CASE STUDY: China Aircraft Services Limited Digital Transformation Journey

Author: Khaled Fhmmawy, Head of Technical Services, China Aircraft Services Limited

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Before diving into the story of CASL’s transformation into a digital, data-driven, and paperless MRO, let me first introduce you to the business at the heart of this journey, China Aircraft Services Limited (CASL): who they are, where they operate, what they do, and how they revamped our maintenance operation.

CHINA AIRCRAFT SERVICES LIMITED (CASL)

Located in Hong Kong International Airport, China Aircraft Services Limited (CASL) is a joint venture between China National Aviation Corporation (Group) Limited, Hutchison CCF Investments Limited and China Airlines Limited.

At China Aircraft Services Limited (CASL), line maintenance is the cornerstone of their business, with approximately 200 aircraft transits handled daily. To support this, they operate multiple offices across Hong Kong International Airport, ensuring proximity to aircraft stands and rapid response times. Their line maintenance services include transit operations, lesser checks, and a substantial volume of scheduled maintenance tasks performed overnight averaging around 300 maintenance man-hours per night. Leading Hong Kong carriers such as Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Express, and Greater Bay Airlines rely on CASL to carry out their scheduled overnight maintenance. A key component of CASL’s line maintenance offering is cabin cleaning, which includes both routine and overnight deep cleaning services. They also provide ramp services such as water servicing, air conditioning, and AOG management, along with outstation support to ensure operational continuity beyond Hong Kong.

Additionally, CASL operates a hangar located at the South Perimeter Road of Hong Kong International Airport. The facility is capable of accommodating a mix of wide-body and narrow-body aircraft, with the capacity to hold up to five narrow-body aircraft simultaneously. The hangar is fully equipped to support a wide range of base maintenance activities, including heavy maintenance checks, structural repairs, complex modifications, full aircraft paint and end-of-lease inspections for Airbus A320s (across all engine types) and Boeing 737s.

CASL offers supply chain management solutions, with Airbus Flight Hour Services (FHS) operating directly from CASL’s warehouse, as Airbus’s contracted distribution hub in Hong Kong.

In addition to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) approval, CASL is approved by several international aviation authorities, including China’s CAAC, EASA, FAA, India’s DGCA, Korea’s KOCA, the UK CAA, and Thailand’s CAAT.

THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The APAC region began its serious recovery from the pandemic early 2023, later than some other parts of the world. This delayed rebound brought significant challenges across the market. Many organizations, including CASL, faced a shortage of experienced personnel due to retirements and career shifts during the pandemic. At the same time, logistical constraints and a surge in demand placed additional pressure on MRO operations.

Traditional processes and legacy systems proved inadequate to meet the new reality. The ability to compensate for such shortfalls with abundant resources was no longer an option. CASL figured out at an early stage that, to be able to cope with the increase in demand, it had to adjust its system and processes, in order to operate successfully with the new market standards.

ACQUIRING A NEW MRO SOLUTION

CASL has gained valuable insights into the process of selecting and implementing a new MRO IT solution. These learnings, illustrated in Figure 1, offer practical recommendations for organizations embarking on a similar digital transformation journey.

Figure 1

The first and most critical step is to understand the current state of the business. Outline the existing procedures and identify the pain points that need to be addressed. Clearly defining operational needs and improvement goals is essential before evaluating any new technology. Technology should not be adopted for its own sake, nor should legacy systems be replaced without a clear understanding of the desired outcomes. A thorough assessment of current processes, improvement targets, and strategic objectives must guide the selection of a suitable system. Once requirements are defined, the next step is to evaluate available solutions. Study your options, adopt proven solutions and do not just go anywhere for the name. What worked in other MROs might not be the suitable solution for your business. Recognize the options that might better fit your operation.

Choose your implementation team carefully. It is often observed that when MRO leaders and decision makers want to implement a new system, they tend to assign their most experienced technical personnel to the project. However, these technical experts have their own daily duties which means that the implementation will lag because they’re busy with their daily work. What is needed is a balanced team, combining competent individuals who are fully dedicated to the implementation with those who bring the necessary technical expertise to bridge operational gaps.

