Automating reliability: Embedding resilience in MRO systems

In this demanding environment, robust maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations must keep complex craft and supporting systems operating smoothly and reliably. But there’s good reason to be concerned about MRO’s ability to keep up.

Despite the reliability of today’s equipment, failures still happen. Current MRO systems mainly rely on identifying and fixing problems after they occur. And strategies such as redundant systems can only be taken so far. Even seemingly trivial issues like a broken latch on an overhead compartment can take a plane out of service.

Another concern is whether airline MRO facilities will have access to skilled resources in today’s competitive job market. Based on a recent Oliver Wyman study, the supply of mechanics and other aviation maintenance technicians could fall short of industry needs by as much as 9 percent by 2027.

Issues like these make it more important than ever to understand how evolving MRO capabilities will help airlines define and sustain a competitive advantage, improve safety and create a growing revenue source. That evolution hinges on the ability of a company’s MRO to grow beyond today’s predictive maintenance system into a support ecosystem that surrounds critical assets with a layer of resilience to maintain acceptable levels of service when failures occur.

What is “resilient MRO?”

The capability of MRO systems has evolved significantly to predict and detect random failures. Analyzing and using data from the maintenance arena and connecting it across design and manufacturing elevates MRO to the next level — resilience. A resilient MRO system builds on an advanced level of data access and integration with an architecture and processes designed to anticipate failures, identify solutions, share them with supply chain stakeholders and implement them to maintain service. In short, it identifies and implements solutions that enable airlines to continue operations in the event of failures that would prove disruptive given today’s MRO capabilities.

To build resilience into an MRO system, three core elements are required. A resilient MRO must be able to:

• Expand the range and depth of data collected to power advanced analytic and modeling capabilities
• Create connections to a broader range of systems inside and outside of the MRO function
• Draw on these expanded capabilities and connections to identify issues and take preemptive action

Collect. The prescriptive, anticipative nature of resilience depends on the ability of a system to gather, ingest and process large amounts of data. This data is derived from instrumentation on the equipment in flight, as well as from external sources, to predict current status and future needs. Gathering the data is one important component, but storing it is another challenge. Aircraft sensors and onboard equipment can gather terabytes of data during a flight.

Connect. MRO systems already get information from embedded chips, sensors, internet of things (IoT) items and external sources such as vendors and partners. But much of this data is scattered across many sources. As airlines digitize, MROs are becoming more integrated with other systems. A resilient MRO takes this to its natural conclusion by collecting and integrating with every vendor, partner, supplier and relevant group inside and outside the airline. At its disposal is every bit of data available about each component on a piece of equipment.

A resilient MRO turns siloed information sources into synchronized sources with a comprehensive business intelligence platform and innovative data integration. It integrates customer data and industry knowledge from vendors and service providers outside the organization.

Act. Perhaps the most important distinction is the ability for a resilient MRO to exceed the ability of today’s solutions to interpret the performance of components and to identify potential failures. A resilient system has the capacity to draw on its extensive knowledge of components and the vast amounts of data about an asset, understand the potential failure and its impact, and determine a course of action that can be taken to minimize or avoid the consequences of that failure. For example, although current systems might be able to identify a problem in an engine in flight, the system can’t do anything about it. A resilient system would determine that the best course of action is to reduce speed or shift loads from one engine to another.

The pillars of a resilient MRO architecture

Airlines depend on MRO systems, and a fully integrated operation requires current MRO integration with a resilient architecture — a layer of advanced technologies and data that enables the system to identify problems faster and recommend solutions that can be implemented in real time. Four areas of added capability comprise the “pillars” of the resilient MRO. 

Asset instrumentation describes the real-time data drawn from equipment sensors and IoT devices that monitor the health and conditions of assets. When a flight lands, aircraft health monitoring (AHM) data can be downloaded with other sensor data into the MRO platform. Many MRO solutions leverage offline/batch data. By instrumenting assets and harvesting data from edge devices, a resilient MRO enables remote tracking and monitoring. It makes real-time data available for immediate and actionable insight, providing real-time decision-making ability and action.

Industrial artificial intelligence (AI) decisioning describes the use of AI and machine learning for analysis of asset instrumentation data in conjunction with historical data. This can be used to identify maintenance patterns and strategies based on past performance and recorded service issues or failures. And it can be used to recommend strategy based on current data.

Based on flight performance data, sensors, etc., in addition to normal service routines, the resilient MRO platform may identify additional procedures to be performed. Big data and AI can use this data for predictive maintenance and forecasting failures to turn disruptive unscheduled events into scheduled tasks and planned maintenance activity. Finally, the analysis results in potential actions based on instrumentation data that can be implemented by a digital worker.

Digital twins use modeling, simulation and prescriptive analytics to create a cyber duplicate of a physical asset model that includes a 3-D representation of the asset, data and asset images that visualize past performance, as well as predictive capabilities that understand the health and performance of the asset in the future. In a resilient MRO, a digital twin is a cyber model of all identified assets that empowers the operational teams to monitor the integrity of connected assets and see the relative impact and gap analysis from possible operational decisions or levers.

The digital twin can predict flight performance based on past and current data for the next flight and the need for maintenance. It also projects the potential consequences that can occur if recommended changes or service are not performed. For instance, integrating the building information modeling (BIM) and overlaying vital statistical and behavioral data with MRO data helps simulate actual operations and provides insights to reduce unplanned downtime and improve service availability. 

Digital worker describes the use of cognitive robotic process automation to make consistent decisions with near-zero wait times. Intelligent systems such as DXC’s Bionix™ help companies automate tasks that a person would do, such as ordering parts, raising service requests and scheduling service and workers based on the digital twin implementation. The digital worker component accelerates the completion of lower-risk and repeatable tasks such as compliance checks, work order generation and service request updates. Transitioning response times to milliseconds from minutes and hours helps agencies  improve their operational cycle times.

Meanwhile, technicians can focus on more complex service issues using real-time learning and quick resolution supported by augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR). Mobile-enabled and digitally connected remote field technicians will be able to guide less-experienced workers at the site of failure or required maintenance, thereby speeding resolution and expanding the volume of tasks that can be completed.

Where does resilient MRO take us?

The automatic identification of issues helps create a more resilient infrastructure when failures do occur. And, it is a workforce multiplier. Capacity is increased by automatically resolving some incidents, problems and service requests without human intervention. For example, when an aircraft lands, AHM data is downloaded and analyzed against historical patterns from asset instrumentation. Looking at past actions, performance data and other inputs (digital twin simulation), the resilient MRO can determine that a part is at risk of failing in the near future (Industrialized AI) and see whether the part is available at its current location.

If not, the part is ordered for the next destination automatically so that it can be fixed (digital worker). This is the powerful outcome of a resilient MRO architecture. 

As airlines strive to keep their fleets operating on time, they must adapt to changing market conditions and pursue new avenues for growth. Many are making plans to upgrade their MRO systems. Those currently using highly customized versions are planning to move to more standard packages and platform-based systems.

As a start, airlines can begin to work toward the goal of adding resilience by identifying integration points in existing MRO systems. These same integration points should be a part of the design for a new MRO system in the future. In addition, new processes, training and expectations will be required to facilitate the “action” needed. Planning for these can be undertaken now to speed the adoption of new resilient features.

Transforming aircraft MRO operations may take years, but growing customer demands for reliability and potential shortages in skilled workers will compel airlines to take action. Building a resilient MRO offers airlines the opportunity to meet key objectives for profitability and long-term growth.

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