We can work on A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON THE MANAGEMENT OF AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE

Summary

Information, data, manage the data, product lifespan administration, e-Maintenance are conceptions and terms which are deemed to comprise in present day well-organized industry and connected to the decision-making goings-on. The data is all over. Well organized data can be utilized to reorganize processes, offer real-time substitute data to the stakeholders and networks, make things faster, better, chose the finest one(s) and encourage economic value and competitive advantage. The task is to make efficient use of information owing to the complication of systems. Product lifespan management incorporates processes, people, business information and systems to manage and is deemed as a business procedure in initiatives.

Aviation is stringently controlled, and the current airplanes are multifaceted technical structures. Air-value guidelines for civil airplane oblige outstanding processes with stringent control processes. The main challenges the new airplane faces are associated with maintenance and in-service maintenance. The growing information stream and system intricacy are the tasks for maintenance, overhaul, and repair along with other aircraft process support roles.

Contemporary airplanes are furnished with information technology (IT) solutions and increased computerized roles. The maintenance system incorporation of roles and services like maintenance programs, job cards, maintenance plans, fault analysis support, adjustment services, condition and usage checking, operating response, and technical data are at a low point. Airplane maintenance workers and support tune up faces difficulties to boost service levels in intricate technical structures with many products and gradually stringent requirements at the same time improving value. The business setting has a great transformation come to be completely digital due to the growth of IT.

 

Clients and suppliers are required to face the growing intricacy of the information relating to the level linked to change management and the structure control, in addition to the airplane and its maintenance system. The great level of intricacy of information logistics hinders the efficiency of accomplishment.

The management, support, organization, training, implementation, assessment, and development are the stages involved in the maintenance procedure. These stages are undertakings to consist and modified to realize the stakeholder’s desires. The actions executed consume and generate information. The aim of this research will be to look at the impact of information technology on aircraft maintenance and management decisions making.

Aircraft maintenance manual

AC                              Airplane characteristics

CLS                             Cargo Loading System Manual

ESLD                          ECAM system Logic Data

ELA                 Electrical Load Analysis

CCC                            Crash Crew Chart

ESPM                          Electrical Standard Practices Manual

FIM                             Fault Isolation Manual

FDRPL             Flight Data Recording Parameter Library

CMPDS                      Job-Cards Maintenance Planning Data Support

LTM                            Livestock Transportation Manual

MPD                           Maintenance Planning Document

MFP                            Maintenance Facilities Planning

TSM                            Troubleshooting Manual

IPC                              Illustrated Part Catalog

ASM/AWM    Aircraft Schematic Manual/ Aircraft Wiring Manual

Introduction or statement of the problem

Information technologies have been seen as having significant impacts on the safety, capability, capacity, efficiency, and the financial and environmental performance of the air transport system and systems including aircraft repair, maintenance, and overhaul.

Maintaining and repairing complex aircraft components such as engines is often complex and expensive process and as such need better technology to make it sustainable in the aviation industry which is characteristic by dynamism, overregulation, and constantly changing consumer needs. The current rules and regulations concerning repairs, and aircraft overhaul states that anyone or any organization involved in the maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alteration of the aircraft, propeller, engine, or appliance shall do so using methods, practices, and techniques prescribed in the current maintenance manual of the manufacturer or institutions for the airworthiness. This requirement means that aircraft maintenance, repair, or overhaul should be undertaken without going through the appropriate documentation and manuals. Although this process should be easy, it is rarely a straight forwards process. Although an organization may have the same type of aircraft in its fleet, it cannot use the same manual for all the aircraft. This means that each aircraft comes with its voluminous manuals and documentation, and this further complicates the process of information storage and retrieval for use during maintenance, repairs, and overhaul process. Also, the manual maintenance of these documents may be difficult, time-consuming, resource-consuming, and may be prone to error.

Background

I am interested in this e-maintenance project because this project will be solving many issues which we are currently facing in big organizations especially with storage of information data as it requires less capacity. It will save time in terms of aircraft ground time, manufacturing/fabricating of parts including ordering of spares. In addition to that, it will also help in cost-cutting and utilization of resources more efficiently without affecting safety. We can use this e-maintenance system to allocate assigned the task to worker electronically and monitoring them closely plus the spares can be ordered whenever needed. This system can be implementing in Emirates Engineering quite easily and will enhance the process of carrying out maintenance in the future. As a result, airline company’s loss significant financial resources in the documentation of aircraft maintenance, repair, and overall manuals and they may also fail to provide high-quality services due to technical documentation.

The documentation which the aircraft technicians must use is established from different manuals, some of which are difficult to access and contains a lot of information. These manuals also contain different types of warning and cautionary messages, including information for the preparation of the task, information for the successful performances of the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul tasks, the procedures necessary to perform the different maintenance tasks, and the information about actions which must be performed when the maintenance repairs and overhaul tasks are completed.

According to Hobbes, there are different kinds of errors which may result from the process of aircraft maintenance. These include perception error, the wrong assumption on the part of the technician, and the memory lapse errors. The next three errors are important because they always result from the maintenance of documents. They include technical misunderstanding errors, slips, and procedure violation. Technical misunderstanding errors are those errors which usually occur when the technicians do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to accomplish the specific maintenance task, or when they lack the awareness of where they can find the information they might require. According to Fallman (2003), this type of error is most likely to occur when the aircraft technicians are performing unfamiliar maintenance, repairs, or overhaul task, or when they face non-routine situations or tasks. The slips are errors which usually occur when the technicians show absent-mindedness when they perform a familiar skill based task or action at a time and in a place where the action should have been performed. Aircraft maintenance involves routine activities including checking the pressure systems, lock wiring or opening and closing cowls. Once such actions have been performed, they tend to involve automatic skill sequences which are outside of the conscious awareness, and slips may occur when the activities lead to lapse because the skills to be applied have since become automatic such that they are fragments of the routine behavior and simple task actions which were simply performed in the wrong context. The procedure violation errors are two types, first, involves the routine violations which consist of the everyday deviations from the establishment of procedures which have nevertheless become part of the normal way of working. Some of these common examples include failure e to use approved maintenance documentation, the abbreviation of procedures, and referred to the normal sources of information such as the use of black books. Many m airlines are aware that there is the prevalence of routine violations but mostly tolerate these errors because they enable the technicians to complete their work more efficiently. The second kind of procedure violations is the exceptional violation which is less common than the use of routine violations, and as such tend to be responses to the unusual circumstances. Such errors often arise from well-intended at most by the aircraft technicians to keep working in a given situation although problems such as missing documents, schedule pressure, or shortage of parts may cause this problem. Management pressure on the employees is one of the reasons which mostly lead to this kind f error.

Avers, Bill, banks and Wenzel (2012) reviewed the maintenance of these types of maintenance errors and found that these errors are mostly linked to the issues regarding documentation problems, time pressure issues, housekeeping and tool control tools and equipment use, fatigue, communication and coordination problems, poor designed or inadequate procedures and faulty procedure usage. The errors which are due to procedures violations are mostly associated with outcomes such as failing to perform the required services improper and or unapproved repair being undertaken and several problems with documentation. On the other hand, errors which fall under the technical misunderstandings are strongly related to the use of personal knowledge and experience instead of using the appropriate documentation. For example, they are caused when the technicians or the maintenance staff are not aware that the knowledge they have been superseded by the latest developments and improvements.

Therefore, it seems that most of these aircraft maintenance errors are strongly linked to the documentation issues, their contents, and their nonuse. Sometimes the maintenance technicians may fail to use appropriate maintenance documents and may not even refer to them after accomplishing their tasks. According to the information contained in the documentation manuals and the guidelines these documentation manuals provide are some of the major errors which aircraft maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations face. 64 perfect of maintenance argue that they must find their ways to implement their procedures, and this usually takes a lot of time.  34 percent of the maintainers also indicated that their most recent aircraft maintenance contravened the documented procedures.

