With the soaring costs of acquiring new assets, the Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO)  industry is booming.  But to remain a viable option to new purchase, and to effectively extend the life of assets already in service, the MRO industry itself is faced with the challenge of providing better service in the form of quicker cycle times and lower costs.

MRO is uniquely complex in that one often doesn’t know the amount of work to be performed until the asset is taken out of service and disassembled.  This uncertainty, combined with the fact that MRO involves aspects of project management, production operations and supply chain management, makes the MRO business difficult indeed.

Afinitus—MRO Specialists

Afinitus consultants have extensive experience in both commercial aviation and defense manufacturing and MRO Operations. Two of our principals began their careers as engineers with Boeing.  In addition, we have more military MRO experience than anyone in the TOC consulting community—working with wheeled and track vehicles at the Marine Corps, helicopters and jet aircraft at NAVAIR, submarines at NAVSEA in all four of its shipyards, and with helicopter repair and overhaul at Sikorsky aircraft.

Our method includes using Critical Chain Project Management to plan, schedule, execute and control both overall asset MRO projects as well as major subassembly projects such as jet engine overhaul.  In the back shops, or support shops, we use Simplified Drum-Buffer-Rope scheduling and execution to insure components are repaired and returned to the asset "on time every time" for reassembly.

We also incorporate aspects of Supply Chain Management and applicable, focused Lean and Six Sigma tools to optimize the entire operation.  The results of our approach have proven to be phenomenal:  repair cycle times have been cut by 25%-60%, leading to more assets being available for service at any given point in time.  In the military this means the increased readiness of the fleet.  For commercial airplanes, this means additional assets in revenue service.  In both cases it means decreased costs and a decreased need to acquire new assets (at great cost to the organization).

For just one example of our work, see the remarkable story of the Marine Corps Maintenance Center at Albany, Georgia here. 

Achieving world-class MRO effectiveness is a prize well worth pursuing.  Choose a partner who understands your business and knows how to improve it.  At Afinitus Group, LLC, we can help your organization reach that goal.