INGENIEUR
Maintenance Repair Overhaul
Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) is
essential in the aviation industry to ensure that
aircraft are well maintained to pre-determined
airworthiness condition to safely transport
passengers and cargo. Maintenance procedures
may include maintenance on the aircraft itself
and their components such as the landing gear
and jet engines. Whereas for aero-manufacturing,
it can be related to high-technology companies
that produces the aircraft parts and components
such as the airframe, engines, propulsion units,
guided missiles and space vehicles. All these
elements are assembled under one integrated
system to enable them to work together to achieve
an intended purpose; for example the avionics
in the cockpit of an aircraft. Malaysia has quite
a number of education and training institutions
that produce a highly trained workforce to support
local operations as well as graduates that can
support the local aerospace industry and those of
neighbouring countries.
The last subsector Engineering and Design
Services is closely related to upstream activities
during the aircraft life cycle which is very dominant
in Europe and America followed by the Asia.
Though the MRO sector did not manage to
capture 5% of the global market share as targeted
in 2015, the Entry Point Project 1 (EPP 1) of the
Business Services National Key Economic Area
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2018
VOL 74
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JUNE 2013
(NKEA) has set a goal of RM13.4 billion with job
employment of 20,700 to be reached by 2020.
However, based on current growth rate, this might
not be achievable unless the right measures are
taken to make a rapid improvement. Several
initiatives have been implemented as per MAIB
2030. One of these is to improve the industry
structure and regulation whereby Malaysia
Aerospace Engineering (MAE) is free to develop
its own strategy to serve more customers which in
turn will raise the capital for expansion since MAE
already serves other airlines besides Malaysian
Airlines. The key step to achieve this is to invite
strategic partners that can invest in building
existing capabilities such as airframe maintenance
and by providing strong expertise in areas such as
engine repair, components and avionics. Other than
that, the Civil Aviation Authority Malaysia (CAAM)
has been gradually adopting the European Aviation
Safety Agency (EASA) standards since 2006 and
by September 2011 its policies and procedures
related to the regulations, certification, approval
and examination was replaced by EASA standards.
In August 2011, an Industry Working Group
(IWG) was established by MAS Aerospace
Engineering (MAE) to discuss the development
of the domestic and international businesses
and their human capital needs. Others in IWG
included AIROD Aerospace Technology as Deputy
Chair and six others MRO-related companies
as members. The EPP champions are the MAE,