Silventoinen, Denger, Lampela, Papinniemi (2014) reviewed the different procedural errors which usually occurred during aircraft maintenance and found that they can be divided into two: inadequacy of the procedures and documentation and the procedural deviation.  They identified that these are caused by five main reasons which include information being not understandable, information not being enough, the information being incorrect, and information being unavailable. These analyses led to Bovet and Martha (2000) to relate these types of errors with to specific maintenance personnel committing errors. The personnel mostly did not read or follow the guidelines, lost or failed to retrieve the information from the files, made the required inspection item error, and made either made a log book error.

The literature on human factors shows the main reason why human error usually occurs, and human beings normally fail to use the required procedures accurately. It is indicated that the use of information technology during these processes can lead to more accuracy,  increased optimization of the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul system, increase presentation levels of the necessary documents, increased accessibility to the information needed for the maintenance purposes, and a quality maintenance, repairs, and overhaul policy.

According to Byington, Roemer and Galie (2002), most of the time when human beings search for information, it is because they do not have the knowledge that is needed to understand and solve the maintenance, repairs and overhaul problems at hand. Canaday (2014) illustrates that this lack of knowledge, when it becomes conscious, may result in the need for information, which can be provided for by the appropriate use of information technology. The information technology might help these aircraft maintenance technicians to access the necessary knowledge and support by enabling easy information searching. Information technologies may also enable the aircraft maintenance technicians to cut costs the information search and as such avoid unwarranted errors which may be costly to the airlines and the MRO organizations. According to Rolet (2010), when the information costs tend to be too high human beings may seem to choose and fill the gaps in their knowledge by other methods. Information expertise about aircraft maintenance, repairs and overhaul are influenced by factors such as expertise, emotion (stress, anxiety, psychological suffering), environment (affordances, warnings, and marks of relevance), and engagement. These are some of the human errors which may prevent the process of maintenance from being efficient, cost effective, and timely.

According to Giachetti (2004), information technology influences the process of obtaining information and knowledge about the prices of aircraft maintenance. It enables the technicians to obtain new knowledge, confirm their existing knowledge. Compliment their existing knowledge, and ensure that their maintenance practices conform to the situations and advances in technology.

Research Objectives

The following research set out to complete the following objectives:

To study the impact of information technology in air companies in the United Arab Emirates
To study how information systems help airline management in decision making and aircraft maintenance.
To develop a mechanism which will improvise the output & efficiency to ensure the maintenance process is at world–class level, targeting current market and be a leader in aircraft maintenance.
To explore the competitive advantages brought about by use of information technology on airlines MRO activities.
To evaluate the information for contributing to position productivity which impact will work as a catalyst of total output, focusing on maintenance and repair undertakings in the company’s setup for smooth operations.
To recommend the use of system monitoring the most efficient judgments in the aircraft maintenance industry, which will add total value to promote and add value to an individual entity.

Research Questions

This study was set up to answer the following research questions

What is the impact of information technology on aircraft maintenance and management decisions making?
What is the vital information needed for aircraft maintenance?
How does information flow between functions in Airline management?
How does the maintenance data snapshot vary between units and networks?

Research limitations

The main limiting factor in this research is that it was conducted within a short period and it may have failed to provide extensive data to support the findings.

Literature Review

Jaw (2005) defines maintenance, repairs, and overhaul (MROs) as involving all actions which aim to fulfill the objective of restoring or retaining an item in a state or to a state in which it can successfully and safely perform its required actions. These actions include a combination of technical and administrative, managerial, and supervision actions. Kraus and Gramopadhye (2001) describe maintenance as the process which ensures that a given system continuously performs the value it was intended to do at its original level of safety and reliability, as well as having the ability to capture information for the analysis. According to Levrat, Iung, and Crespo Marquez (2008), the main goal of maintenance is to reduce repair time and to improve the productivity and reliably of the system. Maintaining complex structures and systems such as aircraft feet may often exceed the cost of research, production, and development. The aircraft maintenance, therefore, plays a major role in guaranteeing the reliability and safety of fleet for commercial airlines as well as the military airplanes. Maintenance plays a significant role in ensuring product availability, quality, and reliability at an appropriate level. Also, maintenance ensures that it address the product safety requirements.

According to Rosero, Ortega, Aldabas and Romeral (2007), the importance of maintenance, repairs, and overhaul can be emphasized by the fact that consist of between 12 and 15 percent of the total Airline operating costs, employees a significant number of people, and has huge budget expenditures. There has been a worldwide increase in the demand for maintenance, repairs, and overhaul services due to the viability of the aviation industry in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Silventoinen, Denger, Lampela, Papinniemi (2014), the MRO in the aerospace market is a complex process which has precise and strict requirements, all of which were developed to ensure the safety of the aircraft and the crew members. Rosero, Ortega, Aldabas and Romeral (2007) corroborate that maintenance is an essential component of aircraft worthiness criteria, which mainly aims to ensure that aircraft is fully services, safety, and fully operational. The high levels of aviation safety currently witnessed in the United Arab Emirates are as a result of successful maintenance activities. According to Silventoinen, Denger, Lampela, Papinniemi (2014), airlines must take into account the instructions of manufacturers and the international standards so that they can improve the quality of their aircraft fleet. As such, it is important to have a database of manufacturers’ instructions and international standards which can be used to guide the process and requirements of maintenance and repair activities. Although there has been considerable improvement in the reliability and quality of components and systems over the past years, still perfection has not been reached. Aviation equipment, regardless of reliability or how good it is, still requires a significant amount of attention from time to time.

Commercial airlines may establish their maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for their fleets, and then commence operations as profit centers. However, some airlines may decide to spin off this maintenance, repairs, and overhaul activities and start acting separate, corporate activities. Although the third party independent MRO providers may help to accomplish the same functions, most of the time they are not affiliated with the airline operators. Independent MROs usually provide these services at a relatively lower price, and as such, they market themselves as value proposition over the original equipment manufacturers and the in-house maintenance, repairs, and overhaul services.

Regarding the operation side, the aircraft maintenance alone can further be subdivided into scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. A scheduled aircraft maintenance refers to a preventive action taken to ensure that a given aircraft or aircraft component functions properly at a given preset intervals. The unscheduled aircraft maintenance is not a programmed or planned but is usually required when an aircraft or aircraft component has failed to function.

The maintenance, repair, and overhaul aeronautical industry is a complex process which precise and strict requirements defined by the authorities to ensure the safety of the passengers and the aircraft as well as the aircrew. Airlines spent billions of dollars yearly, and this significantly reflects on their yearly operational costs. Although this is an extensive market, the original equipment manufacturers have not relatively this area. The original equipment manufacturers include companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Bombardier, and Gulfstream. The contracts which are negotiated with system suppliers always focus on the development and production of aircraft and usually fail to take advantage of the aftermarket opportunities which arise. However, the aircraft supply chain is usually very limited because the certification of aircraft is heavily regulated and restricted. Not only do system suppliers provide parts and systems to the aircraft original equipment manufacturers, but they also provide these systems to competitors as sub tire suppliers. This negatively affects the negotiation capabilities of airlines around the world including those from the United Arab Emirates. The original equipment manufacturers also have stronger agreements with the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations, and this requires that there should be a strong communication and information sharing between these two organizations. The spare parts prices which airlines and business jet owners pay are significantly higher that the prices of production and this reflects an expressive maintenance, repairs, and overhaul costs for such organizations. It is important for airlines and business jet owners, as well as the original equipment manufacturers to find ways which can enable them to reduce costs and thus becoming more competitive. Most airlines in the United Arab Emirates are partially or fully outsourcing their Maintenance, repairs, and overhaul activities for repair shops, aircraft original equipment manufacturers, and the system suppliers. It is important for airline maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations to develop business models which provide information and technologies which enable them to cut operational costs in other areas of their operations. As such, it is important, for airline MROs to develop appropriate information technologies which can enable them to meet this objective.

