A new generation of digitalisation is coming to maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), incorporating the technologies of Industry 4.0 into the safety-focussed and often technologically reticent aviation industry. We discussed this new wave — and its impacts — with executives from the Independent Aircraft Modifier Alliance (IAMA) and the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) for the strategic view from 40,000 feet.
The MRO industry is in some ways dependent on technology being adopted by others, as ARSA executive director Sarah MacLeod says. “MRO will follow the airline customer — or its partners — with respect to technologies.”
“The airline industry has systems for making real-time decisions, since it is driven by mandated safety parameters,” MacLeod tells us. “While technology can help, humans are the only ones that hold certificates from the agency and therefore are the only ones authorized to make certain decisions. As automation in tasks becomes more prevalent, the human will still play a role in aviation safety. System safety is also a responsibility of governments — for example, air traffic control. As long as the government is incapable of using the ‘latest’ technology, the industry will be stifled also.”
Indeed, the twin technology-driven meltdowns of Southwest Airlines and the US Federal Aviation Administration in late 2022 and early 2023 served to highlight some of the issues around the digitalisation of aviation, and how vital it is for all parts of the aviation industry to get technology right.
Digitising of paperwork and procedures will be a big win
In many ways, aviation is still a paper business, with many a sigh of frustration about archaic technology like dot matrix flight manifests or all-printed information like the enormous crates of paper documentation shipped with any aircraft transitioning between owner, operator or both. Aviation’s insistence on strong safety documentation is a strength, but the industry must work to develop digitised yet secure documentation options.
“As documentation is so important for MROs — and is also largely regulated by authorities — developments that are known from other industries or private business may take longer until they will be approved and implemented,” IAMA’s managing director Nina Schulz tells us.
“Digitisation will continue playing a major role,” she emphasises, but notes that, “however, digital applications — for material tracing, job card issuance and tracking, aircraft documentation storage, for example — will become more and more important. This will support transparency as well aircraft transitions.”
In addition to paperwork, the digitalisation of procedures is very much necessary. Many MRO operators are at the forefront here, with tablet-based tasking, manuals, guidance and other parts of the day-to-day job for engineers. By and large, though, connecting these systems with systems upstream within the MRO, let alone with customers, original equipment manufacturers [OEMs], suppliers of aircraft onboard systems and other key players has been complicated at best and impossible at worst.
Substantial work on industry-wide standards will need to safeguard intellectual property while maintaining the integrity of important safety-related information — and yet still be useful to technicians wielding tools on the hangar floor.
Some of this work will be propelled by the impetus from airframers, enginemakers and other OEMs, Schulz notes. “New aircraft types — new means of transportation — will drive and impact also the developments for the business that we have known for decades. Some general mechanics and processes especially related to the very core of aircraft have remained as they were. However, introduction of new materials and technologies also keep changing the MRO business.”
The more modularised approach to MRO taken in recent years, in both programming and the physical units removed and replaced rather than being serviced on-wing, is a further nuance. So are the shortening technology cycles, and so too is the nature of the aircraft itself.
As one example, Schulz cites “the change to carbon fibre material for aircraft fuselage or major structural parts. This requires a complete shift in procedures for repairs and even more involvement of the OEMs to assist with approvals and instructions.”
These approvals and instructions accrue with age, and despite the numerous pressures for younger — and more fuel efficient — fleets, aircraft are still flying for decades after departing from their original operator.
“The older the aircraft the harder and more expensive the retrofit,” summarises ARSA’s Sarah MacLeod. “However, independently producing a retrofit has become harder and harder: the more retrofits done, the more pieces that must fit together to ensure operational safety.”
“The manufacturers would be a good source of information on this account since they basically have a monopoly on the design information required to obtain approvals of the retrofits on newer aircraft,” she says.
This kind of information sourcing is often critical and can be complicated both to secure and manage. The OEMs, most of which now operate their own inhouse services businesses — often in competition with MRO houses or internal airline MRO operations — have, to some extent, an incentive against making matters clearer, simpler and more transparent, but they also have major responsibility for safety matters as OEMs.
Getting on board with Industry 4.0 needs more focus
Making the most of the Industry 4.0 revolution and its core technologies — here the trio of augmented, virtual and mixed reality, plus autonomy, robotics, cobotics, big data, analytics, additive manufacturing and 3D printing — will become increasingly important for MRO.
Key technologies and proceses to encompass here, ARSA’s McLeod says, include “self-diagnostics, test equipment, and use of VR [virtual reality] in training and tasks. For older aircraft, non-destructive testing techniques — and other diagnostic tools or machines — and VR in tasks and training,” will be crucial.
However, notes IAMA’s Schulz, “MRO planning still requires a lot of expert knowledge and expertise. Given the demographical and society challenges resulting in staff shortages, processes will require [MRO] to be quicker and less manpower intensive, so AI can support this greatly. Machine learning will support planning processes and ease MRO tasks.”
“Another layer of data usage,” Schulz notes, “is predictive maintenance. Digital applications collecting aircraft and MRO data will allow for more thorough planning in a proactive then rather reactive manner. This will result in optimised use of the respective assets, better material supply and reduced downtimes.”
Aviation needs to engage more closely with the technologies — and particularly synergies between the technologies — of Industry 4.0. Breaking down silos, accelerating standards development, making data ownership more transparent, and agreeing to work more closely together would all be excellent next steps.
Author: John Walton
Published 14th March 2023
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