Boeing advances aftermarket recovery with data-driven supply chain innovations

Boeing Global Services signals a cautious rebound in the aviation aftermarket as increased production rates and supply chain reshuffles prompt new strategies to stabilise parts availability and repair operations, leveraging data tools and secondary markets.

Boeing Global Services says the aviation aftermarket is entering a recovery phase after a prolonged period of strain caused by pandemic-era disruption, workforce change and episodic supplier failures. According to Fl...

ightGlobal, William Ampofo, a senior vice-president at Boeing Global Services, warned that rising original equipment manufacturer production rates have put renewed pressure on the same supplier base that supports maintenance, repair and overhaul activity. “The challenge is, now that the production cycles for OEMs have lifted, and [OEMs] are doing rate breaks, it’s putting demand on the supply base,” he said. “We’re not over the hump. Definitively not,” he added. “We really are in recovery mode.”

The aftermarket’s adjustment since Covid-19 has been structural. The sector consolidated rapidly as smaller operators struggled and larger groups combined; industry consolidation included the integration of Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney and United Technologies under RTX. At the same time, retirements of experienced technicians and engineers have left capability gaps across supply and maintenance chains, while isolated incidents such as the explosion at an SPS Technologies facility and problems related to new-generation engines produced spikes in parts demand and maintenance workload.

Boeing says it has concentrated efforts on interventions it can influence rather than attempting to rework the whole global supply system. The company established a supplier recovery team last year and has deployed engineering and technical resources to help affected suppliers increase capacity and raise productivity, according to Boeing. Job listings for Boeing Global Services’ Supply Chain Engineering supplier recovery team describe responsibilities that include on-site process stabilisation and implementation of manufacturing improvements to restore supplier delivery and quality performance.

To smooth parts availability Boeing has expanded several commercial offerings. The company is rolling out and enhancing its Parts Planning Hub, a collaborative forecasting platform that allows MROs to share purchase forecasts and inventory data with Boeing and receive real‑time supply alerts. Boeing says the hub’s collaborative forecasting enables the company to optimise stocking plans and prioritise supplier activity based on customer-specific requirements. According to Boeing’s product materials, a pre-launch pilot delivered a roughly 7% improvement in part availability, and customers that share data have “seen an 8-10% improvement in their on-time delivery just by sharing data”. Boeing has also updated the hub’s dashboard, user interface and help resources to increase ease of use and transparency.

Boeing is widening other supply options. The company is increasing capacity for Used Serviceable Materials, offering a consignment model to provide inspected, airworthy previously used parts as an alternative source of spares. Boeing’s materials note that the USM market is valued at about $7 billion, with projected annual growth near 10% and more than 400 aircraft expected to retire each year, factors that support a larger, more active secondary-parts market. Separately, Boeing has renewed a master distribution agreement with Collins Aerospace for wheel and brake components, keeping those product lines available through Boeing’s aftermarket sales, rotable exchanges and repair services for another three years.

Boeing’s services revenue has grown since the mid-2010s but the company scaled back earlier ambitions after the 737 MAX crisis. Boeing Global Services reported about $20 billion of revenue in 2024; the parent company sold four digital businesses from the services unit, AerData, ForeFlight, Jeppesen and OzRunways, to Thoma Bravo for $10.6 billion in November. Boeing frames recent moves as a more selective approach to services growth and as a reorientation toward operational control and data-driven parts planning.

Data is central to Boeing’s strategy for managing constrained supply. Ampofo highlighted the role of aircraft-derived streams of information in shifting planning from reactive ordering to predictive, demand‑led stocking. “There’s streams of data that are coming off of aircraft… We’re trying to establish strong partnerships so that we understand the data profiles of our customers,” he said. Boeing says the Parts Planning Hub and the company’s broader forecasting work let it run simulations and planning models that feed into warehouse and supplier decisions.

Industry data and Boeing’s service announcements indicate the recovery remains fragile: quality issues have eased in some areas, but output is the primary bottleneck as demand growth for new deliveries and for maintenance continues to outpace supplier ramp‑up. Boeing acknowledges it cannot resolve every systemic constraint alone but is pursuing a mix of engineering support, supplier diversification, secondary‑market expansion and tighter customer collaboration to restore resilience to the aftermarket supply chain.

Source: Noah Wire Services