Maintenance can be carried either on or off the aircraft. When off the aircraft maintenance is done, the components and equipment must be removed from the aircraft and then be replaced and routed to the repair facility. The rate or pace of doing an off-aircraft maintenance may be slower than the pace use in aircraft maintenance, though it may have an overall shorter turnaround for the maintenance. The removed units must be modified into materials. To accomplish this, the technical staff of the maintenance, repair and overhaul organization or department must have the right technology and information so that they do not commit errors which may result in the aircraft being grounded for a long time.

According to the Aviation Safety Bureau, there are different types of aircraft repair, including component repairs, and aircraft structural repairs. The aircraft structural repairs involve making repairs to an aircraft which has sustained damages to its structure. The structure, in this case, involves the aircraft skin, formers, bulkheads, and the stringers. An aircraft’s structure can be damaged in several ways, including through ground service equipment, bird strike, lightning strike, and maintenance stands. The component repairs involve making repairs to aircraft and may range from part replacements to an entire overhaul of the aircraft. Should a component fail, the technicians will be required to use their knowledge, skills, and expertise, as well as the available necessary technology to remove it from the aircraft and then replace it by one of the operating components.

Maintenance, repairs, and overhaul management have become a very complex activity due to the growth of business, diversity ad specialization. The complexity of the maintenance, repairs, and overhauls management requires an in-depth and specialized expertise to handle all the inventory management. Forecasting, return and repair flows, and the supply chain management, factors all of which forces organizations to rethink their maintenance, repairs, and overhaul strategies. Since this is a high intensive workforce industry, ability to attract and maintain high technical workforce is one of the challenges which MRO organizations face. To obtain cost savings and subsequent

Particularities of the Aeronautical Industry

The aeronautical supply chain of is a complex industry, where the responsible airworthiness authority must certify every component of the aircraft. The airworthiness authority is responsible for defining the strict requirements which are meant for guaranteeing safety. Due to the several requirements for a qualified a supplier, only a limited number of companies get the authorization to supply the various aircraft parts and services in this industry. This is a predicament which leads to only a few options when it comes to the selection of aircraft component and parts suppliers for new aircraft program, and this leads to a significant lack of leverage during the negotiation of commercial agreements. Also, the same system supplier might be operating in different sub tire, and as such may become the same suppliers for the competitors, and this may have negative impacts on the relationship with suppliers and ultimately the final customer.

Figure aims to emphasize this scenario and show the maintenance, repair, and overhaul services flow in this industry in the aeronautical industry. As the figure shows, there are essential four stakeholders. These include the sub tire suppliers, the MRO repair shops, the customers, and the aircraft original equipment manufacturers. The business model which is recently applied by aircraft original equipment manufacturers provides for the major supplier working systems integrators, and it means that instead of having several suppliers to address, the aircraft original equipment manufacturers only have about 50 percent address. As such, they can purchase and produce from multiple suppliers and in the process become responsible for the process of delivering an integrated system. The current commercial aircraft systems are an integration of a large number of components and subsystems.

This paper aimed at studying how information technology will impact in aircraft maintenance and management decision making. The literature used in this study has been collected from several international books and journals in the field of supply chain management and aircraft maintenance. According to Ni and Jin (2012), effective decision-making of aircraft maintenance relies on a number of autonomous sources of data and is thus complex: The present health position of every device, every day, weekly and monthly procedures of maintenance, the state summary of the aircraft, maintenance expenses i.e. resource, spare parts, tools, and so on, and the system structure and decision alternatives. The system checker is the most efficient to make judgments in the maintenance department after having gotten the information concerning the aircraft and other data as feedbacks. These feedbacks are equated to production needs that have been fixed by the corporation. To increase output and increase dependability and receptiveness to change processes in big and multifaceted maintenance undertakings can be facilitated by design, management, and control (Ni and Jin, 2012).

In line with Levrat et al. (2008) study aircraft maintenance is a vital part of the flight process due to its huge part in producing customer worth. The maintenance value chain encourages the value chain of the entire corporation through creating a lifespan for every stage of the creation, and administration and control of maintenance and necessary service and acts, etc. The value chain should be reinforced at each level of the product lifespan to reach the goals to be achieved. All goals shall be maintained by business procedures that make use of resource flows to change input movements into output movements. The value chain will run well if all the sub goals are achieved (Levrat et al. 2008).

The goals and sub-goals and the value chain need information management through information technology. Information management is narrowly linked to processes and systems that are important to organizational achievement. Product lifecycle management is deemed a procedure where planning, design, information and production are managed in a clear and organized way. Product lifecycle management can as well be utilized as the fundamental source of other data, like diverse types of catalogs, documents, client opinion, plans, programs and additional data around the product. Businesses with high control and safety requirements like aviation first employed the product lifecycle management models (PLM, 2014). Information management helps in efficient information sharing and partnership in addition to easing information collating and organization as stated by Christian (2015).

According to Giachetti (2004), incorporating tasks, processes and information systems are challenging for companies owing to complex networks and services. The processes ought to be enhanced to achieve the objectives fixed by the network or the company. Diverse kinds of formats and data used in the network cause obstacles and challenges in information organization. Incorporation of IT systems improves information and workflow in the network and administrative units (Giachetti, 2004). In line with Silventoinen et al. (2014), the difficulty is to create a mutual method and collective information use, flow, coordination, and exchange. Right, data at the right time provides a competitive edge that is ordered in time, decreases stocks, and makes universal action stress-free to realize (Bovet and Martha, 2000).

Canaday (2014) says that IT has modernized the links between carriers and travelers in the past decade. However, improvements in information technology in maintenance shelters have come more gradually and should be chased much more prudent. Airlines select their openings carefully, look at business cases carefully and center information technology energies where gains appear clear. Airlines are capitalizing one of the main precedence’s in maintenance activities and its procedures. However, business intelligence is simply one part where airlines might realize prospects for refining processes or reducing maintenance expenses with IT. The nominated approach, IT competencies, fleet and range of task have the influence to an airline choosing the urgencies (Canaday, 2014). In the business aviation manufacturers, in-service and maintenance support workers are as well facing the growing information stream. The client needs i.e. enhanced aircraft accessibility, and cost efficiency with 24/7 maintenance, and ever growing intricacy of technology entail new kinds of solutions for managing the procedures and information movements (Candell, Karim, and Söderholm, 2009).

The different information integration kinds, e-Maintenance, maintenance, product lifecycle management, and information management will be studied from numerous angles and points of views.

Maintenance, Repairs, and Overhaul Business Models

Candell, Karim, and Söderholm (2009) provided an explanation of how business organizations decide to management theory maintenance repairs, and overhaul in-house or to outsource these activities and then provides the right strategies for the right maintenance, repairs, and overhaul services to outsources maintenance repairs and overhaul activities so that they can reduce their operational costs. Currently, the trend towards outsourcing MRO activities is increasing, and it is expected that this will increase up to 70 percent by 2020 (Christian, 2015). The outsourcing, as well as the offshoring of activities including aircraft maintenance, can bring a myriad of advantages to the airlines. The contractors may decide to provide specialised access to specialised skills which may not be available within the principal organization, and this may generate economies of scale through a creation of a hub of the information system, job opportunities, workers, and generation of knowledge and innovation. The increased volume of work means that the repair stations can help in enhancing the speed of task and job completion. Additionally, outsourcing may be used when the demand exceeds the baseline capacity of the in-house maintenance. As such, airlines may decide to take advantage of this situation to outsource the non-core and labor intensive activities and focus on the fewer valued added maintenance, repairs and overhaul activities. PLM (2014) illustrates that the MRO strategy which an airline decides to choose must be one which is sustainable in the long term, and for this to happen, it must be supported by an adequate information technology.

