Indo-Pacific MRO Series: Insights from MTU Maintenance Zhuhai and its Jinwan Branch and the Spanner Squad Initiative

MROs around the globe are engaged to obtain quality accessions to meet the attention-getting projections CAE issued this 16 June. The document noted, in part, 416,000 aircraft maintenance technicians will be required around the world in the next 10 years.

This is another in a series on how Indo-Pacific region MROs are responding to the imperative to recruit, train and retain maintenance professionals. In this article we’ll look at two diverse yet complementary developments: the progress at MTU Maintenance Zhuhai to address these three waypoints through a professional’s career at its legacy facility and at its Jinwan branch which opened in March 2024; and the rapidly maturing Spanner Squad Initiative that focuses on the left side, the recruiting part, of the maintainer’s career.

MTU Maintenance’s Wide, but Precision Focus

Friedhelm Kappei, Director of Operations Jinwan, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai provided important lessons learned and other insights on the company’s efforts to build and mature its workforce for the two China locations. CAT followers may recall that MTU Maintenance Zhuhai is a joint venture between MTU Aero Engines and China Southern Airlines.

This 27 June, Kappei recalled MTU Maintenance started recruiting for the Jinwan location (20km (12.4mi from Zhuhai)) around two years ago, just about at the same time as construction of the facility began. “It was important to do this well ahead of time, since some of the positions require 1-2 years of training to acquire the required qualifications.”

As part of MTU’s strategic strategy, in 2023, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai also opened a brand-new training center at its original maintenance site, where its existent and new engine experts are able attain and maintain the necessary qualifications in a structured manner from day one. The executive emphasized that having such a purpose-built center and a harmonized approach to training, which offers practice docks with entire engines and modules, as well as classrooms for theory and language lessons, ensures that MTU’s quality standards are met and upkept.

“The next step in our education concept at the Jinwan site training using a dedicated PW1100G-JM GTFTM engine. Starting this July, all newcomers will undergo this on-site training,” director of operations said, and continued, “The major lesson learned during the staffing of Jinwan is that it is important to not only focus on hiring students or new industry entrants, but to build a well-balanced workforce of newcomers and experienced aviation professionals who can impart their knowledge to the apprentices.”

The executive also reiterated that as previously mentioned, the original Zhuhai site has a training center for this exact purpose: to best prepare and develop current and apprenticing mechanics for their careers at MTU Maintenance Zhuhai. “The GTFTM program has been part of Zhuhai’s portfolio since 2021, so there is a deep well of knowledge to draw upon to train newcomers and transfer expertise to the Jinwan location.”

Kappei provided other insights on workforce activities in the training and retain domains.

MTU Maintenance will further invest in its maintenance professionals by putting a focus on cross-qualification within the Jinwan plant and across the two MTU Maintenance Zhuhai sites. “Additionally, because Jinwan will be growing for the foreseeable future and plays a vital role in the further development of MTU’s operations in Zhuhai, it will offer unique career opportunities for the staff.”

Elsewhere on the enterprise’s roadmap, much like the rest of the MTU Maintenance network, MTU Maintenance Zhuhai offers sustainable growth and a chance to work in the international aviation environment with the latest product portfolio. The executive concluded, “Evolving technologies such as automation, AI-supported processes and repair development also provide our new mechanics and engine experts with fresh and exciting ways to stay on the cutting edge of engine MRO and even shape the Zhuhai operations on an on-going basis.”

Enter the Spanner Squad Initiative

Complementing MTU Maintenance’s training perspectives – especially on the left-side (recruiting) of the career continuum – is the evolving Spanner Squad Initiative. Stewart Todhunter, Creative Director, and Denis Manson, Technical Director at Ten Hammers, explained to the author this 26 June, the Spanner Squad has coalesced from an idea from a decade ago when it became obvious that attracting more women to aviation technical roles would become a critical path for the industry. In the years since the pandemic, this need has become exponentially more urgent.

“The industry knows it needs more people—so where will they come from? The answer lies in reaching underrepresented groups: women, Indigenous people, those from non-English speaking and lower socio-economic backgrounds—individuals who may never have considered aviation as a viable path, or have perceived too many barriers,” the executives emphasized and pointed out, Ten Hammers, works in this space developing language training resources and is now launching The Spanner Squad. “Echoing the 2024 International Women’s Day theme, we aim to ‘accelerate the action.’”

The Spanner Squad is an animated series aimed at girls aged 12–16, showcasing the world of aircraft maintenance as colorful, fun, and inclusive. Inspired by the Geena Davis Institute’s mantra, “you can’t be it if you can’t see it,” the show mixes humor and realism to highlight STEM careers as accessible to all.

Todhunter and Manson staked out a unique role for The Spanner Squad in the very broad effort to attract more women into this industry’s maintenance workforce. The executives noted The Spanner Squad seeks to attack the problem of female representation in aircraft maintenance, and technical aviation roles in general, from a different angle. They added there are many organizations established to encourage and support women in aviation. “The support networks and scholarships provided by these organizations are essential, fantastic, sorely needed, and are having a positive effect. But still the statistics say the overall female numbers in aviation technical roles is much the same as it was during the 1980s. The Spanner Squad wants to portray 'the industry of the future', where this gender struggle has largely been won!” the executives said and declared, “There is no need for support networks because there is now equal representation of women in the workforce and, more than that, women are highly respected for their leadership and their experience, their mentoring, their decision-making, their empathy and their creative troubleshooting.” The Spanner Squad has female leaders who excel in both technical and non-technical skills.

The executives said they were currently working with a limited budget but have scripts, storyboards, and talented animation interns from some of Australia’s best technical and creative universities, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Queensland University of Technology, helping develop characters and brainstorming ideas. “As we grow our assets, we’ll be seeking opportunities for wider promotion.”

The Ten Hammers team has also advanced The Spanner Squad during Halldale live events. Manson recalled at APATS 2024 he flagged the idea with the Singapore branch of the Women in Aviation group, and they were very enthusiastic about the possibilities. “At WATS this year, I spoke to their US counterparts, and they are hugely supportive of the idea and are willing to contribute an endorsement for when we seek funding.” Beyond these events, the team expanded its outreach to a number of organizations including high schools, aircraft maintenance training colleges, psychologists with special interest in kids career decision-making, Indigenous organizations, and even pilot and cabin crew groups.

The Spanner Squad will soon be sending out an Expression of Interest for respected and experienced women in the industry to form an Advisory Board to guide character and story development. “We hope this will consolidate a lot of our ideas and guide the tone, authenticity and impact of the initiative,” Manson revealed and advised the community to “keep an eye out for the start of some small promotional initiatives using social media and maybe some special giveaways at APATS 2025!”

(Author’s notes: Individuals interested in The Spanner Squad are invited to contact Denis Manson at denis.manson@tenhammers.com. Denis Manson, Technical Director at Ten Hammers, will provide an APATS 2025 Day 2 27 August Session 7/3 Presentation, “Mind Your Language: A Safety Strategy to Analyze Language Patterns for Maintenance Procedural Safety Gaps”.)