Transitioning defence aerospace support solution to service commercial sector maintenance repair and overhaul

Civil aviation as an industry has driven continued growth using third party MRO providers. This growing market attracted Defence organisations to explore the business opportunities of servicing in the commercial sector but they will face significant risks to overcome a large initial handicap before they can compete. This research compares the service requirements of MRO systems in defence sector and commercial sector to identify gaps between the two servicescapes. This paper contributes to defining the servicescapes between defence and commercial MRO service systems and enables the relevant service providers to be responsive to customer requests, but with scope to tailor the final design, and identify system efficiencies in the transition. A new support system is then designed for the defence organisations leverage off experience in the design and support of military aircraft to migrate to adjacent market. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group