Time to meet our fourth Magnetic MRO expert - Dovydas. He is our Engine Material Sales Manager and here to share his expert opinion on what he thinks is the most challenging in his line of work and key things to follow to be the best in the market.
What’s the most challenging part of your work? How do you approach these challenges?
The most challenging part of our work is staying up to date with the aviation industry as a whole. We have to not only analyze engine parts market separately but see the big picture as well. It is well known that the market is very versatile and can shift very rapidly. One of the unpredictable factors are accidents, and they can have a significant impact on the engine as well as aircraft type demand. On engines side, a great example is CFM56-3. A few years ago it was thought that CFM56-3 material market is dying and a lot of companies seized to work with this engine type. However, demand for these engines grew substantially over a past year, and material demand followed with it, because of this and high scrap rates we can now observe a shortage of certain parts. We tackle these challenges by co-working and sharing different market view angles with all of our departments, as it helps us to not only grasp the bigger picture of the industry but provide professional and competent services to our customers.
Assessing the current status in the industry. How can you ensure that you are able to find a part when you need it? What is the current status in the industry?
It is challenging to ensure that all the parts are available when we need them. Nowadays it is a “sellers’ market”, and for certain parts, demand is higher than supply, so we have to be very aware of what is going on in the market.
Here at Magnetic MRO, we follow the strategy “buy smart, sell smart”, we procure surplus material when we are sure that it is going to be used in future or has a resale value afterwards, and we sell when we are confident that it will not create shortages for our own production projects. A most helpful tool to achieve this is is in-depth long term customer demand analysis. We keep track of what is and was demanded by all of our customers; this helps us to understand and forecast demand of certain parts, therefore brings us close to better chances of ensuring that the part is supplied once it is required in the current under-supplied market.
What are the leading industry events and expos you’d recommend? What are the key trends you’re observing at MRO Europe and other expos?
For those working with engines and their parts, I would recommend MRO exhibitions organized by Aviation Week and also AeroEngines conferences. The upcoming event will be held in Miami, FL. Which I think at the moment is the world’s engine trading hub. It is worth mentioning that attendee count grew almost by 26 % in 2019 so It is definitely an excellent opportunity to meet new faces and learn a lot from “old wolves” of the industry.
There are several key trends that can be observed at expos, such as MRO Europe. MRO providers across the globe are expanding their capabilities, and it is also worth mentioning that North American and European MROs are spending most on such expansions. However, the fastest-growing markets are Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
It is evident that there is MRO and Engine Shop slot shortage, and we are very aware of that. Analyzing trends in MRO and other expos, as well as our own business activities, helps Magnetic MRO to make individual decisions, such as having an Engine Shop. Also, by assessing current trends and demand in the market expanding its capabilities accordingly. One great example of such decision-making is acquiring Dutch line maintenance provider “Direct Maintenance” earlier this year.
To add on, I am noticing that more and more companies are offering innovative IT solutions to improve maintenance solutions, record track and reduce costs for Airlines, and most of those are based on artificial intelligence and blockchain.
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