Decision support method for contracting of non-original equipment manufacturer aero engine maintenance repair and overhaul service providers.

Non-Original Equipment Manufacturer (Non-OEM) Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) service providers of aero-engines are facing challenges resulting from the rapidly changing MRO market. They need to offer innovative service solutions to airlines through, for example, PSS (Product Service Systems) offerings that combine service(s) and products. PSS can be achieved by either servitisation to add service offerings to products or productisation to add tangible products to service offerings. Currently, however, MRO contracts that include PSS offerings have been prepared based on experiences and intuitions. Ideally, these contracts should be designed to bring about a win-win situation for both airlines (as customers) and MRO service providers. This research aims to develop a new robust, scientific method to prepare contracts for decision makers of non-OEM MRO service providers. The research began with studying current general situation of the PSS in the aero-engine MRO market as well as, in particular, of a Non-OEM MRO service provider. From these, this research first identified sufficient key parameters that describe MRO operations with regard to flight operations of customer airline. A computer-based simulation model was built to assess the capacity and capability of the shop floor operations taking flight operations of the customer into consideration using the discrete event simulation. The simulation model was run over a set of systematically and exhaustively created combinations of different types of services and products. This has helped in selecting the most favourable combinations services and products, which can lead to the win-win situation for both the airlines and the MRO service providers.