Pratt & Whitney's Singapore Technology Accelerator Delivers 30 Innovations

SINGAPORE—Thirty innovations aimed at maximizing productivity in MRO processes have been delivered by the Singapore Technology Accelerator (STA) according to Pratt & Whitney, which first announced it would establish the accelerator in September 2022.

The STA technology projects—spread across four Pratt & Whitney Singapore-based MRO facilities—are focused on automation, advanced inspection, connected factory and digital twin technologies, all aimed at improving MRO shop performance.

As a “rule of thumb,” STA is looking for its solutions to drive at least a 6% productivity improvement in existing processes, Gilbert Sim, director of aftermarket global operations technology at Pratt, tells Aviation Week. STA is also working alongside over 20 Singapore-based companies to develop new technologies.

“We will continue working with MRO facilities and centers of excellence in Singapore and throughout the network to deliver more technology insertion projects,” Sim says. “Together with our steadfast commitment to investments in MRO capacity, we are expanding our capabilities to support our customers around the world.”

Among STA’s 30 projects to have reached either a develop/pilot phase or a scale phase are its shopfloor simulation digital twin to create more efficient process flows, as well as advanced inspection technologies to detect small defects in aerospace components, which STA describes as being able to improve efficiency in inspection by 50%. A Receive In Check (RIC) cobot has also been developed to photograph components within an engine automatically, including areas that are hard to access, via an extendable arm, creating an automated process that effectively reduces 90% of the previous workload, STA claims.  

Future phases will include predictive and intelligent automations. STA is preparing to utilize AI on a broad scale after 2027, once the necessary data and structures are in place to support that technology.

Through technology insertion projects, innovations will be rolled out progressively across Pratt’s global MRO footprint to improve throughput and turnaround times.  STA was established by Pratt in collaboration with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).