Customers: The Challenge of Adapting Capacity
Working on a landing gear in Liebherr's service center in Saline
As a MRO provider of Landing Gear Overhaul you are always facing the challenge to have the proper capacity at your disposal in order to be able to respond to the market’s demand.
Whereas it is relatively easy to predict in theory the global market demand as Landing Gear Overhauls are monitored by safety regulation (maximum on-wing time or maximum landing cycles - whatever occurs first), it is difficult to predict what contract/s and when each MRO provider will get, as the market is very competitive.
It becomes even more complex when the Time Between Overhaul (TBO) extends: whereas it is of benefit for the operators as it generates a reduction in operating costs (although more utilization could mean the certain preventive / corrective intervention are postponed), it creates for the MRO providers:
- Over-capacity during the initial time the TBO has been extended.
- Peaks of demand that may generate under-capacity.
Moreover, as Landing Gear Overhauls require availability of rotables to fly the aircraft while the landing gears are in the shop, the variation in TBO has an influence on the size of the stock of rotables. Landing gear rotables are expensive assets, and therefore one easily understands that the MRO providers prefer to have them out flying rather than staying in the storage.
Consequently, MRO providers sell overhaul “capacity slots” adapted to their respective shop capacity and landing gear rotable stock level. Therefore, MRO providers must remain very flexible because the aircraft maintenance schedules are permanently moving and shifting due to the constraints of aircraft operation: It often happens that a landing gear overhaul slot booked two years in advance no longer meets the aircraft schedule when the time for overhaul comes…
Getting ready for the final assembly of a landing gear at Liebherr-Aerospace in Lindenberg
Few parts of landing gears are subject to traceability per safety regulation: back-to-birth records must be kept. If not properly addressed by the airline customer before the landing gear arrives at the shop, this may lead to a delay in delivery because landing gears cannot be reinstalled on aircraft until traceability is fully demonstrated.
The logistic of providing / getting back the rotable gear, getting all accurate back-to-birth documentation, receiving / shipping the gear for overhaul, turning the landing gear overhaul in the agreed shop processing time, developing repair schemes, remaining flexible with the capacity constraints and continuous changes in schedule, etc. make all this activity a quite complex equation and continuous challenge. A challenge that is the passion of our 200 employees dedicated to this activity for the benefit of our customers!
Liebherr has capabilities for landing gear overhauls in two locations, i.e. in Lindenberg (Germany) and Saline, Michigan (USA) with a total capacity of nine landing gear shipsets (one nose landing gear and two main landing gears) per month for civil aircraft, and is presently developing a facility in China.
In 2018, our Michigan facility has turned 87 legs for regional jets, while the German facility has turned 39 legs. In addition, they provide landing gear overhaul for Liebherr landing gears installed on helicopters and military aircraft programs.
From these two existing facilities, Liebherr is actually servicing for example the E-Jets landing gears from AeroMexico (Mexico), Air France (France), AirLink (South Africa), Azul (Brazil), BA CityFlyer (UK), Egyptair (Egypt), Envoy (USA), Fuji Dream (Japan), J-Air (Japan), Lufthansa CityLine (Germany), Republic Airways (USA), Tianjin Airlines (China), and Transtates (USA). We are also servicing many airlines regarding Embraer ERJ landing gears.
