations for their companies’ digital efforts. These findings show that while MROs are bullish on the impact that digital might have on their operations, they need to undertake fundamental digital transformations in order to fully realize those gains. They might not know how to start, feel they lack the in-house technology skills to execute on digital priorities, fear that their largely paper-based industry does not generate enough digital data to make a transformation worthwhile, or all of the above. But the survey results also suggest that making digital development a priority—while injecting fresh talent who can help execute on digital’s promise—could offer significant benefits and aid MRO organizations in their efforts to push the industry forward.
Only a limited number of MRO organizations have thus far integrated digital solutions at scale, but the benefits for those that have are evident in these survey results. The survey also indicates a clear consensus that digital advances will be crucial in achieving new levels of business and operational performance over the next five years. The following steps can help MRO organizations start down the path to digital integration:
- aligning senior leadership on a focused digital aspiration—with an accompanying road map that is closely tied to achieving value
- identifying a technology leader to attract talent who can unite tech, business, and operations in a reimagined, integrated enterprise
- institutionalizing governance of the transformation, putting a team in charge that can reinforce priorities, establishing a rigorous cadence, and holding the organization accountable for achieving planned outcomes
Realizing the full value of modern digital solutions could require MROs to inject new talent into the organization, invest in new capabilities, and embrace a new way of working. As the industry faces evolving challenges such as supply chain complexity, talent shortages, and rising competitive pressures, MRO organizations that can add advanced digital solutions to their tool kits could be well positioned to succeed.
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