CASE STUDIES: VIRGIN ATLANTIC • HELVETIC AIRWAYS • JET BLUE • KALITTA AIR
WHITE PAPER: M3 SOLUTIONS & AEROATEAM
WINTER 2023 • V12.4
Digital records keep Virgin Atlantic up-to-date The value of well maintained records and smooth paper free lease returns
HELVETIC MIGRATES TO THE CLOUD The benefits gained from migration
KALITTA GOES DIGITAL WITH AN ETLB Implementing an electronic TechLog
STREAMLINED PLANNING AT JETBLUE A nextgen heavy maintenance planning solution
TRANSITIONING TO MOBILITY How to manage a fleet of devices
WHAT CAN IT DO: QOCO SYSTEMS HOW I SEE IT: ICF VENDOR JOB CARDS: OUTPUT42 • ULTRAMAIN • EXSYN AVIATION SOLUTIONS
AIRCRAFT IT MRO: WELCOME
COMMENT
Aircraft IT MRO: expert comment and real-life cases about the latest development in software solutions for MRO and Engineering WORDS: ED HASKEY
AIRCRAFT IT MRO Publisher/Editor Ed Haskey E-mail: ed.haskey@aircraftit.com Telephone: +44 1273 454 235 Website: www.aircraftIT.com Chief Operating Officer Scott Leslie E-mail: scott.leslie@aircraftit.com Copy Editor/Contributor John Hancock E-mail: john@aircraftit.com Magazine Production Dean Cook E-mail: deancook@magazineproduction.com AircraftIT MRO is published bi-monthly and is an affiliate of Aircraft Commerce and part of the AviationNextGen Ltd group. The entire contents within this publication © Copyright 2023 AviationNextGen Ltd an independent publication and not affiliated with any of the IT vendors or suppliers. Content may not be reproduced without the strict written agreement of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of their companies or of the publisher. The publisher does not guarantee the source, originality, accuracy, completeness or reliability of any statement, information, data, finding, interpretation, advice, opinion, or view presented.
W
ith a global shortage of qualified engineers and technicians, airlines and MROs are looking for ways to optimize the time that valuable staff are able to spend doing their most productive work, i.e. maintaining, repairing and overhauling aircraft. Readers know that MRO processes are not only about the cost of the work, parts and labor but also about the lost revenue while the aircraft cannot fly. In this issue, you can read from an eclectic selection of articles about different technology possibilities, all able to play their part in ensuring that people can spend the optimum time exercising their skills. The first step to optimizing work is planning and from JetBlue we have an article about their implementation of a nextgen heavy maintenance planning solution, and the benefits plus opportunities that has delivered. It also adds real value as well as eliminating human error if all of the paper used in a traditional MRO operation can be removed and the article from Kalitta is about the first step towards a paperless operation, the electronic TechLog (eTLB) which ensures that every fault or failure entered will be properly prioritized and dealt with. Aircraft have long operating lives and can build up huge paper records of all the work that gets done on them plus, at the end, all of those records need to be available for lease return or sale.
The article from Virgin Atlantic tells of that airline’s long association with an electronic records solution that has saved so much time and paper while delivering enhanced accuracy. Then, of course, the process of maintaining, repairing and overhauling aircraft itself relies heavily on IT solutions, but hosting them is yet another function not directly related to the job. Our final case study is about how Helvetic migrated its AMOS solution from a managed basis to a Cloud service and how that has improved the airline’s use of personnel. In the same vein, engineers and technicians spend a lot of their day walking between the work site and the place where the IT is available: mobility is the answer but going mobile is not without challenges. The solution can be found in this issue’s white paper on managing mobile devices. Also, Henrik Ollus offers his column on the benefits of automated data delivery and the efficiencies it unlocks plus Allan Bachan, in his column, asks whether you’re making full use of Solution blueprints to get the best from your IT. As if that wasn’t enough, there are Vendor Job Cards from Ultramain Systems, Output42 and EXSYN Aviation Solutions. Add to that our regular round-up of news and technology developments and the comprehensive ‘MRO Software Directory’ and you have Aircraft IT MRO: looking at the software components for more productive work.
