Page 5 - MRO Business Today 15th April 2023 Latest Issue

SPECIAL STORY

Artificial Intelligence is very dangerous considering the razor-
thin margins airlines are historically up
against when running their business.
Puts Airlines & MROs from the effects of Covid and now navi-
Most of the industry is still recovering
gating through an economic downturn,
in Control of Their and airlines either cannot risk spending
so much capital or simply don’t have
the capital needed to properly over-
Inventory stock parts.

Stay ahead of the game with AI
At the crux of this is artificial intel-
By Tulika Dayal, Chief Customer Officer at SkySelect ligence (AI). AI ensures that routine
parts are delivered on time and at a
Inaccurate Information Leading to Mas- The natural reaction to these long lead good price point by running advanced
sive Lead Times times and huge backlogs is for an airline algorithms in the background while also
MRO and airlines are currently ex- to overstock parts and keep them on providing solutions for complex situa-
periencing massive lead times when hand in the hangar. While this might be tions that arise.
it comes to procuring needed aircraft considered a means of hedging opera- In order to do this, the maximum num-
parts. This means that forecasting and tional risk, in essence, all you are doing ber of quotes are collected automati-
planning are now more important than is trading one potential problem for cally, ensuring that all business require-
ever. another. ments are met, including lead times,
On average, airlines face part delays The issue with overstocking parts part conditions, locations, shipping
of 60-90 days. Even routine parts are is that the strategy requires a large costs, and any other parameters that
experiencing significant delays leading upfront amount of capital spend, which must be taken into account.
to AOG and Urgent situations. This technology can help airlines and
Some airlines have told us maintenance organizations to monitor
as much as 40% of the lead times and manage the flow of parts
AOG team’s demand and components through the sup-
stems from routine ply chain. By using real-time data and
parts demand that analytics, they can identify and miti-
couldn’t be deliv- gate potential delays and prioritize the
ered on time. delivery of critical components.
And when problems do arise, this is
when the real magic of AI happens.
When issues pop up that could cause
order delays, the AI is programmed to
resource a number of resolutions. For
example, switching an order to urgent
to ensure timely delivery.
When coupling AI with appropriate
data models, powerful forecasting
features can be leveraged that enable
airlines to see the trends of which parts
are drying up in the market or have
longer lead times and pre-stock the
parts before the parts can impact the
operations.
Within these models, many data
points are ingested to build an accurate
forecast, including historical consump-
tion figures and current market metrics
such as parts availability and costs. This
way, airlines can implement or improve
MRO inventory planning and stay ahead
of the curve

www.mrobusinesstoday.com April 15, 2023 5