Outsourcing is a critical business capability which may enhance a company’s overall profitability. Ives and Vitale (1988) explains that each airline, including those in the United Arab Emirates, have their characteristics as well as different levels of outsourcing. Such models of MRO business are fully integrated, partially outsourced. An airline may decide to reduce its operating costs if it outsources the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul service to an outside or an independent MRO provider, or to an original equipment manufacturer.  Conducted a SWOT analysis of the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul business using the perspective of different stakeholders, and found the results as illustrated in Table 1 below. The exercise showed that there is a strong competition between the stakeholders and the relevant players in this field.  There is thousands of maintenance, and repairs independent shops around the world and the system suppliers are becoming stronger because of the strategic partnership they have put in place with aircraft original equipment manufacturers. To sustain these relationships and partnerships, it is important for these MRO facilities and organizations to incorporate information technology and strategies which can enhance and make the partnerships sustainable. Most customers seek a one-stop shop solution when their aircraft are to be maintained and overhauled, and this preference is an indication that the customers do not like to accomplish their overhaul of their engine in one place and the landing gear repair in another station.

Stakeholders

 

Strengths

 

Weaknesses

 

Opportunities

 

Threats

 

Examples

 

Airframe original equipment manufacturers (OEM)

 

 

 

 

 

They have consolidated customer relationships

 

 

 

 

 

Most of their contracts which they negotiate with the suppliers are based on production which produces scarce aftermarket benefits.

 

Partnership with airlines and suppliers located in emerging economies including the United Arab Emirate may be helpful for this MRO stakeholder to develop their capabilities and capacities.

 

 

A significant amount of investment is required to establish a repair and maintenance shop, and most of these stakeholders may fail to acquire the market.
Examples of original equipment manufacturers include Boeing, Bombardier, Embraer, and Airbus

 

 

Repair shops (independent MROs)

 

 

These stakeholders already have the knowledge about the MMRO market ad also have the necessary expertise which may enable them to repair the aircraft components successfully.

 

 

The largest majority of independent maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations do not work on the heavy maintenance

 

 

Specialization  within the market segment and possible partnership agreements with other players may provide an important opportunity for the independent MRO providers

 

 

 

 

The market is very competitive due to the presence of thousands of independent MRO providers around the world.

 

 

 

Mubadala Aerospace, Singapore Technologies, Lufthansa, Technik, and Haerco

 

 

They are usually restricted to the only component which they can produce.

 

 

System suppliers
 They have contract closes with the airframe original equipment manufacturers which may benefit their suppliers in the aftermath market. They also have a large  knowledge base
 However, they are restricted to the only system which they can deliver.
Original equipment manufacturers and airlines form an important component which may allow for penetration.

 

The aircraft maintenance, repairs, and overhaul in the Middle East and the UAE

Over the last decades, the Middle East region, and especially the United Arab Emirates, has established itself as one of the key drivers in the commercial aviation market. One of the significant factors which have led the United Arab Emirates being known as news of the major aviation centers in the world involve is the fact that some of its airlines. The Emirates and the Etihad Airlines have positioned themselves in the Middle East region and the world over as force of change within the global airline industry. Such growth provides a tremendous opportunity for growth. The region has over 130 airline operators of commercial aircraft who fly a total of 1290 jet and turbo-powered aircraft. Currently, this fleet represents about 4.8 percent of the total worldwide fleet of 27,050 aircraft. Among these airlines, those from the United Arab Emirates form about 38 percent of the total fleet in the region. This shows that the UAE is a major regional and global aviation industry.

 

The type of engine which is most used region includes the GE-90, CFM56-5B, CFM56-7, Trent 700, and V2500-A5. Looking into the future, it can be noted that the United Arab Emirates is a country with significant order backlog and a significantly high expected long-term growth.  The strong growth prospects in this country and the Middle East at large mostly apply to the wide-body aircraft, with the growth rate expected to be 8.3 percent every year for the period up to 2022. To sustain this large number of aircraft, it is important to have maintenance, repairs, and overhaul. According to Ni and Jin (2012), these 12900 aircraft in the Middle East attract an MRO spending of $3.7 billion which may break down as follows: 40 percent ($1.5 billion) for engine overhaul; 23 percent ($0.8 billion) for airframe heavy maintenance; 20 percent ($0.7 Billion) component overhaul, and 18 percent ($0.6 billion) for the line maintenance.

This demand for MRO is concentrated within major airlines which include the Etihad Airlines, Emirates Airlines, and the Qatar Airline.

The Engine Overhaul

The three most used types of engines which are mostly used by aircraft in the United Arab Emirates account for 50 percent of the $1.5 billion in 2014. They include GE90 – 115B, V2500 – A5, and Trent 700. Most of the MRO spend is driven by the large engines on the wide body aircraft. In terms of MRO supply, Rodrigues and Lavorato (2016) suggests that most of these activities are currently done in-house by the UAE airlines, and indeed this is conducted within the region. The major reason for this is that the cost of establishing the maintenance capabilities on the engines is very high, and this makes the business case for in-house or internal capabilities hard to make. Another reason is that the engine original equipment manufacturers are very proactive at selling the maintenance service at the point of the new engine sale. The use of original equipment manufacturers is prominent within the new aircraft when the aircraft and the engines still have a warranty.

Airframe Heavy Maintenance

The current spend in airframe heavy maintenance in the Middle East is $0.55 billion, and this is expected to grow to $1 billion in 2022. The United Arab Emirates and the Saudi airlines comprised of the 75 percent of this total in 2014. This market is also driven by wide-body airframes although the growth rates are expected to be somewhat lower than those seen in the engine overhaul segment. Regarding supply, it is important to note that 60 percent of this activity is conducted through in-house by airlines. Since the activities involved in this sector is more labor intensive, it is less expensive and easier to establish this capability. To have relatively shorter minor checks are done by third party market to keep costs low. Most airlines conduct minor and shorter checks in-house. Also, it is important the third party suppliers who serve the remaining between 40 percent and 50 percent of demand are based in the region and include the ADAT of Abu Dhabi and the Joramco of Jordan.

Component Overhaul

The current Middle East Component overhaul market is about $715 million, and this figure is expected to grow by over 10 percent to almost $1.7 billion in 2022. The main drivers of maintenance spend in this segment are the component grouping, brakes, and wheels, avionics, cabin systems, and APU. The level of in-house capability in the United Arab Emirates is relatively low, with the only airline planning to expand being the Emirates Airlines. Much of the rest of supply to this segment is provided for by the original equipment manufacturers such as the UTC Aerospace Systems, Parker, and Honeywell.

The Key Market Challenges and Trend

There are five main market trends that are impacting the MRO supply chain and need to be considered when considering future opportunities. These trends are relevant in both global and Middle East frames of reference.

Increasing the proportion of the aircraft fleet that is “new technology” aircraft will be particularly rapid in the Middle East given the volume of orders. MRO-related suppliers whose portfolio is driven by mature aircraft/engine platforms (e.g., 737 Classic, MD80, A 300) will face a declining market and a limited opportunity set in the region.

Such new technology aircraft, especially airframes such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350XWB, will be data/information “intensive.” This will create significant IT system, maintenance system and automation challenges that airlines will need help from expert suppliers to address. An additional implication of this shift in technology is that the skills required by airline maintenance staff will inevitably change, with a resulting impact on training needs and solutions.

