Lufthansa Technik Group

How can Lufthansa Technik Group (LHT) become a sustainable and resource efficient maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company by means of digitalization?

Build a scalable baseline for a clean and sustainable MRO business by measuring and increasing the transparency of the CO2-Footprint of LHT Group via digitalization based on the example of a repair process in the Aircraft Component Service segment. The Aircraft Component Service is a comprehensive component repair and overhaul service for selected parts or the complete aircraft. Repairs and overhauls as well as modifications are all performed directly at the customer’s facilities or on behalf of LHT in the selected workshops.

Description of the company
Lufthansa Technik is a global leader in maintenance, repair and overhaul services as well as modifications in the aviation industry. With tailor-made maintenance programs and the most advanced repair procedures, we ensure the reliability and availability of our customers' aircraft. We are independent of aircraft manufacturers and internationally licensed as a repair, manufacturing and design company. With more than 23,000 employees and over 35 international subsidiaries, the Lufthansa Technik Group offers a complete service to around 830 customers around the world in its Maintenance, Overhaul, Equipment, Engines, Aircraft Systems, VIP Services, Innovation and Digital Fleet Service business units around aircraft technology.

The project is provided and supervised by the IT department as well as the Quality Management Department.

Initial situation
Sustainable value chains and zero emissions goals per 2030 are becoming prominent, also for the aviation industry as well as the Lufthansa Group.

The ambition levels are rising across the Lufthansa Group and at Lufthansa Technik to meet current and upcoming requirements regarding sustainability from different stakeholders such as customers, legislators, investors, partners and employees.

Some flagship projects within the Lufthansa Group have been started to reduce carbon footprint of businesses from green fuel & energy, circular economy to compensation.

Currently, except for the reporting and ISO14001 Certificate of Lufthansa Technik, little is known about the original causes and producers of emissions on product, process and service level. In this context Lufthansa Technik aims for an overall reduction of the carbon footprint up to 25 % until 2025.

At present, there does not exist an agreed proceeding or blueprint on how to identify the relevant emission drivers of carbon footprint. To obtain a first insight the relevant data needs to be collected in order to assess how sustainable a product is being manufactured or repaired.

Problem
How can IT impact and align commercial and climate approaches of business segments (first mover advantage) in the next years?

To start with, how can products, services and processes be measured digitally e.g. in terms of their carbon footprint and other sustainability KPIs?

Therefore, the Information Technology Department intends to foster the Environmental Social Governance strategy of LHT, which is currently taking off together with the segments in order to identify a relevant and scalable use case for increasing transparency.

Aims of the project
We are strongly convinced about digitalization as being a key driver, having a decisive role to develop and push Lufthansa Technik towards a „cleaner“ MRO business.

By identifying, extracting and interpreting the relevant data having impact on a sustainable production process we are able to set up a valid and scalable blueprint within the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul processes. If we are able to measure the environmental impact of our action we can improve our business in order to become more sustainable.

Scopes

Identification of relevant emission drivers for the CO2 footprint having an impact on a sustainable business of the Aircraft Component Service
Definition of metrics and conceptual design
Identification of relevant data sources
Interpretation of extracted data
Design a blueprint which can be adaptable to a standard MRO process

Target group (Students)
We are looking for highly motivated students with advanced knowledge in the following study programs: