Category: Avionics

While the premier aviation maintenance skills competition shows who is best in their field, the sense of camaraderie and networking take center stage.

One of the things U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Robert Paradis likes about fielding a team to compete in The Competition presented by Snap-on is offering an opportunity for his airmen to broaden proficiencies beyond their specific area of expertise.

“It’s a huge training opportunity for us because in the Air Force, we’re very focused on our Air Force Specialty Code. For example, an engine troop will always work on engines,” Paradis said. “But this is a chance for our multi-capable Airmen to try their hand at sheet metal work and other areas of maintenance that they normally would not see on the day-to-day mission. That’s a great benefit The Competition gives to military teams.”

This will be the third year in a row Paradis and his team from the 86th Maintenance Group, based at Ramstein AB, Germany, are participating in The Competition, an aviation maintenance skills event that attracts more than 80 teams from around the world.

The Olympics of Aircraft Maintenance

Entering its 11th year, The Competition has been described as the Olympics for the aviation maintenance industry as it provides a venue for professional aviation mechanics and students to come together in friendly competition, test their skills against each other and give a loud shout-out to their presence in the industry.

“The Competition tests the multiple skills required for both basic and very detailed performance-based tasks,” said John Goglia, president of the Aerospace Maintenance Council and a former National Transportation Safety Board member. “There are also events that require techs to use their minds. In aviation, it’s not just mechanical dexterity that gets you through the day, you must use your head and think. That’s what aviation maintenance is all about, using your hands and head to come to a solution.”

The Competition kicks off April 9 at the MRO Americas convention at McCormick Place in Chicago. This year’s field includes 90 maintenance teams from around the world competing in six divisions: Commercial Aviation, General Aviation, Space, Military, MRO/OEM and School, which attracts teams from the country’s top A&P schools. Events include a wide range of skills that technicians face every day on the job, including airframe damage inspection, composite repair, engine fan blade removal, fuel tank entry precautions, and others. Each event has a 15-minute time limit, resulting in exciting, fast-paced action and great drama for spectators to watch.

Expanding Aircraft Maintenance in Colombia

One of the teams fans will see in action is Avianca. A relative newcomer to The Competition, Avianca, the flag carrier of Colombia, is hoping its presence in Chicago will serve as an inspiration to people back home, showing them that aviation maintenance is a great career option to pursue.

“We are starting to see a shortage of technicians. Colombia is a country of 51 million people, and we’re trying to show to people in Columbia what they can achieve working at Avianca,” said Gustavo Aristizabal, production director, Avianca. “Going to The Competition allows our technicians to see and learn new things that they can bring back to Avianca, which will make all of us stronger.”

This is the second consecutive year Avianca, which flies a mix of both Airbus and Boeing aircraft to more than 70 destinations in North America, South America and Europe, has fielded a team in The Competition.

Aristizabal credits strong support from Avianca leadership in being able to field a team. Avianca, which has a staff of more than 1,000 technicians stationed at bases throughout its system, held internal competitions with the top performers selected to represent the airline in Chicago. Aristizabal believes Avianca will continue supporting The Competition and will soon become one of the top teams vying for the O’Brien Award.

All teams in Chicago are chasing the top prize in aviation maintenance: The William F “Bill” O’Brien Award for Excellence in Aircraft Maintenance. Presented by Snap-on, the O’Brien Award is a traveling 5-foot-tall trophy bestowed to the team with the best overall winning score. In addition to the trophy, teams will also be vying for tooling and equipment prizes. Last year, FedEx Express captured the O’Brien Award for a second straight year.

The Competition / Snap-on Partnership

Contributing to the continued success of The Competition is its long-standing partnership with Snap-on, a company that strongly believes in encouraging professional development of aircraft mechanics and student technicians.

“The Competition and Snap-on share the values of teamwork, dedication and professionalism embodied by all aircraft technicians,” said Bill Willetts, vice president of Snap-on Industrial and AMC board member. “Together with The Competition we have helped shine a spotlight on the critical role technicians perform every day, while also advocating career paths in aviation and all skilled trades.

“We are looking forward to making the 2024 Competition the best yet for both participating teams and the aviation maintenance industry as a whole.”

A Two-Day Job Interview

The Competition is a great proving ground for the nation’s top A&P schools, including Salt Lake Community College. For students preparing to graduate, there is no better venue to demonstrate their skills and work ethic than competing alongside airlines and MROs, all of which are looking to hire.