The MRO market is becoming more OEM-centric in terms of supply. This is already well established in the engine market, but is also well underway in the component market. MRO supply chain participants need to recognize that the “channel to market” is changing along with access to customers. This implies new commercial relations may need to be developed to access the growth occurring in the Middle East market.

Over the next decade, there will be a significant ramp-up of new aircraft (Boeing 787. Airbus A350XWB, Airbus A320NEO, Boeing 737MAX) and engine types (P&W Geared Turbofan, CFM LEAPX). Such changes in or switch over to new aircraft provides airlines with an opportunity to change the way the aircraft is supported in terms of maintenance, and for example, to cease conducting MRO in-house. In turn, this provides a point-of-aircraft-sale opportunity to the aircraft, component and engine OEMs to put in place long-term maintenance contracts.

The volume of aircraft retirements globally is set to expand rapidly in the next decade. For commercial jets, recent history has seen about 200-300 retirements per year. By the end of this coming decade, this number will be in the 600-700s. This will create significant surplus with implications for OEMs and parts repair providers. Whilst the average fleet age in the Middle East is lower than in some regions; aircraft retirements will inevitably increase here as well.

Methodology

The following research is a quantitative, qualitative research which shall use the case study of Etihad Engineering maintenance facility to extract the data. This section will define the case company, research procedure, the data collected and the methods used. This will be a qualitative and quantitative study. The qualitative information will be examined through a systematic process in the inductive method and will be derived from specific assessment goals. The inductive method offers research results devoid of any limitations. The raw data will lead the results through organized methodologies (Thomas, 2006). The focus of the research will be an aviation maintenance organization whose actions, procedures and scope of work have changed in the last couple of years through IT implementation. All through the study there will be some continuing projects for refining and digitize the organization and processes.

Case Company Description

The case company in this research will be an aircraft maintenance company which is a subsidiary of an air company. The study will be restricted to focus on maintenance undertakings. In an air company the income comes from traveling customers and freight. The clients, passengers, and cargo services and the service are carrying passengers or cargo from point A to point B. The air operation planning considers the need for organized maintenance. The chosen case study is the case of ADAT, which has recently changed its name to the Etihad Engineering following the acquisition by the Etihad Airways.

Data collection

In this qualitative and quantitative study, the information will be gathered as much as it’s required for the topic and set study targets.

Primary Data

The empirical proof in this research will be collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews. The processes will be observed six times all through this research. Four times will concentrate on aircraft maintenance procedures, one time on the Maintenance control & operation control center process, and one time on the Hub control center process. During the stopovers, the discussions will lead to an understanding completely. Two questionnaires will be sent to designated roles with reference to the information sources and information flows. The questionnaires will be prepared using Google forms and distributed through e-mail.

The first questionnaire will concentrate on the employees involved in the maintenance practice. The role of the questionnaire will be to map the data paths from diverse parts in the maintenance act. The questionnaire will comprise 16 multiple choice questions. The questionnaire will be sent to 90 people by way of e-mail.

The second questionnaire will concentrate on the maintenance procedure information management. The role of the second questionnaire will be to map maintenance activities information streams and situational consciousness between the concerned networks. The questionnaire will include 18 written type questions. The questionnaire will be sent to 13 people.

The Interview structure of the Etihad Airways Engineering

The Etihad Airways Engineering is a subsidiary of the Etihad Aviation Group, and it helps the company by offering line, light, and heavy maintenance services such as the design, cabin reconfiguration, advanced composite repair, trim and finish upgrade, IFE change, avionic upgrade, components services, connectivity installation, and technical training, from the state-of-art facility which has been located near the Abu Dhabi International airport.

The Etihad Engineering facility fully understands the company’s needs and the criticality of the AOGs, and its customer teams who work relentlessly to exceed the expectations of the company and those of the customers through a demonstration of willingness and flexibility to come up with cost-effective solutions while also ensuring they provide unmatched customer experience.

The Etihad Airways Engineering prides itself in the highly qualified aircraft maintenance personnel and professions s from different nations who have instilled the spirit of teamwork within the company’s mission, to be a leading provider of aircraft maintenance and engineering solutions with continued focus on introducing new platforms and maintain the aircraft with the highest standards of safety and quality.

Name

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Position

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Does your company use information technologies in its maintenance?

Yes

No

If yes, what types of information technologies does your company use to accomplish its maintenance activities and functions

 

 

Has the use of information technology yielded any benefit for your organization?

Yes

No

If yes, please indicate which of the following areas are mostly affected (Tick as appropriate)

Maintenance documentation

Technician training

Flight following for defects

Maintenance decision-making

Maintenance diagnosing

How does your company employ information technology to maintain aircraft maintenance documentation?

 

How does your company employee information technology to train and educate its technicians and engineers?

 

How does your company employ information technology to make maintenance decisions?

 

How does your company use information technology to optimal allocate resources to the aircraft maintenance activities?
In a scale of 1 to 5, please rate the following benefits of information technology in your company’s maintenance, repairs, and overhaul facility
Improved operations efficiency
Significant reduction in operation costs

Faster aircraft diagnosis

improved use of aircraft maintenance documentation
increased third party customers
increased compliance with the General Aviation rules

 

Which information technologies does your company use to facilitate maintenance, repairs, and overhaul?

 

 

Has your company any of the following information technologies for aircraft maintenance?
Passive Sensor Network technologies
Structural Health Monitoring Technologies

Smart NDT tools

Portable display units (PDUs)
Electronic Scheduling tools

Yes

No

The Etihad Engineering activities

Some of the problems that hinder the efficient of the Etihad engineering maintenance facilities include poor design, diversity among the applications, and the possible lack of mobility work practice.  At the Etihad Engineering complex, the technicians take turns and work under instructions of their supervisors for more about 8-hour shift. Every flight technician who goes on shift is expected to handle all the maintenance work in connection with a host of aircraft from different manufacturers, most notably the Boeing and Airbus aircraft manufacturers. The most important tasks in a day for these technicians involve receiving the aircraft, checking them, and declaring whether they are airworthy or not. The aircraft are declared airworthy only after a thorough check, and this mostly includes use of several different documentations. The checks must be carried out using a checklist, which is mostly made by the technicians but derived from the large aircraft manufacturer manuals including the checking engines, undercarriage, and wings. During cold seasons, or during the night, the aircraft checking process is sometimes very tedious and time-consuming, but a very critical additional effort before any aircraft takeoffs. If the technicians detect any form of a glitch during their routine aircraft checks, the technicians must decide whether there must a be an instant repair or particular threat malfunction is not apparent. They must also consider the price tag of canceling out a flight due to the technical problem, and to determine whether it is prohibitive and the technician should always ensure that they avoid this at all times. When the technicians decide to repair the aircraft, all the routines for every action must be carefully stated and documented in the technical flight manual. Maintaining these documents may be difficult, and sometimes the manual may get lost in the process. In addition to the activities of checking the aircraft as they arrive at the Etihad Engineering Center, the technicians and the engineers are also tasked with performing some administrative duties including receiving incoming information concerning the possible changes in the manuals and the work routines. This usually brings a lot of confusion and may result into these technicians

The current use of Information technology support

At the different levels within the Etihad Engineering complex, the technician and the engineers use a host of different computer applications so that they can carry out their work, which is exclusive run on different desktop computers. The applications are not homogeneous but may be divided into three different categories.  The first category involves some different software systems which are used to handle the aircraft maintenance manuals, troubleshooting, job cards, and checklists. The second category involves applications which deal with ordering for spare parts. Finally, the last category involves the applications which use a mix of standards desktops applications such as emailing the pilots and the clients, time scheduling, and web browsers.

