Software Tools

Suppliers discuss the improved efficiency, visibility and connectivity possible through comprehensive and modular software systems.

In Greek mythology, a king named Sisyphus must forever roll a boulder up a steep hill. In some sense, the volume of data required to keep commercial and military fleets flying seems like that boulder, and the hill is the perpetual demand for base and line maintenance during the lifetime of multiple aircraft. Every aircraft operator has to find the most labor and cost effective path up that hill, and means to bring that boulder down to size. Luckily, there is a wide range of software tools available to help manage the world of MRO tasks, both in-depot and on the flight line.

MRO software collects, condenses, analyzes, upgrades and presents information that can be rapidly routed within an operator’s business structure so it is accessible when and where needed.

The information technology (IT) essence of software allows visibility of all the key elements involved in successful MRO throughput, as well as connectivity among a company’s complex business functions. This ultimate overview clearly shows the crucial contribution made to bottom-line profits by every AMT, engineer, company officer, and outsourced supplier involved in generating the thousands of data points within the macrocosm of the MRO industry.

The Efficiency Factor

MRO companies provide many different services but work constantly to improve efficiency. The definition of efficiency varies. Heavy maintenance shops, for example, may be more focused on making their work force training levels more consistent, which affects average time to complete repairs. A small commercial carrier or third-party MRO may be seeking IT capability but on a limited budget. Large carriers continue to require expanded connectivity options to reduce flight delays related to line maintenance. The military requires stringent inventory control to meet cost targets and yet keep sufficient parts available for aircraft called into combat at a moment’s notice.

Based on customer experience, suppliers of MRO software interviewed here offer definitions of efficiency ranging from "getting the right parts and technical support to the right place at the right time" to "reducing business complexity" and "reducing software implementation and usage complexity." John Snow, vice president of marketing and business development for Enigma, commented, "Among our customers, efficiency equates to reducing aircraft downtime. A work force will execute faster using software that is intuitive and automates data retrieval tasks previously performed manually."

Removing the Pain Points

AM also asked software suppliers, "Beyond efficiency, what does your software do for your customers that convinced them to invest in your particular system?" Snow’s answer was simple. "Our software helps remove pain points in MRO activities." Examples of pain points include time-consuming data input of maintenance manuals, lag time between planning and maintenance execution, and the challenge of verifying the accuracy and relevance of best practice information and service bulletins.

Snow cited Iberia Airlines in Spain as a customer adding efficiency and decreasing pain points. Iberia performs more than 50 C-checks a year for its own fleet as well as acting as a third-party MRO on aircraft for 48 other companies. During the past year, the operator has implemented the InService Job Card Generator that is part of Enigma’s 3C software platform. "Maintenance job cards can often exceed 1,000 pages in defining the AMT tasks within a work flow package," he explained, "They use this module with a customized user interface to generate maintenance task cards that include all relevant maintenance information by tail number for every aircraft being serviced."

Snow added, "It’s always been a manual process to figure out the appropriate maintenance tasks needed for a specific aircraft tail number at a B-check. Our software automatically captures such specifics from relevant MRO engineering data, combines it with the proper tasks and subtasks from the maintenance manuals and adds it into the job card. Any last minute maintenance changes, unscheduled maintenance or non-routine activities can also be added readily."

Iberia’s application of the Enigma software to both legacy and newer aircraft has resulted in an 80 percent reduction in the time needed to produce job cards compared to manual data entry, and has eliminated the time wasted looking for the latest service bulletins and revisions.

Another Enigma module, Revision Manager, takes the pain out of determining the "most recent" version of complex documentation by highlighting changes and revisions in maintenance manuals, service bulletins and other critical paperwork. It is used to investigate content updates from OEMs that may conflict with temporary revisions (TRs), customer originated changes (COCs) or other service supplements implemented by an airline. "By automating the procedures associated with vetting new material," Snow reported, "Revision Manager simplifies the process of accepting or rejecting each change."