“The Competition really acts as a two-day job interview for students,” said Dee Thornton, associate professor/aviation maintenance at Salt Lake Community College. “Participating in The Competition is certainly a reward for students’ hard work throughout the year, but the added bonus is many walk away with job offers. It’s a fantastic opportunity for students that certainly gives them a leg up in starting their career.”

In addition to competing, Thornton said walking through the MRO Americas convention gives students a greater view and appreciation of just how vast the aircraft maintenance industry is and all the opportunities that are available to them.

Admission to The Competition is free with your MRO Americas convention credentials. If you cannot be in Chicago, you can still catch the action through the AMC live stream at http://www.mroamc.live.

Steve Staedler is a senior account executive at LePoidevin Marketing, a Brookfield, Wisconsin-based business-to-business marketing firm that specializes in the tooling and aerospace industries. Steve has been covering aeronautical maintenance for nearly 15 years. He can be reached at steve@lepoidevinmarketing.com.

As the world of business aviation continues to change, leveraging digital technology is becoming more and more important.

And, let’s face it — evolution in our world is nothing new. Think about it. The analog multimeter was replaced by the digital version (and quickly became the standard). Communicating with your team via letters and post-its became cellphone. And even clocking in to start the workday went from paper to a computer.

In-kind, the NBAA’s Management Guide recently underwent an evolution itself — adding new sections to help business aviation teams take the leap toward electronic recordkeeping.

As is the case with other organizations, the NBAA is made up of committees and subcommittees with volunteer industry experts (full disclosure here: I’m lucky enough to be one of them). Even cooler? Cumulatively, these subcommittees have hundreds of years of collective industry experience.

The subcommittee responsible for the digitization updates, the Regulatory and Operational Control Subcommittee, definitely took their job seriously. We spent countless hours surveying operators, talking, debating, weighing, and editing to land on some solid recommendations moving forward.

The end product? The newly revised NBAA Management Guide now contains information about how to utilize electronic recordkeeping in your operation. This update is timely, and will definitely help direct operators to transition from paper-based aircraft maintenance records to modern, digitized records (aka the future).

Details include the many benefits and advantages electronic recordkeeping provides for all types of operators, and more, how operators can obtain FAA approval if required. So, what are the changes to the NBAA Management Guide that you need to look out for? What’s next?

Section 3.8.4.1

This section highlights new information and details of the regulatory guidance, including the benefits, FAA approval for operators, methods to digitize your records, and implementation processes to guide you forward.

Why should you care?

The trend to digitization is accelerating in aviation. While change is a bit slower than in other industries, there is steady progress. There are many benefits to utilizing electronic recordkeeping for your aircraft maintenance records including security, searchability, and shareability. All of this reduces the risk of loss or damage to these vital records and ensures the value of your managed asset. Plus, the compliance status alone is of the utmost importance.

Additionally, if you’re using a vendor that provides aviation-specific software, integrations with other software that you use can make the process simpler. Searching for a word or a part number manually can be a painstaking exercise, and software offers quick searching of all records to locate that “needle in the haystack” record.

What actions should you take?

• Obtain buy-in from all departments and groups involved within your operation to go digital.
• Make a plan. Determine if you will take this on internally or hire a vendor.
• When starting, have routine check-ins with all individuals and groups involved (and vendors if used) to keep on track.

Best practices

The new “Best Practices” section of the guidelines summarizes the entire project to ensure repeated success when adding additional aircraft or team members. This sets the standard within your organization and ensures continuity and peace of mind.

Why should you care?

Having a documented process to follow, whether included in your manual system or as a stand-alone SOP, will ensure continued success as your fleet and team grows and/or changes.

What actions should you take?

• Document your processes and procedures so that they’re easily repeatable.
• Perform a retrospective after completing your digitization efforts.
• Learn what worked (and change what didn’t).

Expanded Section 3.8.1.8

This revised section gives added information around when and how to use electronic signatures. This also details the benefits, regulatory guidance, info on FAA approval for operators, and methods to implement an electronic signature process.

Why should you care?

As with electronic recordkeeping, using electronic signatures for both approval for return to service records (logbook entries) and additional workflow documentation (work orders, task cards, etc.) can greatly increase efficiencies within your maintenance department.

What actions should you take?

• Much like electronic recordkeeping, obtain buy-in from all departments and groups involved within your operation.

• Check with your current, and possibly other, maintenance tracking programs for their availability and useability of an electronic signature function.

• Document your processes and procedures to ensure future success.