The first and second group of software schemes, which seem theoretically connected, are not combined and not even grounded on the same podium, which makes the use of them problematic. One flight technician, when inquired unswervingly, stated that these are tricky to use since they do not offer good and practical interfaces and are complicated to learn. The real documentation of the diverse aircraft comes in at least three media: (a) in folders, which are becoming outdated and might no longer be used for locus; (b) on microfilm, which also is on the edge of extinction; and (c) on servers or CD-ROMs (stored digitally), though the latter appears to presently gain supremacy.

Nevertheless, the digital documentation used by SAS does have its weaknesses as well. There are chiefly two unlike applications that are used to vision the documentation of the aircraft being maintained in Gardermoen. The first software system for reviewing documentation and manuals is based on scanned pictures of the pages in the folder-based manuals. These pages are, therefore, stored as pictures, which makes searches by contents impossible (Etihad Airways, 2014). The only way to find information except for browsing is through a poorly designed indexing function, which makes this solution difficult and obtrusive to use. This software system also seemed to cause quite some frustration during the observation study when a flight technician needed information quickly. Presumably, this was because the software tends to respond quite slowly, even when run off a local CD-ROM, and because of the reduced searching abilities. The second software system is not exclusively based on pictures as a data format for storage, but instead uses a mix of pictures, text, and links that resemble a hyper-text based system. It has searching functions and seemed to cause much less frustration than the picture-based system.

The cars used by TRM for maintenance are armed with a VHF radio (to communicate with each other, the aircraft crew, and the flight control tower), as well as a laptop computer, a printer, and different sets of CD-ROM switch aircraft documentation. These laptops are not connected to the same network as other computers in use which to some extent limits their usage, but the technicians interviewed look at the cars as something that improves their working conditions. They used to be forced to first go from the hangar to the faulty aircraft on the runway, find out what was wrong with it, return to the hangar, find the right information for the perceived task using a software manual system on a desktop computer, print out the relevant pages and then go back out on the runway. By the use of these cars, a technician can bring all the information needed out to craft on the runway or to the docking bays, and print the right pages from the manual while the problem is close at hand.

Dependent on the size of the presently held aircraft, or the amount of craft that are presently based in the hangar, work does not commence in exactly the same site from one day to another. Normally, this would make the use of motionless desktop computers fairly troublesome, since it would be hard to find a site where they would be both close and not in the way. To solve this situation, the Etihad Engineering would use “computer tables.” These involve a desktop computer with keyboard and mouse, a printer to print job cards, as well as Telex-messages and telephone lines. The tables are furnished with helms that allow them to be mobile so that they do not have to have an immovable position within the Etihad Engineering complex. To allow the computer tables to be included on to the network, there are certain spots—which resembles floor drains—within the hangar that provide a fiber optical linkages to the network.

Secondary data

Secondary data will be gathered from academic journals, websites, books and online company reports. The secondary data will be searched from different types libraries and journals including industrial engineering journal, marketing journals, economics journals, general science and technology journals.

Findings

The respondent indicated that safety at the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul station is a key component of the Etihad Airways. The respondent also indicated that the Etihad Engineering, which equates to the company’s in-house maintenance, repair, and overhaul department, continues to expand, and it has signed partnerships with different independent and original equipment manufacturers, and this has redoubled its efforts to ensure that all technicians and visitors to the engineering center are safe. Also, the respondent indicated that they use information technology to ensure that this safety is upheld to the highest standards possible and that it is enhanced across all the maintenance activities. The company uses information technologies to conducted error-free planning which they need to ensure that their aircraft have the best maintenance experience. The company relies on information technology to ensure that its professionals and customers constantly strive to have the best standards while on the ground at the engineering complex.

The respondent also indicated that they use information technology to recruit and train technical. This ensures that its technicians and engineers who operate at the Etihad Engineering complex are highly qualified and skilled. The company says that information technology, especially through web-search, helps it to look for licensed engineers who have extensive experience in the aviation industry, and who can join the maintenance departments which are based in Abu Dhabi. The respondent indicates that most of the aircraft maintenance documents such as Airplane characteristics, Cargo Loading System Manual (CLSM), ECAM system Logic Data (ESLD), Electrical Load Analysis (ELA), Crash Crew Chart (CCC), Electrical Standard Practices Manual (ESPM), Fault Isolation Manual (FIM), Flight Data Recording Parameter Library (FDRPL), Job-Cards Maintenance Planning Data Support (CMPDS), Livestock Transportation Manual (LTM), Maintenance Planning Document (MPD), Maintenance Facilities Planning (MFP), Troubleshooting Manual (TSM), Illustrated Part Catalog (IPC), and Aircraft Schematic Manual/Aircraft Wiring Manual (ASM/AWM), have all been computerised to provide easy access. The respondent indicates that this has significantly facilitated the process of using appropriate documentation during the maintenance process, and this ensures that the technicians are accurate, take less, and do more work. This has also increased the productivity of the company.

The respondent also indicated since the acquisition of the Abu Dhabi Technologies (ADAT), the company has since benefited from a wide range of information technology to improve its operations and cut its maintenance costs. The company also signed an agreement with the Mubadala facilities centre which retains the maintenance of engines, repair, and overhaul business. To sustain these agreements, the company mostly rely on information technologies, which have been positioned to be the catalyst for growth and continuity. The group CEO indicated that the state-of–the-art technologies at ADAT are important for the Etihad Airways Group because helps in strengthening the company’s maintenance capabilities by bringing together the critically important functions which are essential to the safety and optimal performance of the Etihad Airways operations. The IT is specifically important for the engine MRO which is an important component of the Abu Dhabi Aerospace technologies strategy. The information technologies used at ADAT has made it have enhanced maintenance capabilities within the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East, and this has increased the Etihad Airways equity and third party customers, thereby maximising the synergies available to the company. The implication here is that the incorporation of various forms of technologies has made the company gain a competitive advantage by attractive more third party customers, and ensuring that the company has a more bargaining power over its suppliers.

The training areas which normally take place online covers a variety of areas of the aircraft maintenance functions including among others, replacing and repairing aircraft components and parts, diagnosis and repair of electrical and mechanical problems in the aircraft, supporting and testing the performance standards while also keeping the maintenance records of all the maintenance and repair work, and ensuring that the aircraft technicians are capable of working outside the hangars, and in some outside repair stations on the field.

The respondents also indicated that they had used information technology at their maintenance and repair stations to quantify the financial losses related to the wrong use of documentation and to evaluate the quality of aircraft maintenance and technical documentation. The management has also used the information technology to leverage the voluntary reporting to identify the specific problems with aircraft and aircraft maintenance documentations. This ensures that the problems can be corrected at the right time so that the technicians can have confidence that they are using the most up to date documentations when they are performing their maintenance activities. The company also uses information technologies to create guidance for all of its personnel who work on the aircraft maintenance documentation issues and puts more emphasis on the instructions relating to the continued airworthiness of the aircraft. This ensures that the company is continuously in compliance with the regulations and rules of the General Aviation (GA). This prevents the company from unnecessary fines and ensures that its aircraft are not grounded because they have been inspected and found to be short of meeting the General Aviation’s regulations. This way, the company can record maximum revenues and profits. The respondent also indicated that they use information technology to integrate and link different maintenance contents, documents and manuals including task cards, and this increases the level of efficiency.

The Etihad Airways Engineering has also used information technology to create a wide repository of knowledge management. This knowledge management repository has enabled the company to collaborate with a wide variety of shareholders in the aviation maintenance, repairs, and overhaul industry including the suppliers and the original equipment manufacturers.

