Tooling and hangar flow visibility that protects turnaround.
An aerospace MRO operator lacked visibility of calibrated tooling, aircraft parts, towable assets and mobile equipment across large hangars and apron zones, where search delays drive AOG risk.
The programme and figures on this page come from an earlier work by our advisers. The client name is withheld under NDA. Figures are as reported at the time. Named references are available under NDA when you engage.
What they were up against.
Tool & part search delays
Calibrated tooling and parts were hard to find across large hangars.
Apron asset blind spots
Towable and mobile equipment went untracked airside.
AOG risk
Search time directly threatened aircraft turnaround.
Earlier work by our advisers. Client name withheld under NDA. Client name withheld under NDA; figures as reported at the time. Named references available under NDA. We model your own numbers when you engage.
Independent, tied to a named KPI.
A hybrid indoor-outdoor stack: RFID for serialized part and tool traceability, BLE RTLS for indoor hangar visibility, GPS for apron, yard and airside fleet, and utilisation analytics for dwell and idle-asset insight.
What the engagement delivered.
- RFID serialized part & tool traceability
- BLE RTLS indoor hangar visibility
- GPS apron, yard and airside fleet tracking
- Utilisation analytics: dwell & idle-asset insights
Results in this engagement
“We reduced wasted movement, improved asset readiness, and accelerated maintenance operations.”
Head of engineering, airline MRO (client anonymised)
The stack behind it
More case studies like this.
Baseline, method, period and what we excluded.
This page describes an engagement our advisers led in earlier roles. The client name is withheld under NDA. Figures are as reported at the time, with published industry sources where noted.
- Baseline: Hangar turns planned from tribal knowledge; tooling and job status scattered across boards.
- Method: UWB/RFID on tooling and job carriers joined to MRO work-order timestamps; turnaround measured gate-to-gate.
- Period: One hangar line for a major check type, then template to sister lines.
- Excluded: Cosmetic maps that never change the daily production meeting.
Programme context
Hangar flow programmes locate stands, kits and aircraft-position work packages to compress turnaround. Zone RTLS plus RFID on kits is typical.
Daily production meetings must consume the data or the project dies.
Outcomes in this engagement and how they were earned
Outcomes: less waiting on missing kits/tools, clearer bay utilisation, improved turn predictability.
Lessons from this engagement
Lessons: start with one heavy check product; integrate planning systems; avoid airport-wide day one.
Deeper problem framing
Turnaround waits on kits, stands and missing information. Maps that planners ignore waste CapEx.
Approach
One heavy-check product first; kit RFID + zone RTLS; production meeting ritual change; planning system join.
Outcomes and measurement
Wait minutes on missing kits, bay utilisation, turn predictability.
Governance, risk and what we refuse to claim
Figures from this engagement only. Your payback depends on adoption, integration quality and exception labour, not tag unit cost. Named references under NDA on engagement.
We challenge any supplier who asks you to accept demo-day averages as production truth.
Implementation sequence and change management
One aircraft product line; kit identity; bay zones; planning join; production meeting redesign. Avoid airport-wide day one.
KPIs: wait on kits/stands, turn variance.
Buyer checklist, supplier challenges and engagement shape
For hangar flow, bind kit/stand visibility to the planning meeting agenda before buying campus-wide coverage.
Buyer checklist before you sign: (1) written system of record for events; (2) acceptance tests with 95th-percentile performance under real interference; (3) integration owner named in IT/OT; (4) privacy or labour consultation path if people are tagged; (5) cybersecurity zoning sketch; (6) five-year TCO including batteries, spares, recalibration and SLA escalations; (7) exit/export terms so you are not hostage to a cloud tenant; (8) a pilot that can fail without political punishment.
Supplier claims to challenge in this pattern: brochure accuracy without production load; 'compliance included' without artefacts; ROI that assumes perfect adoption in 30 days; references that cannot be called under NDA; install partners who have never worked your vertical's overlays; shared support accounts; and any design that dumps locating onto a flat plant or clinical VLAN.
How TRACIO typically engages: stage-1 architecture and measurement design; independent shortlist and RFP language; pilot acceptance criteria; then optional implementation oversight or programme rescue if a prior pilot stalled. We don't sell hardware, so our advice stays independent. Pages like this one exist so you can prepare the workshop. Your numbers replace every planning band when we model payback.
Risk register themes that recur: mute fatigue on alerts; shadow spreadsheets reappearing beside the platform; battery logistics understaffed; master data too weak to support identity; works-council or IG review starting too late; and success declared on demo day before night-shift reality.
Document baseline windows explicitly: what you measured, for how long, which shifts, and what you excluded. Investment committees and auditors both punish fuzzy before/after stories. If your baseline is weak, spend two to four weeks fixing measurement before ordering anchors or portals. That discipline is cheaper than a stranded deployment and is the difference between a locating programme and a technology souvenir.
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Hangar & MRO reality
Independent advisory means the radio is chosen last. After the job, the constraints and the system of record are clear.
Tool control that survives a turnaround
Map FOD risk, calibrated-tool custody and hangar flow before a radio is chosen.
Independent, aviation-grade
Shortlists respect on-metal tags, hangar RF and the MRO system already running, not a partner programme.
Integrate to the maintenance record
Events land in the system engineers already trust so accountability outlives the pilot.
Measurement
Baseline: hangar move times, tool/kit wait, and bay utilisation samples. Pilot: one bay or flow corridor with location events tied to the MRO system. Steady-state: mean time-to-stage a job, bay turn, and open “where is it” tickets. Figures are as reported in this engagement.