Maintenance in aviation enabled by Industry 4.0 technologies: exploring the current research trends using a topic modeling approach

Purpose - Since passenger safety is critical, aviation maintenance is essential. Aviation maintenance management is changing due to Industry 4.0 (I4.0). According to earlier research, I4.0 technologies improve aircraft manufacturing efficiency and responsiveness through automation, predictive maintenance and process self-optimization. Thus, this study examines I4.0 research and aircraft maintenance's potential interaction. Design/methodology/approach - Using a text-mining methodology, this paper looks at the state of the art in aviation maintenance research in the I4.0 era. We used the topic modeling approach and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) technique to analyze the abstracts and indexed keywords of 929 research articles on the intersection of aviation maintenance and I4.0, subsequently clustering them into eight topics. Findings - We have mapped out the emerging research trends at the intersection of “aviation maintenance” and “I4.0 technologies”, and presented suggestions for theoretical frameworks, applied frameworks and future lines of inquiry. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the systematization of literature on I4.0 technologies in aviation maintenance. It provides valuable insight for managers by exploring the implications and opportunities that arise in light of recent innovations brought by I4.0 in aviation maintenance. Originality/value - This study focuses on the use of Industry 4.0 technologies in aircraft maintenance processes, contributing to the growing research on digital technology in maintenance and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Furthermore, the study's analysis of the LDA topic model provides valuable insights for future research on using I4.0 technologies to investigate specific areas of application in the context of digital maintenance.