Three Levers for MRO TAT Recovery

The MRO reality

Brian Jones, Partner at AlixPartners, opened with the structural picture: an aging global fleet now averaging nearly 15 years — a year and a half above historical norms — combined with OEM delivery delays forcing airlines to defer retirements. The result is a surge in engine checks that shops hadn't planned for, at a time when labor shortages and supply chain constraints are compressing capacity from both ends.

Tariffs and defense ramp-up are adding pressure on the commercial side. Demand is strong. Conversion to throughput is the problem.

Three levers that move TAT

1. Material visibility — see what you already have

Marc Rivière, Principal Industry Solutions at Pelico, reframed the parts problem: in engine MRO, the question is rarely "order a new part." It's whether to repair, pull a rotable from another visit, or use an FAA-certified alternate — and that decision needs to happen in hours, not days.

Most shops can't make it in hours. Planners call three people. Two hours later, someone pulls from a spreadsheet that's already out of date. The shop floor keeps working the wrong engine because no one pushed the updated priority.

Pelico gives planners a live picture across procurement status, repair orders, rotables, and alternates simultaneously. One customer reduced material-related TAT by 40% in six months — not by buying new parts, but by seeing what they already had.

2. WIP control — surface bottlenecks before they become blockages

The critical path in an engine shop moves constantly. Disassembly, cleaning, NDT, repair loops — the bottleneck at 8am is not the bottleneck at 2pm. Most shops know their theoretical constraint. They don't see it move in real time.

The window that matters is 48 to 72 hours before a gate becomes a physical blockage. At that point, there are options: expedite, transfer, reprioritize. After that, there aren't.

Pelico recalculates the critical path of each shop visit continuously, pulling live teardown status, repair confirmations, and vendor inbounds. One engine shop moved from weekly planning reviews — already outdated on arrival — to daily operational visibility where planners spent 30 minutes on exceptions instead of three hours building the picture.

3. Cross-functional alignment — the same operational truth, at the same time

Marc described the typical coordination failure: a quality finding or vendor delay triggers an email chain. Three days later, a decision arrives. The shop floor technician who raised the alert knew the answer on day one.

Those three days are TAT.

When procurement, planning, and the shop floor see the same priority list simultaneously, the coordination changes. Procurement stops waiting to be called. Stock transfers and alternate sourcing happen proactively. The collaboration becomes the throughput driver — not the technology itself.

The ROI math is direct: in a 400-engine-visit operation, a 10-point TAT improvement generates $40 million in value. That's the calculation Pelico runs for every customer before engagement begins.

Why most AI initiatives fail in MRO

Scott Chappell, VP at ATL Partners, noted that operators are increasingly open to creative solutions — PMA parts, DER repairs — because the bottlenecks are real and airlines need aircraft flying. The acceptance of non-traditional approaches is a market signal of how acute the pressure has become.

Marc addressed the AI question directly: the reason proof of concepts fail isn't the algorithm. It's that showing information is not the same as triggering action. A tool that delivers insight but requires a workflow change dies by week three.

Pelico's MRO solution works inside existing routines. Alerts fire when a critical part slips. Recommendations surface in the planner's morning view — transfer this rotable, approve this alternate, reprioritize this engine. The planner acts. The ERP updates. The loop closes.

The next step is automation: purchase requests generated and sent by the platform, fully controlled and human-approved.

The numbers

Engine TAT: 3–4 months historically → exceeding 200 days today

Technician shortage: ~20% projected through 2028

Material-related TAT reduction: 40% in 6 months

Part shortage reduction: 72% in 6 weeks

WIP reduction: 20% within 12 weeks

TAT value in a 400-engine shop: $40M per 10-point improvement

Learn more

Watch the full webinar.

---

Panelists: Brian Jones, Partner, Aerospace & Defense Practice, AlixPartners — Scott Chappell, VP, ATL Partners — Marc Rivière, Principal Industry Solutions, Pelico

‍