Lean Maintenance 4.0: Implementation for aviation industry

Abstract

Nowadays, for staying competitive on the aviation market the aircraft manufacturers face the need to improve the quality of aviation after-sales services. For achieving this goal, it is needed to improve the aircraft maintenance organization through various methodologies, such Lean and Industry 4.0. In this paper it was suggested to integrate Lean and Industry 4.0 approaches for aircraft MRO processes and simulate its implementation in discrete-event simulation system AnyLogic. The simulation process methodology and aircraft maintenance process flow chart are proposed in this article. The results show that Lean Maintenance 4.0 methodology could be implemented for aviation industry and increase the efficiency of aircraft maintenance system organization. Moreover, the simulation methods could help to identify the bottlenecks in this process and make a right decision about new technologies, such as Lean and Industry 4.0, implementation.