Being able to predict the future has always fascinated human beings. In the 2002 movie Minority Report, a special police unit uses technology to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes. This, of course, raises many questions over morality and ethics.

Being able to predict the future has always been an important aspect of maintenance planning, too. Now, Big Data is increasingly being used to create predictive maintenance solutions, and this is the subject of our cover story (p22). The technologies involved are much less controversial than those utilised in Minority Report – after all, who doesn’t want to increase efficiency, reduce maintenance costs or avoid AOG situations?

Companies are already creating compelling predictive maintenance ‘reports’ of their own. It is a fascinating topic with fantastic solutions already available, but there is a great deal more potential to be realised. There are also barriers still to overcome, such as data sharing. We spoke to five experts in the field to get their views on what the future might hold.

Staying on this topic, MRO Management and publisher Real Response Media are putting together a conference all about predictive maintenance to be held in London in November, with between 100-150 senior level executives from airlines, OEMs, MROs and Big Data experts expected to attend. We hope you will join us and welcome any ideas, suggestions or questions you might have.

Elsewhere in this issue, we explore the latest developments in the component MRO market (p38) and put the spotlight on A320 family (p32) and V2500 engine maintenance (p44). We also hear from Andy Wheeler, managing director of AMETEK MRO group company AEM, who having been at the company for more than 40 years has a compelling story to tell. We also bring you our array of regular columns, including some valuable insights in ‘Industry voices’: AAR’s Ryan Goertzen explains how to build partnerships for mutual benefit, while we explore some of the intricacies of component repair in a piece written by Navhouse’s Chris Kostakis. In ‘Green Sky’ we ponder what hangars of the future might look like, while the successful implementation of Safety Management Systems is the subject of ‘Legal matters’.

I hope you enjoy reading the issue; if I had the technology used in Minority Report to hand then I’m sure I’d be able to say with confidence that you will!