Cultivate an environment that supports and embraces change. We say change management as if it is a fact, but human beings are not accustomed to change and we don’t like it. Even the most experienced, skilled and flexible people will find change difficult. Recognizing this challenge and fostering an environment that shares a mutual goal, while clearly understanding the purpose and objectives, is key to successful transformation.

We also need to understand that the ‘all in one’ solution doesn’t exist. Each organization must determine which system best meets its operational needs and integrates effectively with the other existing systems. Avoid falling into tech FOMO with the ‘fear of missing out’, especially when adopting emerging technologies like AI. This tendency is often observed when organizations pursue advanced tools without first mastering foundational elements such as business intelligence, data collection, and process refinement. Without a solid structure in place, the desired outcomes cannot be supported. The key is to clearly understand the objectives and define a practical path to achieve them.

CASL AND EMPOWERMX

In 2023, CASL selected EmpowerMX for its base maintenance operations, an IFS company and a well-renowned MRO solution provider.

Transition from Paper-Based to Digital Workflow

Prior to implementation, CASL base maintenance operated with a heavily paper-driven process. For example, when a mechanic needed to raise a nonroutine (defect), it had to be documented on a piece of paper, along with the required spares, and then passed to the documentation control bay. The documentation controllers would then enter the information into the legacy system, initiate the spare parts order, and forward it to the Material Control Team. This paper-based system lacked control and traceability. If a nonroutine form went missing, it could go unnoticed until someone inquired about it, creating operational and compliance gap. The process was especially burdensome during critical phases of the maintenance visit, such as the inspection stage, when a high volume of non-routine forms were submitted simultaneously. This led to delays in defect reporting and spare parts ordering, impacting overall efficiency and turnaround time.

With the implementation of EmpowerMX, CASL digitized this workflow by replicating the paper-based process electronically, allowing operations teams to input data directly into the system. This shift significantly improved reporting speed, traceability, and accountability. While full digitization – including maintenance documentation and digital signoff – is still underway, many workflows are now executed electronically by engineers and mechanics, marking a substantial step forward in operational modernization. Figure 2 demonstrates how this transition has led to significant improvements in operational efficiency.

Figure 2

Optimizing Workflows Through Project Management Tools

EmpowerMX system also introduced a new method for organizing and tracking maintenance progress, replacing traditional Gantt charts and master plans with a more dynamic and task-driven approach.

Prior to the aircraft induction, CASL organizes maintenance tasks using a structured, criteria-based grouping model. Rather than assigning individual job cards directly to technicians, tasks are first consolidated into groups, each defined by shared characteristics such as required access, required skill, tooling, work area, and any special conditions. This grouping process transforms large work packages (e.g., 1,000 job cards) into a more manageable set of 150 to 250 task groups. Every group is assigned to a start date based on a percentage of the check length. These task groups are then mapped to milestones, which serve as key progress checkpoints throughout the maintenance visit. As a result, every task inherits its start date from its assigned group and its target completion date from the corresponding milestone. EmpowerMX calls this model the Optimal Maintenance Flow. The Optimal Maintenance Flow contains 60-80 milestones and simulates an accordion effect, expanding or contracting based on the length of the maintenance visit, allowing for flexible and scalable planning.

During a maintenance visit, progress is monitored through milestone tracking. Each milestone is plotted on a status graph that displays the total number of open task cards associated to it. As job cards are closed, the count decreases, indicating task completion. Simply stating that a task is finished is not enough, if related job card is not signed, the work is still incomplete. To provide clear visibility, milestones use a color-coded status system:

Blue: Not yet due

Amber: Due within the next 24 hours

Green: Completed on time

Green with red border: Completed, but delayed

This milestone-driven approach delivers real-time insight into progress, minimizes the need for micromanagement, and empowers frontline teams to self-manage daily activities. Meanwhile, planners and project managers can oversee the operation through preplanned milestones and groups.

Figure 3 illustrates how CASL uses the status graph for milestone tracking and resource allocation management.

Figure 3

The status graph also offers labor plan tracking where CASL progressively validates the quality of the initial estimate made during the quotation phase. During the quotation phase, planners forecast the total man-hours required for the check. Once the work package is loaded in the pre-dock stage, the estimate for routine tasks is displayed as a portion of that original figure. The difference between these two values represents the anticipated workload from non-routine cards (NRCs), which serves as a critical KPI for planning accuracy.

As NRCs are generated and mechanics add time estimates, this gap begins to close, gradually aligning with the original quotation. A variance within ±5% indicates strong planning accuracy, while larger deviations highlight under- or overestimation. The status graph also includes indicators that compare planned burn rates with actual resource deployment. This provides a real-time view of labor utilization, enabling production management to monitor whether staffing levels align with the projected workload and make timely adjustments to avoid delays or overstaffing.

The Aircraft Status Dashboard

The aircraft status dashboard is another tool CASL found to be extremely useful, offering a comprehensive real-time view of project performance. It tracks budget performance, actual versus planned timelines, and workforce deployment, including how many and who is assigned. It also monitors task completion rates, man-hour burn rates, and highlights critical issues that could impact the critical path, while providing senior leadership with a clear timeline of major milestones. A traffic light system underpins these metrics, enabling quick identification of risks across areas such as job card closures, man-hours, and logistics performance, supported by live monitoring of both routine and non-routine activities.

Labor Performance Metrics

Figure 4 illustrates a fundamental truth in MRO maintenance operations: labor hours are the core product. This is what prompted CASL to embark on this transformation journey and improve its labor collection and management tools. EmpowerMX provides advanced tools and algorithms to accurately map, monitor, and track labor utilization in real time.

CASL monitors booking compliance (attended versus actual hours), efficiency (estimated time versus actual time taken), and overall productivity. For example, if a task estimated at one hour takes two, efficiency drops to 50%; if completed in half an hour, efficiency rises to 200%. Productivity combines these factors to show how effectively resources are being used. In simple terms, estimated hours represent billable output, while attendance hours reflect payroll cost, making this metric a clear indicator of revenue versus expenditure.

Figure 4

Progressive Settlement Tools

Another powerful feature CASL has adopted is Empower’s settlements tool, which streamlines the entire invoicing process. Before each maintenance check, the system allows the commercial team to create a digital contract that defines all labor and material terms. Task cards are linked to specific billing codes, enabling the system to automatically track non-routine cards and material orders for progressive settlements. This means the final invoice can be generated as soon as all job cards are signed and the Certificate of Release to Service (CRS) is issued, often before the aircraft departs. Previously, producing a labor invoice could take several months; now, with the newly adopted procedures, it happens on the day of release. This improvement has significantly enhanced transparency and customer satisfaction.

Material Management Tools

Coupled with a massive revamp in the warehouse infrastructure and operations, CASL has been making significant strides in digitizing its supply chain management operations. Previously, the legacy system relied heavily on paper records, requiring an entire room for storage, a major challenge in a high-cost environment like Hong Kong. Retrieving information meant manually searching through bins, which was both time-consuming and inefficient. Today, the process is transitioning to a fully digital flow. Our warehouse and assets are barcoded, enabling a seamless one-click entry system: scanning the bin, location, or dispatch area along with the asset instantly logs the transaction in the application. This transformation has eliminated paper dependency and greatly improved accuracy and efficiency across the supply chain.

EMBRACING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

What lies ahead in CASL’s transformation journey? Looking ahead, CASL is continuing to expand its digital transformation by focusing on Line Maintenance, which remains the core business pillar. CASL is exploring advanced digital solutions for this area, including EmpowerMX, as well as working to establish a dedicated Business Intelligence unit which will enable the MRO to capture, refine, and leverage data to enhance decision-making and optimize maintenance processes. Building on this foundation, CASL plans to integrate emerging technologies such as AI and create seamless links between technical publications and its M&E systems.