Enigma 3C is built on a Web-native N-tier architecture, which Snow mentioned makes it faster to configure and deploy solutions because the software was specifically written to leverage the Web. "We also utilize a range of existing Web services to easily integrate Enigma software with IT and MRO software systems already in use by customers (such as Oracle, IBM, SAP, MXi, and others)."

Paperless Operations

Vince Doherty, vice president of sales and business development for AviIT, described the pain point of accessing and verifying most recent and complete documentation for MRO tasks in these terms, "Document version control is a nightmare for most multi-location repair facilities. And it can be made worse when you add a remote user or a user servicing an aircraft on the ground." His company’s software answer to this nightmare is its eMan and Archimedes products.

AviIT’s eMan library management software enables nearly any portable device to rapidly access all documentation and maintenance/repair applications through wireless or mobile phone data networks such as 3G and GPRS. This "thin client" access and connectivity with the most up-to-date information, "allows everyone to feel safe in the knowledge that they’re working with only the latest data so they can quickly identify and isolate problems," said Doherty. "During a recent live trial of eMan for potential customers, we demonstrated major reductions in problem resolution and repair time, especially in terms of the alternative, having to go back and forth between an aircraft and the nearest PC in the office or hangar."

AviIT’s Archimedes/Airboard product uses the in-flight communication system, ACARS, to send warning and fault messages from aircraft en route to the appropriate engineers in an operator’s maintenance control center environment. "This enables diagnosis of a problem to begin immediately so that appropriate resolution can be achieved as soon as that aircraft lands and arrives at the gate," Doherty explained. The combination of eMan and Airboard, then, provides tools and information needed to resolve technical issues in the shortest possible time.

Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd. (MAEL) encountered the growing complexity of document version control in trying to keep aircraft engineering technical manuals current, which was made more difficult by its geographically diverse operations with multiple OEM and customer data sources. The company’s legacy software and hardware simply made this mission-critical service impossible to manage. The implementation of AviIT’s eMan brought significant time savings to MAEL, with engineers and techs spending more time on the shop floor and less in the library. The eMan portal approach to a single, centrally controlled version of technical documentation, with a wide-range of communication links, speeds up document addition and revision and has greatly simplified version control for MAEL.

Lean Logistics

Connectivity and visibility benefits through real-time tracking are realized for customers whether doing base maintenance or on-wing service with Component Control’s Quantum Control Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

As explained by Jocelyn Scott, vice president of customer services, "On the MRO side, the templating is based on component repair and overhaul. So the user can define templates to include multiple work scopes based on part number and application to a specific aircraft. For on-wing maintenance, the user can build a maintenance forecast from an aircraft configuration stored in the database. Work recording will update the configuration and maintenance schedule. Both modules seamlessly interact with inventory, purchasing, and outside servicing of components, and use a billing method based on contract requirements."

This ERP software has been designed with "lean logistics" or processes with simple steps that reduce effort, frustration and confusion, by way of a customizeable graphic user interface. "Because this interface is matched to customers’s exact processes, they are more likely to use the software technology effectively rather than just tolerate it," Scott added. Knowledge about the software in use and training are key to getting the most out of technology. "In our experience, most gaps in software solutions are more related to user experience than true software functionality.," Scott said. "We provide a way to close those gaps, not only with our customized interface but also with a forms designer module, a screen designer module, and embedded best practices that enhance current business processes. Quantum Control is fully operational from project start, so users can quickly adopt these built-in best practices and processes."

This January, AAR Corp. selected the lean logistics of Quantum Control ERP to replace an in-house parts tracking system at AAR Landing Gear Services’s Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, repair station. The Component Control software is powered by an Oracle 10G database and hosted at AAR’s Chicago headquarters data center, with the Malaysian repair station remotely accessing the ERP tool. Within the Quantum software package, six modules will allow AAR "to simplify our inventory and outsourcing procedures and provide better repair services for our customers," commented Kevin Larson, vice president and chief information officer.

