Engine Maintenance Consulting
Engine Maintenance Consulting – how it works:
Engine Maintenance Consulting partners Kabamba Aerospace expertise with the engine operator or fleet manager. The operator maintains their regulatory direct relationship with the engine OEM & MRO services provider as necessary – while benefitting from dedicated powerplant management support.
Kabamba Aerospace care may be advantageous for reactive single engine maintenance events as well as long term planned fleet maintenance.
Kabamba Aerospace remains independent from the MRO services provider and OEM; we do not receive any incentive or other benefits in providing impartial service to our customer.
Why Engine Maintenance Consulting?
To maintain objective control of engine shop visit costs. Especially new operators and those with a smaller or diverser engine fleet will benefit from Aerospace Engine Maintenance Consulting.
Operators should be able to focus on flying but planning for shop visits that may be years apart requires time invested. And when the unexpected happens, just when you least need the disruption, your partner will be there to minimize the impact.
Operators with main bases in remote places also benefit from EMC because the expenditure for a table inspection at an engine MRO facility can easily exceed the fees of Kabamba Aerospace.
Engine maintenance events – what to plan for?
Aircraft engine maintenance events can be classified into on-wing and off-wing events.
Kabamba Aerospace has more than 20 years experience supporting on-wing repair or scheduled maintenance such as on-wing Hot Section Inspection (HSI), regular inspections to determine ongoing serviceability or even if there may be a service limitation. Kabamba Aerospace EMC will ensure the future value of the engine asset according to operational planning and obligation to the owner or lessor.
During off-wing maintenance events, the planned removal of an engine going to a qualified engine maintenance facility requires considerable effort and time to get right. Unscheduled events even more so to cover repair, module overhaul (specifically modular engines, such as the CFM56 series) or full engine overhaul in the worst case. Kabamba Aerospace EMC will ensure the least possible operational disruption, ensuring the right level of technical and commercial support at every stage.
What is Engine Maintenance Consulting?
Through a formal contractual relationship Kabamba Aerospace EMC picks up mid-life or at the beginning of an operational phase.
Continued support to the fleet manager will ensure all MRO decisions are made with foresight and understanding of what options are available. Fleet planning will determine through regular review and scheduled intervention the ongoing inspection and maintenance requirements for single engines or fleets.
Targeting the optimum service health of the fleet will reduce the risk of unscheduled events such as borescope findings, FOD, metal-in-oil, overtemp, overspeed, overtorque and even trend deterioration.
Engine Maintenance Consulting typically addresses:
- Supporting the fleet manager to decide which service partner. E.g. reviewing RFQs to understand the service offering
- Lease engine search and evaluation of the commercial agreement
- Negotiation of terms for lease engine
- Negotiation with bidders for the shop visits to establish the best possible terms and conditions for the operator
- Preparation of a comparative table enabling the operator or fleet manager to take an educated decision on which service offering to choose
- Establish the lines of communication to ensure the shop understands the operator expectations
- Oversight of the induction process, including missing parts required for the shop visit
- Evaluation of Quotations or Cost Estimates received, including recommendations on which strategy to choose – new replacement, used serviceable, exchange and repairs
- Whilst an engine is being processed for a shop visit, oversight of warranty management including claims for individual parts, or OEM components and total engine warranties
- Communication with engine MRO services provider during the entire shop visit, with the operator being copied at every stage of the process
- Detailed cost estimate review with a focus on total maintenance event cost, engine durability and TAT – ensuring the customer is able to make informed decisions
- On-site (at engine MRO facility) table inspections of engine parts and engine components. Kabamba Aerospace engineers may support or represent the customer at the MRO shop
- Follow-up on shop visit progress to ensure TAT commitments are fulfilled
- Logistics support including sourcing of engine crates and service partner
- Detailed review of shop visit release documentation
- Detailed review of final invoice
Benefits of turbofan Engine Maintenance Consulting and turboprop Engine Maintenance Consulting
The team of Kabamba Aerospace brings to the table more than 70 years of combined experience in processing turbine engines for MRO and more than 1.000 completed engine maintenance events, ranging from on-site repairs in the field through to full overhaul.
Kabamba Aerospace experience and knowledge of the aircraft engine MRO market results in a substantial reduction of engine maintenance event cost which can range from 5% on larger engines (e.g. CFM56) to more than 20% on smaller engines (e.g. P&WC PT6A & PW100 series).