The use of passive sensor network technologies

Passive Sensor Network (PSN) is one of the technologies which Etihad Engineering has implemented to help increase the efficiencies of its operations and significantly cut operational costs. It involves embarking sensors on the aircraft structure in a permanent, and it helps by giving the health conditions of the equipped items, and this may be arbitrary at times. Passive Sensor Network has enabled Etihad engineering and maintenance department to perform fast and a sure assessment of the aircraft structural parts without having to go through long operations disassembly. The group CEO indicates that the main advantages of this technology are that it leads to quicker maintenance operations, avoids complete disassembly of the aircraft components, avoids undergoing surface preparation, and there is no reassembly. Also, this method facilitates the aircraft component diagnosis because the installed sensors are capable of yielding images of the health of the equipped structure. Also, the use Passive Sensor Network helps the Etihad Company by significant reducing the human factor, one of the factors which lead to increased errors during maintenance operations. The respondent also indicated that this technology significantly reduces the potential weight because it enables the company’s aircraft maintenance technicians to account for the maintenance policy which will be applied at different maintenance intervals and minimum defect sizes.

Structural Health Monitoring Technologies (SHM)

The structural health monitoring technologies are information technology based technologies which work like the nervous system but are equipped with the aircraft. All the data returned by the sensors fitted in the aircraft either warns the crew members concerning possible problems develop in the aircraft and this information is relayed to the aircraft maintenance technicians and engineers at the Etihad Engineering Complex at Abu Dhabi. The structure health monitoring information system helps in sending a warning to the aircraft network, and this allows the flight crew to trigger maintenance requests by specifying the exact location where the problem has occurred. The system also allows for the board instrumentation to detect areas which need maintenance. Under this conditions, it become easier for the aircraft maintenance technicians and engineers

The use of smart NDT tools

The smart NDT tools are computerised systems which can be fitted into the aircraft to facilitate the process of diagnosing an aircraft component for defects or to reveal the areas which need maintenance or repair. The Etihad Engineering has used the technology for the adjustments of equipment for different procedures, for adaptation of the interface to the operations to be performed, and to provide a simplified display. It is also used to provide a remote connection to an expert. With the smart NDT equipment, the engineers can identify the impacted areas of the aircraft, load the adapted equipment settings including the material type, expected defect type, and the geometry, and design the specific area of the aircraft to be inspected. The equipment also helps the technicians or the engineers to commence automated diagnoses and decision making according to the aircraft maintenance manual. The system then is used to transfer the information to the maintenance engineers of the Etihad Company.

The respondents indicated that they are using information technology to cut maintenance and logistics costs. The use of the state of art information technology, the respondents indicated that one of their objectives is to reduce the maintenance costs and the related logistics costs for their aircraft. The respondents indicated that they continue to discover new ways which can lower cost of Maintenance, repair, and overhaul ownership, and in the process, they strive to improve every aspect of their maintenance and logistics using technology developed for other applications but integrating that technology in an open –architecture system.

Technologies such as hand-held diagnostics, sensors, genetic algorithms, wearable computers, web portals and make-up language, CD-ROMS, mission planning software, airborne recording systems, and intelligent tutoring performance enhancements. Maintenance costs have been touted as consisting of about 60 percent of the lifetime costs for military aircraft, and that the use of information technology can actively reduce these costs to about 30 percent. The information technology systems provide the technicians with between and intelligent tutoring that can help them to more accurately troubleshoot, fill out paperwork, test, and repair malfunctioning component, and put the aircraft back into its performance. They are attacking the cost of labour by providing its technicians with better tools which can help them reduce the time taken to troubleshoot and repair the aircraft. The company’s maintenance, repairs, and overhaul department believes that if it can effectively use the time of its technicians, then it can significantly reduce the costs of maintaining its aircraft.

The use of Firefly data Recorder helps in collecting data from the radar warning receiver tests. It helps in monitoring the performance of engines, aircraft aft systems, and compressors, thereby giving the aircraft maintenance technicians a comprehensive view of the performance of the aircraft systems upon the conclusion of the flight.

 

Maintenance
Check
When (an average)
Description
Example

 

Line

 

Transit daily or after 24 hrs.
After each stop or when aircraft is on ground for more than 4 hours
This usually involves the visual inspection of the aircraft as the technicians look for the obvious damages and the possible deterioration.
 This also involves checking the fluid levels as well as the emergency equipment, inspecting the wheels and the brakes. The use of the computerised system is y preferable to efficiently and successfully accomplish this function.

A
 500 flight hours or 2 months
 This is accomplished at the designated maintenance station and mostly includes opening the access panels to check and service some items. This requires some limited special tooling, test equipment, and servicing equipment.
An example of this activity involves the general visual inspection of the structure of the aircraft for any evidence of the damage, deformation, missing parts, crew oxygen system, corrosion, pressure check, the operational emergency lights, and the lubricate nose gear retract actuator, check parking brake accumulators, test of flap/slat electronics unit, and to perform a Built-in test equipment.

B
11000 flight hours
This is a more detailed check of the aircraft systems and components. It requires the use of special equipment and tests. However, it does not involve a detailed disassembly or complete removal or overhaul of the aircraft component.

 

Base

 

 

C

 

 

After every 4000 flight hours or after 20 months

 

 

This is an extensive check of the individual aircraft components and systems for their serviceability and function. This step requires a thorough and insightful visual examination and inspection of the specified components, areas, and systems as well as the functional or operational checks. This is a high-level check which involves extensive tooling, special skill levels, and test equipment. These checks may remove the airplane from active services for between 3 and 5 days. It also includes the lower checks in A and B, as well as the daily checks.

 

 

 

The example of this check involves visualizing and checking the flight compartment escape ropes to determine any condition and security problems which may put the aircraft under safety threats. It also involves checking the operation of entry doors and seals, operationally checking the flap asymmetry systems, and checking the pressure decay systems, as well as the PU fuel line shroud.

 

 

D/HMV

 

 

25000 flight hours or 6 years

 

 

 This is an important check and is sometimes known as the structural check. It includes performing detailed visual and other non-destructive test inspections of the entire aircraft structure. This is an intense process inspection of the structure for any evidence of structural deformation, corrosion, cracking, and other signs of distress or deterioration and involves extensive disassembly so that the technicians can gain access for inspection purposes. Special techniques or equipment must be used, and this involves the use of information technology as appropriate. The structural checks and calendar time and man hour intensive. This check may remove the airplane from the general service for more 20 or more days.
 

 

An example of this check involves the inspection of stabilizers attached to the bolts, inspecting the floor beams, and performing a detailed inspection of the wing box structure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The airlines must develop a web-based maintenance and inventory systems which are developed in collaboration with other software developers such as Oracle database engine. These applications use the current technologies. The company sees the Oracle Application Development Framework platform as the next architecture for its maintenance and repairs systems. The airline also plans to devote substantial effort to maintain its existing Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and the maintenance, repair, and overhaul systems and replace with the most current technology information management. The company is also looking forward to enhancing its IT capabilities in the maintenance execution, supply chain, and will introduce e-signatures. The company is also planning to devote a significant proportion of its Information Technology enabled aircraft fleet. The airline is also interested in better supply chain management, forecasting, and inventory management. The company has always insisted in digital records over paper records to enhance the ability of technicians to access the necessary information and use it so that they can save both time and resources. The airline also plans to implement and expand mobile solutions in its maintenance, repairs, and overhaul activities.

Discussions

The use of Electronic manuals

Over the past years since the aviation industry was born, many technicians and mechanics were forced to wade through mountains of pieces of paper or microfilms so that they could access and maintain the information they required. This process was extremely tedious, and it is often difficult to keep or update the needed information. Many airlines and maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations in the United Arab Emirates have considered adopting and using the Boing Online Delivery (BOLD) system which provides digital information and maintenance manuals, manufacturer drawings, and structural repair manuals from a central database. The Boeing Online Delivery system is a web based application which requires personal computers having a standard internet connection to use. Airlines and their MRO systems have significantly benefited from the use of electronic manuals.  Before the implementation of electronic manual information systems such as BOLD, several airlines used to experience countless of hours which they spent on updating paper and microfilm documents. However, electronic databases and manuals allow for daily updates, and this significantly takes far much less time than using manual documentation. Also, since electronic manuals such as BOLD are issued through a central server, it is easier to ensure that maintenance, repair, and overhaul employees and technicians access the latest revision of each manual and document they need. As such, the time the technicians use updating manuals can now be widely used on the hanger floor.