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 3
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO: V12.4
CONTENTS 06 Latest News and Technology updates
Keep up to date with the changing world of IT.
34 CASE STUDY: Virgin Atlantic uses an electronic record system for lease requirements and returns
Lee Butterfield, Head of Aircraft Programmes and Asset Management, Virgin Atlantic Ltd. Virgin Atlantic uses a modern digital record system to maintain records on its fleet, and to keep lessors up to date including at return.
42 VENDOR JOB CARD: Ultramain Systems
In the first of our Q&A pieces this issue, Mark McCausland, President & CEO, Ultramain Systems, completes his ‘Job Card’ for Aircraft IT.
44 CASE STUDY: Helvetic goes from a fully managed system to a SaaS solution
Christian Suhner, Chief Technology Officer, Helvetic How Helvetic Airlines migrated its AMOS solution from a managed basis to a Cloud service and the benefits that were gained from that.
52 VENDOR JOB CARD: EXSYN Aviation Solutions
In the second of our Q&A pieces this issue, Divya Das Podiyat, Customer Success Manager, EXSYN Aviation Solutions, completes her ‘Job Card’ for Aircraft IT.
54 CASE STUDY: Streamlining maintenance planning at JetBlue
Erin Ritola, General Manager, Maintenance Planning, JetBlue How JetBlue’s implementation of a nextgen heavy maintenance planning solution added value and revealed opportunities.
62 HOW I SEE IT: Do you maintain a Solution Blueprint?
Allan Bachan, VP, Managing Director, MRO Operations, ICF Maintaining and making proper use of Solution Blueprints will ensure that you know how to use them and enable you to get the best from them.
66 WHITE PAPER: The transition to mobility
Stephane Menard, Chief technology Officer, M3 Solutions, Steve Bogie, Partner, AeroATeam and Frank Milillo, Partner AeroATeam As more airlines consider going paperless and mobile, they have to decide how to manage those mobile devices. Some considerations are aired here.
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 5
74 VENDOR JOB CARD: Output42
In the third of our Q&A pieces this issue, Steve Crabb, Founder and Partner, Output42 Software Limited, completes his ‘Job Card’ for Aircraft IT.
76 CASE STUDY: Kalitta Air takes a big digital step Luke Usher, QC Records Manager, Kalitta Air How Kalitta Air determined the need for, selected and implemented a new electronic TechLog Book (eTLB).
82 WHAT IT CAN DO: Reliable data delivered automatically supports efficiency
Henrik Ollus, VP of Aviation Data Exchange Business at QOCO Systems Ltd. The benefits that all parties can gain from automated data delivery and the efficiencies that it brings to maintenance processes.
84 MRO Software directory
A detailed look at the world’s leading MRO IT systems.
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
New vendor joins Aircraft IT We are very pleased to welcome a new vendor to Aircraft IT MRO. Sensus Aero, whose Sensus Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) is an advanced ERP solution. The platform has been specifically designed for every aspect of the aviation MRO base and line maintenance industries, making it a holistic MRO solution. Unique to the MRO market, Sensus’s aviation MRO software is designed around best practices in LEAN operations and encourages greater efficiency through the identification and creation of processes requiring less human time and effort. The Sensus MRO platform is a module-based system, which is highly customizable to match individual client requirements. Modules can be run independently or
as part of an all-in-one system to match the needs of the end user. Using Sensus MRO software, aviation service professionals can streamline their productivity at the lowest cost and remain competitive in a consolidating market.
Cloud enabled data management The maintenance software system utilizes cloud computing benefits and is accessible from any device or location. Sensus MRO is the premium choice for MRO aviation organizations that want to enable cloud technology but are not prepared to replace an entire ERP system. Sensus MRO software implementation is fast and easy, and is designed around specific business needs that allows the user to
undertake smaller projects, or wider, full scope implementations. Additionally, the platform efficiently aggregates diverse data and gives it a uniform meaning across the entire organization, giving it an edge over other management systems. The consolidated use of data allows for more productive maintenance management, and the identification of new opportunities.
