Ensuring Quality in Aviation MRO

Aircraft maintenance is the performance of tasks required to ensure the continuing airworthiness of an aircraft and its parts. The process includes overhaul, inspection, replacement of components, defect rectification and the embodiment of modifications, compliance with airworthiness directives and repair. Maintenance of aircraft is highly regulated to ensure safe operations. In civil aviation, national regulations are coordinated under international standards, established by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The ICAO standards have to be implemented by local airworthiness authorities to regulate maintenance tasks, personnel and inspection system. Maintenance staff must be licensed for the tasks they carry out. In India this is undertaken by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Aircraft maintenance in civil aviation comprises periodic inspections that have to be undertaken on an aircraft after a certain time period of usage. On completion of any maintenance task, a person authorised by the national airworthiness authority signs a maintenance release stating that maintenance has been performed in accordance with the applicable airworthiness requirements. In the case of a certified aircraft, this may be an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer or Aircraft Maintenance Technician who is appropriately certified.

Aircraft Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) is a company which specialises in performing maintenance tasks on aircraft and their components and must have proper certification which allow it to function in accordance with the approved schedule. The MRO must be approved in accordance with EASA or FAA Part 145 – a regulation which defines how a maintenance and repair organisation must be run in order to provide the highest acceptable level of flight safety. The Part 145 certificate contains the scope of approval which specifies what a company is allowed to do.

OPERATING A CREDIBLE MRO IS DEPENDENT ON INVESTING IN THE RIGHT MANPOWER THAT IS REGULARLY TRAINED AND OPTIMALLY UTILISED WITH A STRONG FOCUS ON QUALITY AND TURNAROUND TIME

Base maintenance organisations are generally large companies, owning a hangar which is required for base maintenance and employ a large group of people to perform base maintenance tasks. Such organisations have the ability to carry out heavy checks, commonly known as C-checks and structural checks, sometimes referred to as D-checks. Such maintenance checks can take from a few weeks to even a few months. Line maintenance organisations are mainly required to provide necessary, minor maintenance tasks in between flights. These include regular daily and weekly checks as well as some defect rectification. Line maintenance MROs will be able to replace wheels, brakes and most Line Replaceable Units (LRUs) on the aircraft. They also release the aircraft for servicing before it undertakes any further flight.

Engine and landing gear MROs are of two types which are very important for an airline because the overhaul and repair processes of major aircraft components are really complex, sophisticated and very expensive. These MROs have their own large facilities and often have production lines very similar to those of factories. Engine and landing gear MROs also need very skilled and highly trained workers to perform the required tasks and also often have their own NDT personnel. Component MROs have to be certified like all the other types, but in many cases, the type of maintenance they provide does not require as sophisticated an approach as that of engine or landing gear MROs with the exceptions of hydraulics, avionics and emergency equipment such as emergency door slides.

KEY CHALLENGES FOR INDIA MROS

Firstly, major international airports in India lack hangar space which is needed for temporary protective storage of the aircraft. Secondly, setting up MRO is highly capital-intensive with high initial as well as recurring investments and a long break-even time. Thirdly, operating a credible MRO is highly dependent on investing in the right manpower that is regularly trained and optimally utilised with a strong focus on quality and turnaround time. It also requires continuous investment in tooling, certification from safety regulators. In India, there are 60 different types of aircraft being operated. Each type requires trained technical manpower, tooling, and approvals from the regulator as well as the OEM to enable an MRO to offer world-class maintenance services. Fourthly, nonavailability of spare parts in India leads to frequent grounding of aircraft. The customs duty regime has also discouraged MROs from stocking spare parts on behalf of the customers.

QUALITY OF PARTS

In the world of MRO, the quality and provisioning of parts is of the utmost importance and this is a problem that can be mitigated through a good procurement strategy and management. Procurement professionals are concerned about counterfeit products in their indirect supply chain. It is always better to pay slightly more for a component from a trusted supplier and have the assurance that it meets all quality standards than to take a risk with an unknown vendor. MRO parts are crucial to keeping aircraft and its operations running safely, faulty items could cause downtime that costs money. Second, there is a reputational risk to organisations since fake products may come from unethical sources, which the government scrutinises much more closely.

