CAPA launches new MRO Matrix with unique features

Main points

• CAPA - Centre for Aviation has launched its state of the art MRO database, the CAPA MRO Matrix
• The CAPA MRO Matrix contains numerous unique features:
  
  • Updates are delivered daily in real time, fully-online with no update cycle;
  • More granular coverage, with over 6,000 contracts across 53 contract types, instead of just letter-checks; every ATA-chapter of components;
  • Completed historic contracts, allowing faster access for individual parts;
  • Contract end dates for approximately 40% of all contracts tracked;
  • More cost-effective and flexible membership;
  • More user-friendly interface with export capability and seamless integration online with CAPA's whole range of data products (eg live links to CAPA's Fleet Database).

The CAPA MRO Matrix will be presented in full for the first time at
MRO Americas, 10/12-Apr-2018

CAPA's MRO Lead, Andy Webster, says "Our aim is to differentiate from earlier MRO databases on the market by delivering information faster, near to real-time and across all ATA chapters of component deals.

"Rather than CAPA members being told what time-frames to forecast search, the MRO Matrix can provide the functionality to customise contract end or beginning dates to the user's needs or specific market. This will enable sales teams to reduce the time spent keeping current with market developments and approach available airlines & lessors forearmed with information, including previous expired customer relationships."

MRO Capabilities Summary chart example

Source: CAPA MRO Matrix

Since beginning the development project nearly five years ago, CAPA has painstakingly gathered data and incoming information before refining each category down to best represent it in its entirety. This uses the current terminology of the market and reflects latest trends.

For example, MRO software, composites and 3D-printing types of contract are covered.

Features of the CAPA MRO Matrix

In developing the MRO Matrix, an early decision was made to buck the trend for data suppliers to either ignore or cherry-pick component coverage.

Instead, the MRO Matrix covers every area for fixed wing aircraft and uses the familiar ATA-chapter headings.

Extract from the CAPA MRO Matrix

Innovating again, the CAPA MRO Matrix tracks over 6,000 contracts (and growing daily), across 53 types types of contract activities - many more than any other database. These are described in the glossary and contribute to CAPA's preferred approach of reflecting the whole of the market, not just letter-checks.

For further information on the MRO Matrix and CAPA's other database offerings, please contact Andy Webster, Lead - MRO

Elements of the CAPA MRO Matrix: components analysis example

Among most data providers and industry watchers, the conventional wisdom is that components aren't important, and the OEMs have the market sewn up. With these attitudes rife, decisions are made to ignore sections of the marketplace, rendering it difficult to build and use tools that encompass components and OEM company activities fully.

CAPA has monitored the market for nearly five years before refining our findings down to a dataset. A review of the real situation delivers the true scale of announced contracts over the past five years.

Summary of contracts announced 2013-2018

The fact that it is completely live and online means that the MRO Matrix always has the latest data without any tedious update-cycle - in common with all of CAPA's data and news services. Producing 400-500 news stories every working day of the year gives us a unique capability to update all details in real time, as with the CAPA Fleet Database.

The MRO Matrix also provides a truly seamless interaction of the data points and company names.

This measure of signed contracts shows component-related contracts form a surprisingly large proportion of the marketplace, especially so if the ancillary services are factored in, not just component repair. These include spares provision, logistics, lease/loan and so on. Moreover, component-related services are almost exclusively outsourced among operators who still do the majority of their own MRO work.

Source: CAPA MRO Matrix

This forms a strong marketplace of suppliers and is rife with competition and differing service types. Take, for example CAPA's ranking of logistics suppliers:

MRO Matrix Ranking of Logistics providers

While landing gear (ATA-32) and cabin systems clearly dominate the activity of both providers, avionics and navigation feature more prominently in UTC's offering.

This is explained by UTC's various business units and OEM role, plus the tendency for AJW to provide 'all components' services to their customers in Power-by-the-Hour agreements - thereby distributing their respective ATA-chapters more evenly.

Such an analysis of competitors will help to provide context for evaluating activities - or act as a quick-reference before meetings and calls.

There is also a large variance in the geographic provision of component MRO types.

In component retrofit, there is a good spread of activity across the globe with Europe and North America dominating equally; whereas a look at pool access contracts (where the operator wishes to guarantee availability for rotable parts from a provider's 'pool') shows it being more important to the European market and Southeast Asia and North America in joint second place.

Global overviews of pool access contracts

For the first time, such visuals provide a useful awareness of the market from a meta perspective.

Do the big OEM suppliers really have the third party market largely to themselves?

Source: CAPA MRO Matrix

Contrary to widely-held belief, OEMs account for only two-fifths of the whole component-related market, leaving a lot of business to independent component service providers.

With only a further quarter of the market taken by the 'big 4' (AFIKLM, AJW, LHT and AAR), there leaves over a third taken by independent or airline-owned MRO companies. Such a spread is somewhat surprising and warrants further investigation.

A noteworthy tangent to the OEM/independent discussion and with the increase in big-ticket merger and acquisition activity, it's interesting to investigate what has happened to AerData and Boeing's combined market share for MRO software contract wins over the last few years.

Prior to the 2014 merger, combined they were in fourth place in 2014 and lower the year after, but since then have stormed in to second place on CAPA's unique leader board, out-selling all competitors. It seems that after a slow start the might of the Boeing sales and marketing teams have come good and produced a strong performance for the AerData branded MRO software.

MRO leaderboard

Looking at the market in a new way with fresh tools can offer some important insights, particularly where it is possible to look at broad strokes simultaneously with individual performance.

At CAPA, we call this "gaining an unfair advantage" (borrowed from one of our beta-testing members' compliments) and are excited to welcome our members to the MRO Matrix.

Extract from the CAPA MRO Matrix: 3rd party MRO contract timeline

API connectivity allows much greater flexibility

The MRO Matrix builds on the extensive CAPA Fleets database, which offers hours/cycles and ownership, histories, and more of worldwide commercial aircraft fleet and now we offer API connectivity for all data aspects.

This is designed to help power CRMs, Tableau integration, analytics/graphing, intranet and other system applications - "everything we gather is now available to get 'piped' to you via API."

About CAPA and our MRO Matrix and Fleet databases

Established for nearly 30 years, CAPA has established itself as the world's leading provider of aviation news and analysis. Increasingly over the past few years, we have expanded our data offerings, all of them on highly flexible and user friendly platforms.

CAPA's philosophy toward data products reflects our members' desire to customise their output and take only what they want to use. This means that we allow customised date-range searching, rather than providing limited pre-determined points in time, for example.

And finally, all-new to the market is our OEM supply data, built over the same time and within the same structure as MRO.

So as well as tracking tier-one and -two suppliers to aviation platforms, those companies that cross over into aftermarket services can be properly reflected.

We're just beginning to demonstrate the power of this data for members and look forward to seeing how the very first eyes on it will inform their growth and strategies.