Inside MRO

By Sean Broderick
Hawaiian strategy emphasizes streamlined purchasing
MRO

W hen Tom Wessner joined Hawaiian Airlines as its first strategic procurement czar, he knew it meant swapping one form of resistance for another. He came to the carrier—and the industry—following 18 months of arm-twisting top-tier automotive vendors to supply a quirky Silicon Valley upstart named Tesla. At Hawaiian, he is changing a years-in-the-making purchasing culture by streamlining both the process and the number of suppliers, all in pursuit of improvement through simplification.

By Sean Broderick
Small Embraer jets face upgauging’s squeeze
MRO

As the global airline fleet renews and new aircraft types—such as the Airbus A320neo, Boeing 737 MAX and Bombardier CSeries—take flight with engines such as the Pratt & Whitney PurePower and CFM Leap-1B, the aviation industry will see a big transition in powerplant technology. Expect to see more demand for on-wing services, including repairs such as compressor blade-blending via dedicated boroscope ports.

Everyone tries to get the right product at the right price. Procurement experts say it’s more important to get strategic about purchasing and inventory management. Most procurement and inventory management departments, including those at MRO providers and airlines, traditionally have focused on assuring that parts and supplies are available when they’re needed, where they’re needed and at the lowest possible price.

By Sean Broderick
Everyone tries to get the right product at the right price. Procurement experts say it’s more important to get strategic about purchasing and inventory management. Most procurement and inventory management departments, including those at MRO providers and airlines, traditionally have focused on assuring that parts and supplies are available when they’re needed, where they’re needed and at the lowest possible price.

By Sean Broderick
Everyone tries to get the right product at the right price. Procurement experts say it’s more important to get strategic about purchasing and inventory management. Most procurement and inventory management departments, including those at MRO providers and airlines, traditionally have focused on assuring that parts and supplies are available when they’re needed, where they’re needed and at the lowest possible price.

Everyone tries to get the right product at the right price. Procurement experts say it’s more important to get strategic about purchasing and inventory management. Most procurement and inventory management departments, including those at MRO providers and airlines, traditionally have focused on assuring that parts and supplies are available when they’re needed, where they’re needed and at the lowest possible price.

I ncreasingly, finance is playing a more important role in procurement, especially at companies focusing on total cost of ownership and not just the

Paul Seidenman
C alling the engine service market dynamic might be an understatement, given the bulging order books for new aircraft, a bevy of used surplus material that opens up workscope options, and engines such as the V2500 and CFM56 that should generate a surge in shop visits.
MRO

Regina Kenney
1. Colorful Decals Supplier: Color Craft

By Henry Canaday
Defining how and when to invest in new aftermarket capabilities
MRO

News abounded at Aviation Week’s MRO Americas Conference in Phoenix last month. Here are some highlights: AeroTurbine launched a suite of technical and consulting services called AdviseAer, designed to offer a full spectrum of services to support the management of commercial engines.

By Sean Broderick
Europe Almost Perfect Three years into the bilateral aviation safety agreement (BASA) between the U.S. and the European Union (EU), few would dispute the pact’s benefits. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the FAA rely on each other’s judgment for certification and surveillance, and industry benefits from a more streamlined regulatory process. Still, reports Karl Specht, EASA’s continuing airworthiness organization manager, both industry and regulators see areas for improvement.

By Sean Broderick
Washington Proactive Push The FAA’s transition to a sustainable, risk-based oversight system requires aligning many key elements. None is more important than comprehensive datasets to help the agency prioritize how it allocates resources.

By Sean Broderick
A South American carrier and long-time CF6-80C2 operator approached General Electric (GE) recently with a request: help maximize the operating life of some engines with more than 20 years in service and optimize remaining life-cycle, rather than up-front, costs. GE and the airline created workscopes that factored in both service life, to maximize on-wing time, and operations metrics such as fuel burn, to boost efficiency.

By Henry Canaday
Consultants have long recommended consolidation in the aerospace supply chain, especially in the aftermarket. By acquiring Goodrich Corp. in July 2012, United Technologies Corp. (UTC) moved in the recommended direction. But acquisition by itself is just a rearrangement of numbers on a ledger. Reaping the potential efficiency gains requires hard work to integrate newly acquired assets effectively.

Development of the Airbus A330P2F passenger-to-freighter conversion, announced in 2012, is well underway and its preliminary design review (PDR) was scheduled to be concluded in April. EADS EFW, now owned by the Airbus Group and ST Aerospace, plans to ramp up annual production to 20 in 2020. The price point—$30 million for a converted passenger aircraft aged 15-20 years, versus more than $200 million at list price for a newly produced A330-200F freighter—is key for cargo operators, which have a much lower utilization than passenger carriers.

By Henry Canaday
Another kind of investment relates to but is not the same as investment in new-model support. LHT recently announced it will put €200 million ($276 million) into innovation and research over the next four years. The commitment should improve LHT’s overall capabilities on both legacy aircraft that show up in shops more frequently than new models and on new types that pose novel challenges.

By Lee Ann Shay
Partnerships bring opportunities to invest, but how do you start the conversation with potential candidates? What are best practices? One of the workshops during our MRO Americas Conference last month focused on partnerships, so I will share some of the executives’ insights. They are natural supplements to Henry Canaday’s article on page MRO4, which evaluates how and when MROs invest in new capabilities.

Many maintenance organizations struggle with tool control. It is not a hardware problem—it is a people problem, resulting from human error, forgetfulness and distraction. And while it can be solved with the right technology, even the best solutions demand a shift in culture and mindset that must be considered and addressed to solve the problem.

Genevieve Bookwalter Oakland, Calif.
1. Driving Screws with a Wrist Twist Supplier: Dewalt Offering: The latest professional-grade screwdriver from Dewalt features gyroscopic technology to make screwdriving and conduit-reaming easier for professional electricians. The new 8V Max Gyroscopic Screwdriver with conduit-reamer is a portable and compact tool that electricians can operate with a turn of the wrist. It builds on last year’s battery-powered gyroscopic screwdriver.

Henry Canaday (Washington)
MRO providers seek new revenue streams
MRO

1. Electronics for All Markets Company: Esterline CMC Electronics Services: Located in Montreal, Esterline CMC Electronics focuses equally on its business, commercial and military aviation markets, with a wide product line including FMS/GPS, enhanced vision system sensors, satellite communications antennas and cockpit systems integration. The company recently certified its CMA-9000 FMS for retrofit on the Airbus A310, offering operators a replacement for older FMS components with more limited memory capacity.

Henry Canaday (Washington)
For successful young MRO providers, economy is essential and growth is a constant goal. “Effective energy- consumption management is one of our main priorities,” says CEO Zilvinas Lapinskas of FL Technics, based in Lithuania. All FL hangars and repair shops have integrated energy-control systems that monitor and automatically change electricity and heating.