Civil Aviation MRO - The pivotal role of mobile in a dramatically changing market

Nowhere is the use of smart devices more practical than in the aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) world: they offer more opportunity to leverage the huge investments made by businesses in enterprise support systems. With the civil aviation support industry changing rapidly and profit margins difficult to keep, new and different MRO demands need to be addressed. Here, Espen Olsen, European Director for Aerospace & Defence at IFS, comments on the opportunities mobile technology is offering.

The numbers of aircraft in service today is unprecedented and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) has evolved to become a major market within the aviation industry. New developments have to take into account increasingly competitive profit margins, extensive regulatory frameworks and passenger safety. With some statistics claiming that 99% of the revenue received per flight by airlines is needed simply to break even, MRO is more and more taking centre stage in the battle to keep airlines profitable, and one technology, mobile, is really going to drive innovation and profitability in this market.

Today’s generation of MRO engineers grew up with computers in the home, cell phones, and more recently smartphones and tablets, and are therefore well versed in how such technology works. In this age of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD), mobile applications can drive innovation in MRO.

New mobile applications combined with an agile ERP support solution, will enable MRO shops to keep up with the pace of change, helping them move forward and embrace further changes in the future while avoiding costly new software developments or extensive training. Here's how.

The pivotal change
Traditional MRO in civil aviation works with a lot of paper maintenance manuals – a mobile app offers these on a device in a technician’s pocket. These devices enable work to become more interactive, more interesting, and arguably more effective with the inclusion of videos and 360 degree rotational images. Similarly tablets are naturally adaptable to the support of general MRO. Portable and relatively robust, they also provide instant ability to take photographs of a specific part which needs repairing, as well as incorporating wearable technology.

It is the maintenance engineers on the ground who will benefit the most from this through opportunities will come in improving efficiency. Instead of assessing the situation, attempting to identify the specific manufacturer part number, returning to the warehouse to retrieve the relevant part and finding that it isn't currently in stock, engineers will be able to examine faults on an aircraft in real time using a mobile device to identify the asset, immediately ascertain whether it is available and arrange for someone to bring it to them in situ.

By giving the technician the ability to approve a work order, view stock availability or check repair history at the touch of a screen or button, mobile devices are maximising efficiencies and time savings in MRO and broader support processes.

Optimising Operations for business agility
Mobile devices offer a window to the broad based ERP software, its maintenance processes, sign-off, supply chain and configuration management. Businesses should look to extend and enhance their investments in ERP by integrating mobile apps as an extension of their full ERP suite, as opposed to a separate entity. In this way MRO providers can significantly improve efficiency, improve the accuracy of data captured, and dramatically simplify what is traditionally a slow, paper-based process.

The more holistic an ERP solution is, the more simple it becomes to extract management information and drive out a benefit to the bottom line – and this includes the integration and use of mobile technology. In short, a mechanic can target the exact information he or she needs to carry out a repair at any location, follow a rigorous MRO process, whether it’s within a sprawling hangar complex, or on a tarmac at a remote location.

But the use of mobile applications must not overload the user with too much information. Apps rather than full applications are the way forward in this stressful, complex operational environment.

Springboard to the future
Longer-term, with the advent of the Internet of Things or Health-and-usage-Monitoring (HUMS), perhaps we’ll see mobile technology develop even further with the asset itself immediately understanding its state of repair and where it needs to be in the maintenance process with the fleet managed accordingly.

Add to this the development of wearable technology, Context Aware solutions and Predictive Analytics, and we could see significant reductions in complexity and workload for civil aviation MRO operators. Our R&D team is already trialling notifications from IFS Applications on a Samsung Gear 2 smart watch as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate the ability to engage with content from ERP and EAM systems to not only read updates, but also make transactions, send alerts for certain processes and to receive important notifications in real-time—showcasing the potential of further increasing efficiencies on the shop floor.

In many instances, engineers themselves are driving the changes we are witnessing in civil aviation MRO. But by enabling mobility on the shop floor—or in the cockpit—organisations will see significant benefits in terms of remaining competitive in this market.

You can read more about this in our White Paper entitled 'Civil Aviation MRO - The pivotal role of mobile in a dramatically changing market'' which you can download here: http://www4.ifsworld.com/civil-aviation-mobile-MRO.