Most maintenance, repair, and overhaul organizations in the United Arab Emirates currently have computer kiosk which can access BOLD readily available throughout their hangar floor. Additionally, many airlines have used the computerized information systems such as BOLD to do more than just maintenance manuals, maintenance tips, service bulletins, in fleet reports as well as other documents which can be available through this system. The systems also provide information such as product standards and detailed technical drawings. These are a special guideline for aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul personnel who need to produce standardized products and services. These systems also have self-placed training systems and programs which may be accessed through the use of information technology applications.

However, there are several inherent disadvantages concerning the use of this information technology such as BOLD. First, the airlines and their MRO facilities must train their employees on the use of these new technologies, a process which although can be painless and quick, may take a little longer and consume organizational resources unexpectedly. Secondly, the technicians and employees involved in the maintenance, repair and overhaul activities may find it relatively difficult to read electronic manuals than when faced with paper manuals. Some organizational employees may also only prefer to work with the paper documents, and this may significantly delay the implementation of the electronic maintenance, repairs, and overhaul manual system. Finally, the acquisition and implementation of electronic information systems in the maintenance, repairs and overhaul premises may be too costly for most airlines in the United Arab Emirates. For example, to successfully implement BLD, an airline must subscribe to this service and also acquire enough computers which shall allow the materials to be readily accessible for the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul personnel.

Portable display units (PDUs)

Portable Display Units (PDAs) are handheld devices which offer the maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations with some advantages over the traditional paper process. This is an effort which significantly reduces downtime during the heavy maintenance process of aircraft. During the past, heavy maintenance of aircraft involved a lot of time during the paperwork and data entry. First, the aircraft maintenance and repairs inspectors would conduct their inspections based on the maintenance programs of requirements. The new information technologies such as the PDAs have enabled the generation of work orders right at the hunger without going through several processes, thereby ensuring that there is speed during the examination, maintenance, repairs, and overhaul of aircraft. These programs significantly maximize the level of efficiency and virtually eliminate omission errors by leading the MRO personnel through several programed procedures.

The use of electronic scheduling tools

Electronic scheduling tools such as Open Plan electronic scheduling tools are important for aircraft maintenance, overhaul and repair organizations in the United Arab Emirates because they enable tracking and organizing of entire maintenance process. It also allows organizations to track their employees and the thousands of work orders which go on at their hangers.

Information technology has significantly revolutionized the connection between airlines and their passengers over the last decades, but benefits of IT in maintenance hangars have been more slowly and as such, must be pursued more carefully. Airlines have become more cautious when picking their openings, examines business cases slowly and focuses their efforts where the gains seem most clear. According to Kinnison and Siddiqui (2012), nearly one-third of airlines indicate that aircraft engineering and maintenance is their highest priority when they invest in business intelligence including information technology. However, business intelligence is just one of the areas where the airlines may see prospects of improving their operations or where they can cut their maintenance costs using information technology. Each airline carrier has the freedom to choose their priorities which are mostly based on their fleet, operations, maintenance strategies, and the available or the existing information technology capabilities. Even smart and financial strong airlines such as the Etihad and the Emirate airlines still prefer to proceed carefully when considering the information technology they can implement in their maintenance, repair, and overhaul needs. For these airlines, the main problem concerns how they can integrate the digital data with the technical pubs to ensure that their technicians have the information which can facilitate the troubleshooting processes and fixing it the first time. As such most airlines have decided to seek the best-of-bred applications which can perform specific functions such as planning and forecasting airframe and on-wing engine work. However, this may provide the airlines and their maintenance repairs, and overhaul facilities with unique challenges. For example, such new technologies may force the organizations to use a point-to-point system which may be different from hub to hub to hub and spoke systems. Most of the Emirates and Etihad’s aircraft fly across more than six airports every day, of which more than two may be having a maintenance and repairs facility.  The hub-spoke carriers usually put the aircraft into maintenance, repairs, and overhaul bases once every three days, and that may make it difficult to judge the right planning systems. This is may also prevent the organization from finding the granularity it needs in the information technology systems developed for the hub-to-spoke transport systems.

The supply chain management is also one of the aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul component which may significantly benefit from the use of information technology. It is important to have a visibility where a company’s retables are in the repair process so that it could have a better forecasting. However, it is also important to note that the maintenance and repair rules are very dynamic and so it is a must that airlines and their MROs must also be dynamic. Such a system can be provided for by leveraging the capabilities of the information technology.  According to Aircraft technology (2016), some airlines are looking for the use of frequency identification and Universal Product Code which may enable them to manage the physical configuration of their fleet. Other airlines have also used mobile maintenance to eliminate time wasted in traveling to and from the aircraft. Some other airlines have also used electronic signatures in their engineering processes and have implemented these capabilities for all of their technicians.

Some other airlines have also implemented aggressive outsourcing techniques which enable them to use data from maintenance, repair, and overhaul shops on the component history. When airline exchange between their operators, they need to have a history of the components which have been repaired or overhauled, and this information can be included and preserved through the use of information technologies. This is helpful because it enables the airlines to have a better control of their operational costs and time since this provides them with a competitive way to manage their costs.

Other airlines have also put up very specific goals for their IT enhancement. For example, EasyJet has decided to use the Swiss Aviation Software AMOS to manage their maintenance and repair activities. The carrier’s information technology priorities over the next ten years include the implementation of the e-signatures for all work orders, appropriate preparing for e-enabled aircraft and the integration of systems with end-of-lease documentation. The airline also recently indicated that it aims to optimize and maximize its maintenance planning and thus enhance its maintenance of the information technology. This is an important point because it may enable most airlines from the United Arab Emirates to borrow a leaf and implement a similar strategy in their maintenance, repairs, and overhaul facilities.  Some airlines have also decided to enhance their information technology specifically for maintenance planning, supply chain management, supply chain execution and document management. This is also an important leaf which airlines in the United Arab Emirates may borrow and implement. For example, Etihad and Emirates may decide to increase their mobile maintenance capabilities and adopt the widely used e-signatures in their Maintenance repairs, and overhaul activities.

Some of the third party aircraft maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations also have better specific goals for information technology than most airlines. Most of these independent MRO providers use information technology to connect with their customers. The Mubadala Aerospace Center has three main information technology programs which it aims to pursue successfully. These include mobility and analytics, customer-facing functions with business intelligence dashboards. The company is planning to roll out a mobile business intelligence dashboard which would enable the maintenance of airframe for the customers, who can them check the work card status and the work details as well as the completion milestones with the real-time visibility. The program will be initially unveiled on iPads but will later be used on Android devices. Another area where the independent maintenance, repairs, and overhaul organizations have to optimize is the use of Online Partner Services (OPS) which enables them to manage their inventory status, MRO approval, and the component repair and maintenance and overhaul approval. The organization may also use the OPS to integrate and automate their web services which will result in better data and information integrity as well as quicker processing.

Conclusion

The main purpose of this research paper was to explore the role of information technology in aircraft maintenance, repairs, and overhaul. The paper has found that indeed information technology has a major role to play in ensuring that the aircraft maintenance processes are efficient, more cost effective, and less tiresome. The current MRO market in the UAE is expected to grow, and this means that there will be more aircraft in the country which will need to be maintained and repaired. To effectively do this, the in-house MRO facilities will have to implement IT technologies. These technologies lead to improved performances, increase maintenance efficiency, increased customer satisfaction, and efficient operations of airlines.

 

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