The DLR Institute of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul is dedicated to shaping the future of aviation through research and technology transfer. With its vision of “We Maintain Mobility for a Sustainable Future,” the institute focuses on life cycle analysis, maintenance technologies, and the optimization of digital processes to improve technical operations in aviation.

What to expect

Arguably, one of the biggest innovation fields in the current aviation industry is its digital transformation. With its vast technological challenges, various aspects of a digitalized aerospace sector have been subject to numerous research fields within DLR already. At the Institute of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul in Hamburg-Finkenwerder, we develop new maintenance concepts and failure-prognostics-based strategies to streamline aircraft operations by enabling tailored and efficient maintenance measures. As part of your work, you will develop a process simulation framework based on representative engine maintenance procedures that allows the parametric assessment of varying restoration extents, repair technologies, and levels of deterioration. Therefore, you will analyze current maintenance procedures based on historical data to identify commonalities and typical work flows during such a shop visit. Additionally, you will need to identify possible metrics to evaluate the process quality and characterize different maturity levels of the utilized maintenance technologies. Finally, your developed framework will allow a parametric assessment to (a) determine break-even points for adapted failure-prognostics-based maintenance strategies with conventional approaches and (b) demonstrate improvement potential by introducing specific task assistance technologies.

Your tasks

• Thorough literature review of in-shop maintenance process and aircraft engine maintenance fundamentals.
• Analysis of exemplary historical shop maintenance processes to identify relevant parameters for the process description.
• Development of a process simulation model to allow the analysis of implications on the respective in-shop maintenance procedure for different input parameters, e.g., projection degradation and maintenance needs or different task assistance technologies.
• Conducting comparative economic analyses for different engine concepts (e.g., hydrogen combustion engine) and maintenance approaches (e.g., automated diagnosis) to identify expected challenges and define minimum performance criteria.
• Identification of hot spots, i.e., areas with the highest impact on an improved in-shop maintenance process.

Your profile

• Master’s degree in aerospace engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, or similar
• Knowledge of aircraft maintenance procedures and about different aviation stakeholders
• Experience in process modelling and BPM software, e.g., ARIS
• Sound understanding of aircraft engine components and their interaction
• Willingness to dive into new topics
• Problem-solving skills and capability to work independently
• Fluent in English and German

 We look forward to getting to know you!