The Human Element: Building a Digital-Ready Workforce

In our recent posts on digital airworthiness, we covered the strategy, the hardware (Aircraft Interface Device AID), the ground-based execution (MRO software), and the real-world implementation challenges (resources, data quality, and cultural friction).

The core takeaway from those hurdles is this: the investment in digital maintenance technology will fail if you do not equally, or even more heavily, invest in the people who turn data into airworthiness. The final, most sustainable competitive advantage is not the predictive model itself, but the digital-ready MRO workforce that trusts and acts upon its outputs, ultimately securing the long-term ROI of investments for digital aviation.

Photo by Ecliptic Graphic on Unsplash

1. Bridging the Credibility Gap: The Trust Barrier for Certifiers

The single greatest point of resistance to AHM predictive maintenance is the credibility gap between the data scientist and the certified engineer. A maintenance professional’s culture is based on verification, procedure, and tactile inspection, not trusting an algorithm's output alone.

Empowering the Part-66 Certifier

Digital tools must be positioned to augment the engineer's skill, not replace it. The systems only provide the what and when; the engineer provides the how and why.

When working as a Part-66 certifier, the highest priority was the safety sign-off, which required absolute certainty about the aircraft's technical status and history.

Crucially, the Certificate of Release to Service (CRS) is a declaration made by appropriately authorized personnel once it has been verified that the task being signed for has been properly carried out. As such, this person is responsible for the task, not any digital system or algorithm. Furthermore, such a declaration is NOT a statement of airworthiness of the aircraft; the ultimate obligation for airworthiness sits with the owner/operator.

The digital tool’s primary job is to support this legal obligation by:

Simplifying Records: Providing instant, immutable, and digitally signed records from the Electronic Technical Log (ETL) and MRO suite, drastically reducing the time spent retrieving paper history.
Contextualizing Faults: Delivering the predictive alert alongside the specific operational data that triggered it, allowing the certifier to verify the alert with high-quality, actionable context before signing off on the task.

2. Redefining the Role: From Firefighter to Risk Manager

The widespread adoption of Aircraft Health Monitoring (AHM) and digital tools fundamentally changes key operational roles. Aviation maintenance training must evolve from teaching simple software button-clicks to developing advanced analytical skills.

The MCC’s New Mandate

The role of the MCC engineer and duty manager is perhaps the most transformed. When operating on reactive maintenance, the MCC is a firefighter. With data, the MCC becomes a strategic risk manager.

During my time in MCC, a fault meant scrambling to diagnose and deploy. Now, MCC training must shift to:

Alert Interpretation: Teaching staff to distinguish a low-confidence data anomaly from a high-confidence predictive alert and understanding the financial and operational risk associated with deferring the maintenance.
Resource Orchestration: Using the MRO system's maintenance forecasting tools to pre-position parts and technicians, transforming unscheduled maintenance events into planned, shorter turnarounds.

The Part-147 Shift

For the Part-147 Line Maintenance Manager, the challenge is getting skilled technicians to embrace tablets, augmented reality (AR) instructions, and new diagnostic software. While I was managing Line Maintenance at home base for a Part-147 organization, the focus was always on hands-on practical skills. Now, training programs must integrate digital literacy in aviation maintenance: simulation training (like virtual aircraft trainers) and competency-based education (CBE) are key to bridging the gap between traditional mechanical skills and modern data-driven diagnostics.

3. Forging the OCC-MCC Partnership: Shared Situational Awareness

The Operations ControlCenter (OCC) and the Maintenance Control Center (MCC) traditionally have an adversarial relationship: Operations demands maximized utilization; Maintenance demands time on the ground. Digital data finally allows them to collaborate effectively.

During my time in MCC, communication with the OCC was frequent, intense, and often focused on negotiating the least amount of ground time. Now, the key is shared access to the same high-fidelity data.

OCC’s New Skill: The OCC team needs to be trained on interpreting maintenance risk data. They don't need to be engineers, but they must understand the probability of a dispatch delay associated with a predictive alert, allowing them to make smarter fleet decisions (e.g., swapping an aircraft hours before a predicted component failure occurs).
Predictive Dispatch: With AHM data integrated into both MRO and flight operations systems, the OCC can now proactively adjust the flight schedule to facilitate a planned, pre-emptive component change during a short ground time, thereby avoiding a high-cost, high-disruption AOG event later in the schedule. This joint situational awareness is a strategic imperative for improving dispatch reliability.

4. Breaking Down Silos Through Data Integrity

The human challenge is not just technical; it is organizational. The greatest digital benefits come from cross-functional alignment.

In my 30 years of experience, particularly while I was an ERP Data Migration Lead, I learned that data is the language that connects Engineering, Planning, and Finance. Digital tools require that these departments operate from a single source of truth.

Joint Training: Cross-functional training sessions should be a strategic imperative. Planners must understand how inaccurate part consumption records from the maintenance crew (an AMO task) corrupt the ERP's inventory data (a Finance/Supply Chain function).
Goal Alignment: Ensure that the metrics for the maintenance team (e.g., reducing Mean Time to Repair) align with the metrics for the finance team (e.g., reducing spare parts inventory cost). Digital systems facilitate this by providing transparent data that shows how one team's accurate input directly benefits the other.

5. Strategies for Building Trust and Buy-In

Building a digital-ready MRO workforce requires a structured change management strategy that focuses on early involvement and clear communication.

Involve Champions Early: Identify experienced, respected personnel, from Part-66 certifiers to veteran line technicians, to participate in the MRO system design and user acceptance testing (UAT). Their buy-in and validation are invaluable for overcoming peer resistance.
Communicate the "Why": Training cannot just be "how to use the system." It must communicate "why we are changing." Clearly show how the new system mitigates the pain points of the old system (e.g., less time spent writing up reports, more time fixing the aircraft).
Monitor and Iterate: Post-implementation, set up continuous feedback loops. The system should be modified based on field-level input from the maintenance teams to ensure the technology serves the workflow, not the other way around.

The digital future of aviation maintenance is an investment in technology, process, and culture. The most successful airlines will be those that realize the person holding the wrench, now augmented by data and integrated software, remains their most critical asset.

View Endnotes

Certificate of Release to Service (CRS)
The Certificate of Release to Service is a formal declaration that a task has been properly carried out, not a statement of airworthiness. The responsibility for airworthiness remains with the aircraft operator.
Source: SKYbrary Aviation Safety – Certificate of Release to Service (CRS)
Airplane Health Management (AHM)
Boeing’s AHM system supports proactive maintenance by providing real-time fault forwarding and predictive alerts, helping MCC teams transition from reactive to strategic roles.
Source: Boeing Global Services – Airplane Health Management (AHM)
Digitalizing MRO Training – Aerospace Maintenance
This white paper outlines how simulation, digital twins, and gamification can modernize MRO training and address technician skill gaps in a data-driven maintenance environment.
Source: TCS – Digitalizing MRO Training – Aerospace Maintenance
OCC of the Future Whitepaper
M2P Consulting explores how predictive data enables OCC and MCC teams to collaborate more effectively, improving dispatch reliability and reducing AOG risk.
Source: M2P Consulting – OCC of the Future Whitepaper
Why Airworthiness Data Still Breaks in Modern MRO Systems – And How to Fix It
EXSYN highlights how technically valid but operationally incorrect data undermines trust and cross-functional alignment in modern MRO platforms.
Source: EXSYN – Why Airworthiness Data Still Breaks in Modern MRO Systems – And How to Fix It