REPORT MEETING THE RUNWAY FOR MRO

Ater an introduction by Lex Besselink chairman NAG & World Class Maintenance (WCM)
there were three presentations:

• Timo Wassenaar, R&D Engineer Maintenance & Engineering NLR
  • Take away:
    • Timo notes that the challenge is that there is a growing scarcity of technical personnel and at the same time a growing fleet. So we need to increase productivity and automate. Good examples of a collaboration to achieve this are the Arbi and Gerda projects;
• Ruben Ogink, founder Hello New Day, inspiring story based onexperiences other sectors
  • Take away:
    • Ruben has shown an example of open innovation. In doing so, it is essential to work together and there you must not only have good partners but also be a good partner;
• Jan Verbeek, vice-chairman NAG, Partner Knowledge Management & Innovation ADSE – National Collective Business Plan (NCBP) and link with MRO
  • Take away:
    • The NCBP study, which aims to improve the competitive position and sustainability of the Dutch aviation sector, shows that the Netherlands has all the important disciplines in the MRO sector together. So we have to work together with the challenges. Only by working together can we get to the table with major OEMs.

Jacob Derks, project developer WCM gave an update about the status of the roadmap.

Important developments:

• Digitization and automation
  • E.g. automated inspections
• Predictive Mainteance
  • Data analysis
  • Artificial Intelligence
• Training using VR and AR

Challenges:

• Personnel shortage & qualifications
• Image problem of civil Aerospace
• Colloboration (with OEM)
• Competition with low wage countries.

After that there were two interactive Round Tables to gather input for the roadmap and make connections to arrive at starting points for collaboration with the following questions:

• Which developments in the MRO Aerospace can be achieved within two years
• Which challenges do you se for thes developments, and how can these challenges by adressed?

The meeting ended with reflections and plans for the follow up led by Paul van Kempen, operational director WCM.

It was a succesful meeting, especially because of the contribution of the participating companies. One of the conclusions is that we need to think more broadly and work (cross sectoral) together. Good suggestions have been made for things that we can work on in the next two years. It is also clear which challenges will play a role in this. Thanks to the collaboration of the Special Interest Group of the NAG with WCM, we can get started quickly.

The meeting was made possible by a TKI HTSM grant.