The NBAA is recognizing the technological shift in our industry. And with the updated guidelines and processes, it’s never been easier to go digital. Even better? When it comes to taking the leap to electronic recordkeeping, there are definitely options out there that offer minimal disruptions to you and your business while things are moving full speed ahead.

So, if you were ever thinking of going digital (and hint, hint: you should be!), there is no time like the present to make it happen.

Roy Gioconda is currently the vice president, solutions at Bluetail, where he helps to shape the current and future state of Bluetail’s SaaS platform. With more than 40 years of experience in the aviation industry, he has done everything from directing quality assurance and leading customer success, to roles as a director of maintenance. Gioconda is an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University graduate, and holds an FAA Airframe & Powerplant certificate.

With conflicts arising across the world, defense companies are being pressed to meet greater demand increases than have been seen in many years. The defense industrial base (DIB) has struggled to increase throughput, keep their supply chains moving, and still keep their costs under control. Missed deliveries, rising lead times, quality issues, and contract penalties are common.

This increased demand is underlined by the nearly unprecedented increases in defense funding, from about $775 billion in 2022 to over $830 billion in 2024. Although the immediate opportunities and benefits of meeting demand are clear (higher revenue, stronger margins, stock growth), higher demand also comes with certain long-term risks: what if the budget suddenly contracts, what if shifting technologies and market dynamics make a product obsolete or even more desirable, what if the supply chain is disrupted? Any changes that increase throughput must be cost effective and also allow for flexibility as the company ramps up and down along with the ebb and flow of business conditions.

In a typical case, an innovator in developing and producing composite parts for the aerospace and defense industry struggled with a major ramp up in production across three different production programs in the defense and business aviation sectors. They needed to more than triple their manufacturing capabilities over the next two to three years and switch their manufacturing mindset from engineering/prototype to a much higher production process. They suffered from high overrun costs, excessive rework/waste, bottlenecks, poor work instructions, inefficient use of space, and nonconformance of parts. By working closely with senior management, engineering and production, more than 100 identified improvements were categorized into 19 value creation initiatives, allowing them to focus on the most critical issues and begin transforming the business to meet strategic objectives.

The initiatives they implemented increased both the capacity and the capability of existing facilities. In doing so, the C-suite controlled capital expenditure, strengthened and de-risked the supply chain, identified opportunities for further improvement, expedited implementation, and drove sustainable change. The initiatives that delivered those results included:

• Data analytics to identify process issues and constraints.

• Asset utilization and footprint rationalization.

• Production readiness.

• Cultural change and leadership and organizational improvement.

For companies manufacturing highly engineered products as in aerospace and defense, these and other Operational Excellence initiatives drive greater productivity within the same footprint without compromising EBITDA, quality, and on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery, the essentials of customer satisfaction.

Data Analytics

The lack of information about and visibility into production processes and metrics creates a roadblock to increased throughput. Data is often managed through multiple disparate systems and manual spreadsheets, not standardized and not supportive of company goals. Creating a single source of truth from a collection of data sources brings multiple elements into a cohesive approach to process change, including:

• Hands-on, “day-in-the life of” observations and studies.

• Value-stream (process) mapping

• Standardization of company-wide KPIs and metrics in alignment with goals

• Alignment of strategic and operational goals with processes, tools, and systems.

• Cross-functional collaboration, accountability, and continual feedback loops.

Once the data is available and clean, in-depth data analytics reveal any roadblocks in equipment utilization, gaps in planning, and issues with manufacturing quality, waste and rework, and supplier quality.

That data can also be used to build a digital twin of the supply chain that accesses current information to drive accurate decision making. With greater visibility, companies can control spend while continuing to find areas to improve production and increase throughput even while production needs escalate.

Asset Utilization

Asset utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) are key components of throughput. By tracing the critical path of equipment and people, a company keeps everyone operating to plan, reduces downtime, and avoids shortages. That strategy requires a company to:

• Track uptime and utilization of tools and equipment

• Use preventive and predictive processes to establish maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) schedules

• Use predictive analytics to maintain adequate inventory for MRO.

• Drive a standard OEE program to monitor how assets operate based on demand and production schedules.

Footprint rationalization enhances a company’s facilities in order to reduce redundant or inefficient operations and potentially delay or avoid the cost of building or adding on to existing facilities during high demand.

A global provider of high-tech systems for the transportation and defense industry needed to drive revenue recognition in the final quarter of their fiscal year. A footprint rationalization analysis combined with a labor productivity and cost analysis showed that the company would benefit from moving entire product lines from their U.S. plant to their Mexico plant. Because they also moved equipment no longer needed in the U.S., they created more space in the U.S. plant to focus on newly contracted product lines.

