Case Study: Transforming Fly Exclusive’s In-House MRO into a Profit Driver

Overview

Fly Exclusive, a premier charter business in the United States, operates a fleet of private jets, including Citations and Learjets, delivering unparalleled luxury and convenience to its clientele. Beyond its charter services, Fly Exclusive also manages an in-house MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facility to maintain its fleet. Part of the company’s strategic vision, led by Chief Commercial Officer Mike Guina, was to transform its in-house MRO from a cost center into a profit driver.

To achieve this goal, Fly Exclusive partnered with Aero NextGen to address critical operational inefficiencies and unlock the full potential of their MRO. The collaboration focused on enabling performance management of technicians, streamlining operations, and harmonizing data across multiple systems.

The Challenge

Fly Exclusive’s MRO faced several pain points that hindered its ability to operate efficiently and profitably:

1. Disparate Systems: The MRO relied on three separate systems—Corridor (ERP), Paycom (Payroll), and Data Sage (Finance)—each providing different sets of data with no consolidation or standardization.

2. Lack of Performance Metrics: There was no mechanism to measure or manage shopfloor efficiency, leaving the team unable to track productivity or identify areas for improvement.

3. Operational Inefficiencies: Multiple shifts per day were running without benchmarked performance metrics, leading to missed opportunities to optimize capacity and utilization.

The Solution

Aero NextGen partnered with Fly Exclusive to implement a comprehensive solution that tackled these challenges head-on. The approach included:

1. Data Harmonization and Standardization:

   • Aero NextGen matched Fly Exclusive with technology providers specializing in data analytics to consolidate outputs from Corridor, Paycom, and Data Sage into a single source of truth.

   • Automated data standardization provided consistent metrics across operations, payroll, and finance, enabling accurate reporting and decision-making.

2. Performance Management Enablement:

   • Introduced tools to measure shopfloor capacity, productivity, utilization, and efficiency.

   • Established metrics to track inflow and outflow of work, open WIP (Work in Progress), and staff utilization by comparing paid hours to clocked hours.

   • Implemented insights into where hours were being clocked—on-the-job training, billable hours, or non-billable hours.

3. Benchmarking and Healthy Competition:

   • Enabled visibility into actual versus standard hours for all shopfloor activities, allowing Fly Exclusive to measure efficiency at a granular level—by department, work order, technician, and task.

   • Benchmarked shifts and technicians against top performers, fostering healthy competition and driving cultural change within the organization.

4. Proactive Shopfloor Management:

   • Provided real-time insights into shopfloor operations, empowering managers to identify and address idle time, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies proactively.

   • Reduced idle time by 5% through actionable insights, improving overall productivity.

The Results

The collaboration between Fly Exclusive and Aero NextGen delivered measurable results that aligned with the company’s strategic goal of transforming its MRO into a profit driver:

• Enhanced Visibility: Fly Exclusive gained full visibility into inflow and outflow of work, open WIP, shop capacity, and staff utilization, enabling data-driven decision-making.

• Improved Productivity: By benchmarking performance and reducing idle time, the MRO achieved a significant boost in productivity.

• Operational Efficiency: The harmonization of data across three systems eliminated redundancies and provided a clear picture of shopfloor operations, driving better resource utilization.

• Cultural Transformation: Benchmarking technicians and shifts against top performers created a culture of accountability and healthy competition, motivating the team to strive for excellence.

Testimonial

"Aero NextGen has completely transformed how we manage our in-house MRO. The visibility we now have into our operations is a game-changer. From tracking paid hours versus clocked hours to benchmarking technician performance, we’ve unlocked efficiencies we didn’t know were possible. Our MRO is no longer just a cost center—it’s becoming a profit driver."
— Mike Guina, Chief Commercial Officer, Fly Exclusive

Through its partnership with Aero NextGen, Fly Exclusive successfully turned its in-house MRO into a performance-driven operation. By addressing inefficiencies, enabling data-driven insights, and fostering a culture of accountability, Fly Exclusive is well on its way to achieving its strategic vision of making the MRO a critical profit driver for the business.

This case study demonstrates the power of leveraging technology, data analytics, and process optimization to unlock untapped potential in the aviation MRO industry.