Asia Focus: Recruit, Train, Retain Civil Aviation Maintenance Professionals

Boeing’s Pilot and Technician Outlook 2024-2043 forecasted, in part, that 716,000 new technicians will be needed to maintain the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years. The commercial aviation industry is being proactive to meet this challenge. Insights from two diverse sources in Asia on efforts to recruit, train and retain maintainers are provided in this article. 

Meeting Recruiting Challenges

MTU Maintenance Zhuhai and All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) have strategies tailored to their home markets to meet the surging demand for technicians. 

The central goal behind MTU Maintenance Zhuhai’s recruiting efforts is to offer its newcomers not only the basic skills for the maintenance, repair and overhauling of aero engines, but also the means to continuously improve and develop their expertise thereafter, Gert Wagner, the organization’s President and CEO initially told CAT. The executive added, “This is why we have built an academy on our original site, so that we always have an influx of well-trained technical personnel for the current location and the new facility in Jinwan, which is scheduled to open in 2025.” Beyond recruiting locally, Wagner called attention to MTU Maintenance’s global presence – presenting its technicians with the opportunity to gather working experience internationally within the organization. “Many MTU technicians and almost all executives have at one time or another been able to go from one location to another and broaden the social and professional aspects of their careers,” the leader explained.

Elsewhere in Asia, Takehide Tamura, Director Planning, Education and Training, Engineering and Maintenance Center at ANA, told CAT that in Japan the popularity of the airline industry has been on a downward trend. He pointed out, “As a result, programs aimed at boosting the popularity of technical positions are being carried out in cooperation between the public and private sectors,” and added, “In addition, the Japanese government has initiated the recruitment of foreign nationals through the ‘specified skilled worker system.’”

Beyond the Human Component

While the majority of civil aviation maintenance tasks remain “hands on,” the community is slowly pivoting to include more technology in its technicians’ learning continuums.

MTU’s Wagner provided an important place-holder in this discussion, noting “As of yet, we do not utilize immersive technologies in our training processes, as MRO is still very much a hands-on environment,” but significantly added, this is not to say, that there will not be an important part for learning technologies in the future. “MTU has already delved into augmented reality to research new ways of driving engine technology forward and if we find some applicable uses for MRO, we will certainly employ them – especially if it makes the work more efficient and precise. With respect to gaming, we are looking to potentially adopt some great ideas from our siblings in the MTU network, specifically from MTU Maintenance Canada and EME Aero in Poland, which have been very successful with ‘escape room’ challenges as part of their training curriculum. In addition, we conduct recurrent training to keep the staff sharp with periodic refresher courses in their respective fields of expertise.”

With the accession of Generation Z and other older, tech-savvy individuals into maintenance organizations, when might the broader community see a more pronounced pivot toward these and other technology-based instruction strategies?

Wagner responded, “That’s hard to predict.” The organization leader emphasized for the foreseeable future, every part on and in an engine will have to be removed and reinstalled by a skilled technician and tooling. And every technician must be a hardened expert in the theoretical and practical subject matter. “The tooling will, of course, in time get better or even smarter, but the human component must remain part of the work. There are already tools in use that can make access around an engine much more ergonomic and user friendly. MTU Maintenance Zhuhai, for example, uses the Fixed Overhaul System (FOS) for the disassembly and assembly of PW1100G -JM engines. Constructed like a giant ‘T,’ the mechanics are able to affix two engines on the cross-arms and access them from almost any position. Compared to traditional tooling, this is a massive step forward in terms of efficient MRO practices.”

The MTU leader further caught the author’s attention when he introduced the notions of digital twin and data in this discussion. Wagner validated the use of virtual engine twins is also gaining traction in the industry as a result of all the data that the engine OEMs supply, the data MTU collects during shop visits and through remote monitoring of the engine on-wing. “That all helps us in producing better diagnostics ahead of a shop visit and compare it with the real-world engine when it comes in. We go in with a smarter MRO strategy and can offer the customer a better, more cost-cognizant service,” the leader concluded.

Eyes on Technology and CBTA

ANA’s Tamura offered that his organization believes “that it is essential to have practical experience to obtain motor skills, such as ‘assembly,’ ‘removal,’ and ‘installation,’” and said “It may be necessary, therefore, to standardize/systemize the motor skills needed by technicians and establish a training environment.”

Yet, ANA is also open to integrating more technologies to enable its learning programs. The training leader noted experience gained via on-the-job training may need to be repeated through off-the-job training. “In order to compensate for the lack of work experience, training using a Virtual Maintenance Trainer is becoming more and more common. In addition to this, we believe that the development of scenario training based on the concept, ‘threat error management maintenance (TEM)’ can also contribute to minimizing operational risks,” and significantly concluded, “We are now cooperating with other countries to develop our maintenance training through the CBTA program.”

APATS 2024

The author looks forward to gaining additional insights on maintenance training developments focused on Asia during APATS 2024.