Page 24 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2019 Online Magazine

[ INTERVIEW : AAR ]

Building

on Success

WITH ITS DIGITIZATION EFFORTS
EARNING INDUSTRY APPROVAL,
MRO MAJOR AAR IS WORKING ON
NEW DIGITAL OFFERINGS

Arun Sivasankaran
With offerings such as Airvolution, AARive,
and the PAARTs store, and the promise of
more to come, independent MRO major AAR’s
Digital Services is buzzing with activity. While
the PAARTs store, a one-stop shop for over 1
million new and used parts in AAR’s inventory, If a digitized process were to make us more efficient and more
and AARive, which is a self-service portal for profitable but, in any way, negatively impact our safety posture,
the company’s power-by-the-hour (PBH) com- we would not pursue that avenue. Safety is and always will be
ponent support customers, were launched in our top priority.
2017, Airvolution, a cloud-based solution for
component repairs, was introduced into the How easy or difficult is it for independent MROs
market in October last year. Company officials like AAR to have access to big data?
say more launches are in the offing. Jim Gross - Data ownership has and will be the key to determining
the correct level of data users have access to. The big question
The company has also been increasingly using is who owns the data and what do they want to do with it. Does
new technologies in its MRO operations as the OEM own it as they have IP in place, or do the operators/car-
well, and over the last year, has worked with riers own the real-time data as they are the ones generating, or
a number of drone technology providers for do independent MROs like AAR own a portion of the data as they
aircraft inspections. AAR’s IT platforms include now have a vested interest from a repair perspective? There are
StAAR (Strategic Tools by AAR), APRISe (AAR many different ways to consume, digest, and interpret data, but
Performance Reporting Information System), until data ownership topics are sorted out, an independent platform
and IMOPS (Inventory Management and Order may not prove fruitful.
Processing System).
What makes Airvolution stand out? How has the
In an interview with Arun Sivasankaran, lead- industry reacted to the offering?
ers of AAR’s digital services team discuss Matt Kammerait, Digital Product Management Director AAR-
issues ranging from big data, data ownership, Airvolution is a cloud-based, self-service system offered by AAR
cybersecurity and new initiatives.
with a highly user-friendly experience created from decades of
experience managing enterprise resource planning (ERP). Users
Edited Excerpts from the Interview:
have full transparency into the component repair process to improve
What are some of the major efficiency and they receive full-service support integrated into the
system on an ongoing or ad-hoc basis. Every aspect of the process
benefits that digitization offers can be managed in one place, including price quotes, suppliers and
MRO companies? contracts, warranty claims, goal-setting and benchmarking, as well
Jim Gross, Chief Information Officer AAR - as price comparisons to ensure they are getting the best value.
Some major benefits of digitization efforts It is also unique in that it serves both commercial and govern-
in the MRO space are enhanced quality, ment customers and has no restrictions on aircraft type, including
increased efficiencies and lower costs. AAR helicopters and business jets. Airvolution is fully secure, provides
is continuing to monitor and assess the two-way feedback with existing business systems and offers scal-
effect of our digitization efforts and look ability for ongoing systems development and easy endpoints for
forward to the continued benefits they bring. integration.

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