Once upon a time (a year ago), the MRO market in the Middle East was expected to grow from US$9b (2019) to US$ 13.2b (2029). BOEING predicted overall aviation industry growth in the Middle East of up to US$745b over the next two decades.
These figures have taken a beating since February 2020 when the world first went into Covid-19 induced lockdown. The aviation industry has realized losses of over US$118b during 2020. IATA’s predictions for the next few years, cautious in the extreme, are based on a number of different scenarios none of which predicts a return to normality before 2031.
The Challenge
MRO, a low-margin industry has been hit particularly hard. There is growing interest in reducing costs to improve profitability. MROs, OEMs, airlines and airports are all looking closely at policies and procedures to identify issues with non-compliance and to improve safety, quality and efficiency standards and to improve the travel experience for passengers and service providers.
The Solution: Innovation
Like all industries, aviation is also turning to technology-driven innovation for solutions.
For MROs in particular technology can be a double-edged sword. Technological innovations mean MROs will not be able to use legacy tracking, monitoring, inspection and auditing systems to manage their processes for much longer. Some airlines and MROs have put in place a forward-thinking strategy for managing their multi-stakeholder, complex logistics value chains; others are playing catch-up.
Yet, each one of these tools and solutions is a force for change in its own right. In combination they can be used to build highly integrated digital platforms across the aerospace ecosystem. The transformational power of integrated, technology-rich platforms will enable a proactive approach to MRO services, improve safety standards, reduce costs and improve profitability up and down a seamless value chain.
The perfect storm is brewing.
This is our introductory blog on a series of posts on how technology is transforming MRO services including articles on Block Chain and Predictive Analysis; Cloud Software and IITO; 3D Printing and Augmented Reality.