The shift lowered overall labor costs by about $2.7 million in just six months; brought some manufacturing in-house for a 35% cost reduction; enabled more cohesive systems for managing production; and accelerated delivery of billable product. As the CEO stated, these strategies not only reduced costs in operations and increased throughput, but also allowed them to increase revenue recognition by 70% in under 80 days.

Eliminate Bottlenecks, Increase First Pass Yield and Quality

Increasing throughput begins with the key fundamentals of eliminating bottlenecks, increasing first pass yield and quality, and reducing downtime on the production floor. Bottlenecks have many underlying causes but are made apparent by the low production of a machine or cell, usually on a continual basis. Bottlenecks can be traced to poor maintenance, lack of clear work instructions (too many “red lines”), poor technician training, and lack of direct engineering support on the floor, among other causes. The key to eliminating bottlenecks lies in proper process mapping, accurate data, and reduction of gaps.

One of the best KPIs for understanding throughput comes from tracking first pass yield and quality (rework, waste, COPQ). Often, first pass yield percentage is the first early warning indicator for poor throughput and quality and shows up quickly as a cost when tracked properly. Sometimes, there may be design or engineering changes that create a problem for production resources; however, it is very common for bottlenecks and waste/rework to result from tooling issues, training, and even a poor supplier quality process that allows sub-par parts and materials into production.

Downtime can come from many sources, including:

• Excessive engineering change orders (ECOs).
• Lack of predictive maintenance and scheduled MRO.
• Inconsistent or poor root cause corrective action (RCCA) and material review board (MRB) processes.
• Lack of cross-training of technicians which limits the ability to shift resources and optimize uptime.
• Front-line supervisors spending too much time on non-value added activities as opposed to being hands-on and available to workers on the floor

LOI to Motivate the Workforce

A specialist in advanced component manufacture for DOD prime contractors was driven to achieve a significant increase in labor productivity and throughput. Although the company was already profitable with greater than 20% margins, its new owners needed to achieve threefold growth over the next five years. To achieve this goal, they needed to dramatically lower costs in operations and procurement while maintaining high quality and accelerating delivery standards. This would allow them to be more competitive and innovative in existing and new commercial markets. A boots-on-the-ground analysis revealed that the company could reduce its workforce by more than 30%, while improving quality and delivery to customers. They achieved a 31% productivity improvement, improved direct labor productivity by 25% to 53% at each client site, improved quality, and drove leadership and organizational improvement (LOI) to support workforce commitment to change.

The bottom-line benefits were enabled by cultural change and LOI strategies that engaged all levels of the company to eliminate silos and create cross-enterprise collaboration. Among other effects, the new management operating system and workforce communication led to a reduction in engineering changes, a company-wide commitment to saving costs, and a continuous improvement mindset.

Cultural change and LOI strategies include:

• Management operating systems.
• Owner, responsible, consult, and inform (ORCI) accountability.
• Formal training.
• On-the-floor coaching of supervisors and managers.
• Clear work instructions.
• Sales, inventory, and operations planning (SIOP).
• Root cause corrective action (RCCA).

Stabilize, Enhance and Accelerate Change

Aerospace and defense companies are being challenged every day to meet escalating demand. By deploying a three-stage approach — stabilize, enhance, accelerate — they have the opportunity to move on from being reactive to external demand forces and begin driving the business through strong processes and accurate data, increasing throughput, and improving quality, delivery and customer mindshare. Using a total value optimization process at each stage, aerospace and defense companies can keep planning, procurement, operations and logistics aligned, so that the entire supply chain is focused on initiatives that meet demand and create long-term value.

Beyond meeting current increased demand, the approach of focusing on process analytics, asset utilization, footprint rationalization, production readiness, cultural change, and leadership and organizational improvement prepare aerospace and defense companies for future growth and fast adaptation to a changing world.

Chris Brumitt serves as the managing director of aerospace & defense at SGS Maine Pointe, bringing over 36 years of experience in supply chain and operations consulting. Specializing in guiding CEOs and senior management, he helps clients drive measurable and sustainable EBITDA, cash and growth improvements across the end-to-end supply chain. With a background collaborating with Fortune 500 companies, Brumitt’s experience spans aerospace-defense, aviation, industrial manufacturing, electronics, high tech/computer systems, energy, airlines, and financial services. Contact him at cbrumitt@mainepointe.com.