Airline Engineering & Maintenance: There has never been a better time to focus on data than now
The aviation industry was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years, resulting in decreased travel demand. By now demand has rebounded and is even exceeding expectations, with current travel demand nearing pre-crisis levels from 2019. This rapid recovery is certainly a positive development. However, the industry still faces significant challenges, including rising costs and a shortage in labour, which are just two of the biggest ones. According to a recent article published by Forbes the shortage of mechanics will be significantly increasing in the coming years impacting operational costs even more.
Data can play a crucial role in addressing these issues. Using data to create analytical insights into maintenance performance, start classifications, supplier performance, buying behavior, repair costs, and inventory movements can help airlines identify potential cost savings and optimize staff planning. With the right data in place, the aviation industry can make more informed decisions and improve overall efficiency, helping to address the current challenges facing the industry.
Shortage in labor
The media has widely discussed a shortage of cabin crew and baggage handlers. However, also on the maintenance side, many open vacancies stay unfilled. According to a report by Reuters, a shortage of aviation maintenance engineers, who certify an aircraft's airworthiness, could lead to canceled flights, or delayed appointments for repairs. Due to COVID-19, many airlines have to let go of staff, and the pandemic did not encourage young people to start a career in aviation. Having already a shortage in mechanics we definitely want to reduce or even avoid any unplanned maintenance resulting in the grounding of aircraft (AOGs) that delay flights or result in cancellations.
Usage of data
To address the shortage of labour, airlines can use data in the following ways:
Predictive Maintenance: By using data from sensor readings and statistical modeling, airlines can predict when maintenance will be needed and schedule the appropriate workforce to perform the maintenance at the right time. By using data and identfying components that might fail, airlines will be going from unplanned maintenance to planned maintenance that will avoid AOG (aircraft-on-ground) and unplanned work.
Real-time tracking: By having real-time data on the location and availability of staff, airlines can better manage and deploy their workforce.
Certification and skill tracking: By having data on the certifications and skills of staff, airlines can ensure they have the right personnel with the appropriate qualifications working on a specific aircraft or task.
Staff utilization analysis: By analyzing data on staff utilization, airlines can identify areas where the workforce is being underutilized and redistribute staff to where they are needed most.
Automated scheduling: By using data and algorithms to automatically schedule staff, airlines can reduce the time and effort required to manage the workforce, which in turn can help to avoid errors and oversights.
Using data to optimize staff planning in aircraft maintenance, airlines can ensure that they have the right personnel in the right place at the right time, which can help reduce the impact of labour shortages.
Rising costs
According to a survey by Oliver Wyman labour and material costs is the second biggest challenge the market faces. Another cost riser is the rising fuel costs, delays, and cancellations that impact the profitability of airlines. The latter impacts also the reputation and might affect future revenues. Back in 2019, the FAA estimated that flight delays cost only the U.S. economy over $30 billion, and according to Forbes unplanned maintenance cost airlines around 27% of all maintenance expenditure in 2018. That is a massive amount and reducing it by only 1% would be a huge cost saving and help airlines a lot in their overall cost management.
Usage of data
To reduce costs in aircraft maintenance, airlines can use data in the following ways:
Predictive Maintenance: By using data from sensor readings and statistical modeling, airlines can predict when maintenance will be needed and schedule it in advance, which can help to reduce unplanned maintenance and associated costs.
Supply Chain Optimization: By analyzing data on supplier performance, buying behavior, and inventory movements, airlines can identify potential cost savings in their supply chain, such as negotiating better prices with suppliers or reducing inventory levels.
Maintenance History Analysis: By analyzing data on past maintenance activities, airlines can identify patterns and trends that can help to predict future maintenance needs and costs.
Equipment Utilization: By tracking and analyzing data on equipment utilization, airlines can identify opportunities to extend the life of equipment, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance costs.
Cost Analysis: By analyzing data on labor, materials, and fuel costs, airlines can identify areas where costs are higher than expected and take steps to reduce them.
By leveraging data to optimize aircraft maintenance and lower costs, airlines can improve their overall efficiency and competitiveness, and address the challenge of rising costs in the industry.
However, to make this happen you need to make sure all data in the MRO/M&E system is correct and up to date, being the only source of truth, and having no additional workarounds or excel sheets next to the system.
What To Do now To make most use of data?
To be able to make optimal use of all your data in order to tackle the above challenges you first need to check the following:
Determine if all necessary data is located in one system or if it's spread across multiple systems.
Assess if these systems are connected or if data must be manually extracted.
Identify if there are multiple Excel sheets in use alongside the MRO/M&E system.
Implement regular data quality checks, such as validating that the cycles on an aircraft match those in the MRO/M&E system.
Review audit findings for any unknown airworthiness status of aircraft, which may indicate that not all the latest data is in the MRO/M&E system.
Ultimately, the goal is to have a single source of truth, with all data consolidated in one place, and for all systems (e.g. finance, MRO/M&E, supply chain) to be interfaced so that they share and can "talk to" each other.
