12 Nov 2018
In aviation MRO, rotables refer to components or inventory items that can be repeatedly and economically restored to a fully serviceable condition. Keith Mwanalushi looks behind the curtains to see how service providers manage such vital parts.
The aviation industry is renowned for its focus on efficiency and streamlining. Faced with the constant need to make cost savings, many airlines around the world have decided to streamline their in-house repairs departments.
Dave Shorter, Director of PBH at AJW Group observes that for decades, operators made do by forming patchwork agreements with local MRO providers leaving them with the headache of managing a host of individual relationships in any given region, potentially including negotiating language barriers and different customs regimes. "This approach is not only time inefficient but makes it difficult for operators to ensure competitive pricing due to a small number of regional suppliers.
"As a result, airlines are increasingly making the strategic decision to outsource their component MRO to aggregators like AJW Group, replacing a web of different suppliers with a single point of contact," says Shorter.
This type of arrangement, as Shorter explains, ensures better customer service, in the customer's preferred language, and generates cost savings derived from the aggregator's ongoing relationships with suppliers, where they benefit from economies of scale. "Large aggregators like AJW also have access to a huge pool of component data across the aircraft they support. This enables them to benchmark an operator's performance anonymously against their competitors, and drive efficiencies for their customers by drawing on best practice learned through their work for multiple operators."