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[ INTERVIEW : AAR ]
Since its introduction to the market, Airvolution has improved our its way through each company and across the
customers’ turnaround times and helped to reduce and control entire industry. One thing we’re really excited
costs. about is that the market outlook for aviation
is incredibly strong, and we anticipate more
How challenging is it for the company to prove people than ever taking advantage of the con-
the value of its digital products to customers? venience and global access it provides.
Matt Kammerait - Any digital product essentially has two com-
ponents, the product or technology itself and then the Change Our hope is that 10 years from now, a digital
Management initiative required to integrate it into the organization’s and data-driven approach will be the norm.
workflow and ensure its success. While change is never easy, we This will also mean that a lot of manual, menial
find that the digital conversation really opens up new avenues for work performed for companies and systems to
us to engage with our customers at a deeper level, understand their interact today will be automated in the future,
business better and provide value that goes right to the bottom line. freeing up our amazing talent to focus on the
strategic “big picture” and that everyone in any
Is AAR currently working on any new digital role across the organization will have an incred-
offering? ibly powerful toolbox of technologies to enable
and enhance the way we serve our customers.
Matt Kammerait - We’re constantly scouring our industry and others
for new technologies and opportunities. We have an innovation What are the steps that AAR has
process that helps us to vet out those opportunities, incubate taken to ensure cybersecurity?
them and bring them to market. While we can’t yet discuss what
our next big launch will be, I’m very confident in that process and Thano Pfaff, IT Director AAR- With many com-
its ability to produce innovations that address our customers’ pain panies today, cyber is high on the risk chart,
points and meet real world needs. and the aviation industry is no exception to
that. However, with the ever-growing need to
Is AAR using drones as part of its MRO connect externally with customers, partners
and other third parties for online services and
operations? collaboration, there comes additional risks.
Matt Kammerait - We’ve been working with a number of UAV (com- AAR takes a risk-based, in-depth defense
monly called Drone) technology providers over the last year and approach to cybersecurity. Areas we focus on
have just recently selected a partner we’re really excited about. within cybersecurity range from awareness
Drone scanning has some very real and immediate benefits when training, configuration management to strong
it comes to inspections, situational awareness and critical process authentication protocols all which aligns with
checks for MRO operations. We’ll have more to share about that NIST standards.
program and partner sometime in the near future.
How much of an impact will
predictive maintenance have on
the industry in general?
Matt Davies, AAR Airinmar Technical Services
General Manager - I think the biggest impact
we are seeing on the industry is the ability for
operators to have parts and maintenance staff
available while the aircraft is still in flight, ready
to avoid AOGs and passenger delays. I have
not seen the same level of maturity with detect-
ing and rectifying errors between operator and
repair station. A fundamental issue to remem-
ber with predictive maintenance is that the part
has rarely failed in accordance with the AMM.

As a result, unless it is made clear to the repair
How different will the MRO landscape look, ten station that you have removed a part for a pre-
ventative maintenance reason, there is a good
years from now? chance it will be inspected in accordance with
Matt Kammerait - Ten years is an eternity in the technology world. the criteria in the CMM. At AAR, it is critical to
That being said, we see some really interesting seeds being planted document the detailed reason why a part has
at the moment through technologies like augmented and virtual been removed and for our repair shops to carry
reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, in addition to our maintenance in accordance with both the
the core journey of digital business transformation that is making CMM and instructions on the repair order.

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