Products
Sandglass — Time Tracking System: Enables logging and analysis of time spent on and between tasks across an organization Quoting: Designed to save valuable time when quoting on complex aviation MRO projects and calculating bottom line financials. Planning: A highly intuitive tool
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 6
providing all the necessary functionality for planning, managing, and tracking MRO inventory and projects. Contract Management: Uses all the acquired data for managing and tracking every MRO project from beginning to end. Human Resources: Ensures the easy management of employees, employee groups, employee certification, and employee authorization. Customer Portal: A window into your MRO organization and an efficient and engaging way for your customers to track the project’s status and take decisions on its progress. Line Maintenance: A dedicated Line Maintenance MRO helps to manage various aspects of aviation line maintenance requirements.
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Rusada launches PDF Task Integrator for ENVISION In early October 2023, Aviation software specialist Rusada, who, at the start of October, had been acquired by Veryon, announced the launch of a PDF Task Integrator for its Airworthiness, Maintenance, and Flight Operations solution ENVISION. The PDF Task Integrator facilitates the digitalization of customer task cards and work packages for MROs and third-party maintenance providers. Through newly developed functionality, the PDF Task Integrator can read uploaded PDFs, identifying key information such as the Task Number, Task Title, Work Area, Trades, Skills, Hours, and more, as well as highlighting signoffs. The tool can then use this discovered information to link the customer’s PDF task cards to work orders and tasks already created in ENVISION. “This new functionality saves users
significant amounts of time and effort,” said Peter Mortimer, Head of Sales & Business Development — Americas & APAC at Rusada. “Previously maintenance providers would be required to recreate customer task cards one by one in their own system before they could start planning work. In cases of large work packages, this could be thousands of different task cards. Our new tool eliminates this process completely.” Once the task cards are digitalized, users can then add additional feedback requirements and designate skill applicability against the signoffs. When the work has been completed technicians and engineers can sign off electronically. The completed task can then be provided back to the customer as a PDF with all their preferred formatting still in place. “ENVISION’s latest tool makes PDFs far more functional and easier to use,” commented Julian Stourton, CEO at Rusada. “It also heavily reduces the chance of input errors and non-compliance as feedback fields can be defined, and signoffs are validated against the user’s stamp in the system.” Stourton added, “Above all though, it fully removes the need for paper records and physical signatures in maintenance facilities, something that everyone in the industry is striving for.”
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Avianca Airlines to implement Comply365’s document authoring and distribution solution
Time to upgrade Does your current software drive efficiency, or obstruct it?
Carrier Marks First Latin American Customer for Comply365
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In early October 2023, Avianca, one of the largest air transportation groups in Latin America, announced that it will transform its document authoring and compliance management processes across its multiple airlines into Comply365’s single, end-to-end authoring and distribution platform and mobile app. Comply365 was pleased to announce the Avianca Group of airlines will implement ProAuthor to author and manage its Airbus, Boeing and company manuals across all its departments to streamline and centralize its processes. The move will help increase safety and bring great operational efficiencies to the airline while providing crews with more consistent and up-to-date information. Avianca is the second-oldest continually operating airline in the world. The Bogotá-based group of
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 8
airlines flies a mixed fleet of 130 aircraft. As a network of pan-Latin American airlines serving over 140 routes with more than 2,000 weekly flights, Avianca’s goal of being an airline for everyone attracted close to 24.6 million passengers last year. “We are honored to partner with such a longstanding, reputable brand in aviation. We look forward to enabling their teams with a system to increase safety, efficiency, and provide a better mobile experience for their end users,” Comply365 Chief Commercial Officer Sergio Ramos said, adding, “Avianca marks Comply365’s first customer in Latin America, and we’re excited about the value we can bring to airlines in the region.” Comply365’s ProAuthor will offer Avianca the opportunity to centralize its documentation across its airlines to reduce labor-intensive, inefficient and time-consuming authoring workflows while improving compliance processes and streamlining reporting. Using the
