Derby-based metrology specialist AddQual is seeing global aerospace maintenance demand continuing to surge, positioning its MiDAS platform as a critical solution for OEMs and MRO providers seeking to reduce inspection bottlenecks and accelerate decision-making across repair operations. While the aerospace sector has invested heavily in automation across manufacturing and assembly, many inspection environments remain dependent on fragmented datasets, manual interpretation and disconnected reporting systems. According to AddQual Managing Director Ben Anderson, this is creating increasing pressure as fleets age and repair volumes rise.
“The industry has become exceptionally good at capturing measurement data,” says Anderson. “The real challenge now is turning that data into actionable intelligence quickly enough to support operational decisions. OEMs and MROs don’t simply need more inspection — they need faster confidence.” AddQual’s MiDAS platform has been developed to address precisely that challenge. Rather than functioning as another standalone inspection tool, the platform aggregates, structures and contextualises metrology data from multiple sources, helping engineering teams identify trends, prioritise repair decisions and reduce unnecessary process delays. The system is increasingly being deployed in environments where turnaround time has become commercially critical, particularly within aerospace engine maintenance programmes where components are staying on-wing longer and arriving in more variable condition.
“Traditional inspection often creates a pass/fail outcome in isolation,” Anderson explains. “What MiDAS does is connect the inspection result to the wider engineering and operational picture. It allows businesses to identify patterns, understand degradation behaviour and make earlier decisions about repairability.” The business believes this shift from measurement to intelligence represents a wider transformation occurring across advanced manufacturing and MRO sectors. As inspection volumes continue to increase, AddQual argues that organisations relying solely on manual interpretation or disconnected reporting systems risk creating new bottlenecks downstream. By integrating automation, structured data and AI-assisted workflows, the company says its approach enables engineering teams to move towards a “fast-fail” philosophy — identifying non-repairable components earlier in the process and focusing valuable capacity on parts most likely to return to service.
“Every hour spent inspecting a component that ultimately cannot be repaired is capacity lost elsewhere,” says Anderson. “The future of MRO will depend on how quickly businesses can make informed decisions, not simply how quickly they can scan a part.” AddQual’s work is attracting growing attention from aerospace primes seeking to modernise inspection environments without replacing existing metrology infrastructure. Rather than competing directly with large enterprise software providers, the company positions itself as a specialist layer focused specifically on industrial inspection intelligence and operational integration.“The aerospace sector already has world-class inspection hardware,” Anderson adds. “What’s been missing is a way of unlocking the operational value hidden inside the data itself.”