Another recent customer, third-party maintenance service provider Express-Jet Services, LLC, is using the Quantum Control ERP software to manage its composite, sheet metal, and thrust reverser maintenance and repair aircraft services in five U.S. and Mexican locations. "We wanted a comprehensive solution capable of quick implementation and scalability for future growth," stated David Williams, director of operations.

Last summer, Embraer began implementation of this ERP system within its global strategy for improving customer service by expanding aircraft maintenance service centers worldwide. Edson Carlos Mallaco, Embraer’s senior vice president, commented, "We went through an extensive evaluation process in order to select reliable ERP software and Quantum Control showed itself to be a powerful and intuitive system for Embraer’s MRO operations."

Software as a Service

Mike Flanagan, senior vice president for Infospectrum, described the company’s infoTRAK software as "a modular internet-enabled system deployable for comprehensive support or by module to augment and integrate with existing systems and IT infrastructure." Flanagan said the company believes the aircraft industry is restructuring and expanding simultaneously, resulting in the need for software that enhances asset availability, cycle time and customer service levels. To this end, infoTRAK has been designed with a service-oriented architecture (SOA), giving customers specific user interfaces and access to these interfaces from mobile, desktop and shop floor devices.

"Through what we call ‘work benches’ within our software, a user can bring together multiple sources of information on a highly-engineered user screen. This provides a flexible means for determining decision support events such as extending work hours, managing shifts and transferring employees among facilities," Flanagan explained. He said the Shop Floor KIOSK module is configured for every customer already using infoTRAK, at no extra charge.

This module utilizes touch screens so no keyboard or mouse is required. "Shop Floor KIOSK uses devices already in the work environment such as PDAs or laptops, and helps reduce training time, acceptance of the system and reporting errors. Plus, SOA allows the creation of customized interfaces without changing the back-end commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) application. It provides a new licensing metric as well, to reduce the cost of ownership for KIOSK users."

In November, leading aftermarket service provider Aviall selected infoTRAK to augment its existing ERP and financial software in managing operational effectiveness at 10 part and component repair facilities in the U.S. Other infoTRAK customers include Northrop-Grumman, Smiths Aerospace/GE Aviation, ARINC and Rockwell Collins.

The Million $ Question

One might wonder, would King Sisyphus know how to stop rolling his boulder up that steep hill after centuries of doing things the same way?

Maybe he would welcome a smaller rock to roll and a flatter surface with a horizon of success in sight. If modern software products could reach into the realm of mythology as it does into the world of aviation, Sisyphus would sigh with relief. A million dollars worth of relief, according to Enigma’s Snow, measured by one customer’s savings after bringing previously outsourced technical publication activities in-house "with virtually no increase in head count or work hours." Other Enigma customers have been up and running in four to six months, saving money in six to nine months, "with positive return on investment (ROI) in less than a year," he concluded.

AviIT’s customers have had similar experience. Doherty pointed out, "Using our eMan software, the reduction of duplicate maintenance library subscriptions is potentially a big cost savings. This can be added to labor savings associated with manual management and distribution of document revisions and IT support of client devices."

To which Component Control’s Scott commented, "Customers using Quantum Control ERP never lose sight of key elements that affect ROI, such as cores that must be returned, received stock that has to make it to a job, stock that must be purchased and jobs that are overrunning schedule and costs."

Infospectrum’s Flanagan reported, "Component repair functions that used to take 4 to 24 hours and three employees to conduct — such as item induction for repair, shop order creation, and sales order generation for quoting and invoicing — can now be achieved by one employee in just a few minutes." The company’s SOA approach has gained sufficient interest so that a European office in Moss, Norway, was established at the end of 2007.

Going digital, wireless, and thin client electronically connected with lean logistics and automated data capture and generation doesn’t exist for poor King Sisyphus. But there’s no mythology in customer testimonial that MRO software systems can make the data load lighter and the path to success faster.