For the past several years, aircraft, engine and component manufacturers have been increasing their role as MRO providers in the aviation after market, a phenomenon that has been identified as a top disruptor by the industry. Most expect the OEMs to gain market share quickly over the next three to five years, because of the leverage they have over Intellectual Property (IP). This is primarily the case with engine and component manufacturers, but there is a fear that the aircraft OEMs may try to recapture more IP as they push into the aftermarket. Controlling the IP on components and systems means OEMs can force operators to use their parts and sometimes their MRO operations for repairs and maintenance. MRO providers, who buy the OEM-designed components, may end up paying more. In order to continue growing, OEMs are buying back IP so that they can own and control more of the aviation materials aftermarket. Aviation materials have historically been a highly lucrative line of business for OEMs, with margins that are higher than for labour services. In addition, IP control gives OEMs leverage in MRO activities and allows them to drive up material usage and prices, putting MROs and operators at a disadvantage.

THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO AGGRESSIVELY DEVELOP ENVIRONMENT FOR PREPARING SKILLED HUMAN RESOURCE TO DEAL WITH COMPLEX AEROSPACE SYSTEMS

The Asian market, which globally is third in size today, will be the largest MRO market by 2024. The market is shifting from West to East. The shift in market power favours the OEMs because of the induction of the latest generation of aircraft. In the long term, the MRO market will be dominated by OEM monopolies. This could be partly addressed by regulators granting more widespread Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMA), opening up the spares market beyond the OEMs and to get rid of unnecessary regulatory burdens in the MRO domain. One example would be using performance-based safety oversight and cutting down the number of inspections needed for mature maintenance operations. With the looming technical skills shortages to maintain the world fleet, better ways to repair aircraft have to be engineered.

COMPLIANCE OF QUALITY STANDARDS

Aerospace Standard (AS) 9100 D is the cornerstone of Quality Management System. The “I AM QUALITY” attitude ought to permeate all facets of the MRO processes. MRO companies have to continuously improve processes to ensure excellence in quality. Today’s modern airlines and MRO organisations are facing high demands on quality standards by the regulatory authorities and are now bound to set-up a company-internal quality management and establish quality assurance procedures within the maintenance area. Quality Control (QC) is an ongoing activity that serves as the extended arm of the respective airworthiness authority and on the other hand, as the eyes of upper-management. In order to guarantee that agreed upon quality requirements are respected, it is the QC organisation’s task to plan, perform audits and ensure that measures and corrective actions are taken when deviations appear.

INDIAN GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

The worldwide market for Aircraft MRO has relatively optimistic growth prospects. During the past four years, the market size has risen from $96,000 million in 2015 to $118,000 million in 2018. The Aircraft MRO market is expected to exceed $140,000 million by 2023. India’s current MRO market is estimated to be around $700 to $900 million, with a forecast to grow at a seven percent annual rate of growth. Thus, the need for a strong domestic MRO industry is critical.

With a view to promoting the growth of the Indian aviation sector, the Government has released the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016. The aim is to provide an ecosystem for the harmonised growth of various aviation sub-sectors. Broad-based development of the MRO Sector has been taken up. This will be a strong impetus for ‘Make in India’ for the growth and development of civil aviation manufacturing, building up from the strong grooming by Defence PSUs whereby several SMEs are now large suppliers to Global OEMs. Tier-I/II manufacturing partnerships of the Indian industry with global OEMs, are increasing in diverse fields of design and engineering, advanced technologies, products/processes, information management and customer services.

QUALITY: A PREREQUISITE IN MRO

To ensure Quality in MRO in the Indian aviation market, firstly, the strength of the MRO industry is in human resource. The Government needs to aggressively develop environment for preparing skilled human resource to deal with complex aerospace systems. For that, the existing institutions need to be upgraded and expanded to worldclass level. Secondly, there is a need to encourage the domestic MRO companies to keep continuously receiving global accreditations and certifications. This is because most of the aircraft are leased from European or American companies and it becomes impetrative for Indian MRO to comply with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certifications.