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Comply365 mobile app, crews in Flight Operations, Maintenance, Ground Handling, Security and other departments will have access anytime, anywhere to the most current content — with the ability to easily see what is new. Global searching will enable them to easily find what they need across all their manuals, and they will be able to create bookmarks and annotations that stick with their documents even as new versions are released. Avianca joins more than 90 global aircraft operators relying on Comply365’s operational content and compliance management platform. Users range from start-up airlines to the world’s largest carriers, as well as cargo, business, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), flight training and rail operations. “It’s exciting to welcome an airline
with such a storied history as Avianca into our customer community,” Comply365 Chief Executive Officer Tom Samuel said. “We are proud to support Avianca’s vision to lead air travel within the highly competitive Latin American air transportation market, and we look forward to celebrating Avianca’s continued success with the value our solutions will bring.” Comply365: Comply365 is a leading provider of enterprise SaaS and mobile solutions for content management and document distribution in highly regulated industries including aviation, rail, and energy. Comply365 supports the world’s most mobile and remote workforces with targeted and personalized delivery of job-critical data that enables safe, efficient, and
compliant operations. Every day, hundreds of thousands of pilots, flight attendants, maintenance technicians, rail conductors and engineers, and energy workers rely on Comply365 for digital delivery of operational (OEM and company) manuals. Having played an instrumental role in the FAA’s approval of replacing the traditional, paper-based, pilot flight bags with electronic flight bags (EFBs), Comply365 partners with clients to transform their industries. Avianca Group: Includes AviancaStar Alliance member, LifeMiles and Avianca Cargo. In passenger transportation and with more than 103 years of continuous operations since 1919, Avianca is the leading airline in Colombia, Ecuador and Central America, and has one of the largest airline operations in Latin America with
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 9
140 routes, 2,000 weekly flights and a fleet of more than 130 Airbus 320 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, connecting to around 70 destinations in the Americas and Europe. More than 11 million members and 500 commercial partners are part of its loyalty program, LifeMiles, one of the largest in the region. In cargo transportation, Avianca Cargo is a leader in the region and is the main cargo airline in different markets in the Americas. It serves more than 70 destinations with a fleet of Airbus A330 freighters, along with its operation of passenger aircraft bellies. Avianca successfully emerged from Chapter 11 at the end of 2021 and today, has a team of more than 12,000 people committed to providing a safe, convenient, affordable and friendly service to its customers.
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Sabena Engineering selects CrossConsense for data migration, AMOS support and AMOS hosting In mid-October 2023, Sabena Engineering announced that it has selected CrossConsense as main supplier to provide AMOS Support, AMOS Hosting and the migration of existing data into a new system. The aim of this new collaboration is to migrate the existing AMOS environment from Lufthansa Technik Maintenance International (LTMI) which Sabena acquired in December 2021, to a newly hosted environment. Axel Christ, Managing Director of CrossConsense said: “I am proud of our team at CrossConsense. Our consultants perform data migration projects including database splits or mergers. Our AMOS supporters help our customer’s users if they get stuck. And our data engineers take care of all kinds of interfacing or reporting tasks. The whole team has years of aviation experience. Throughout the pandemic, we kept our team stable, and our customers well cared for. This demonstrates the value of a dedicated, professional AMOS support service. In the same way that we are recognized AMOS experts, Sabena is an experienced and well-renowned MRO provider. We are very proud of adding them to the diverse list of our customers.” Nicolas Bertrand, AMOS Project Manager of Sabena Engineering added: “We selected CrossConsense because they were the only partner capable to cope
with the scope of our demand, combining a wide range of services and expertise to support the initial migration, the setup of our new system and the associated
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hosting services. Thanks to the CrossConsense consultants and support team, we are on the way to make our AMOS instance the core system of our MRO organization.” Sabena Engineering: Sabena Engineering, with its headquarters located in Brussels Belgium, is an international MRO provider offering sustainable maintenance and engineering solutions to the Commercial Aviation and Government/Defense markets. Sabena Engineering’s activities include Line & Base Maintenance; Aerostructure & Components Repair; CAMO & Engineering, Design & Manufacturing; Engine Services and a Maintenance Control Centre offering 24/7 support worldwide. Sabena Engineering draws on nearly 100 years of experience and the expertise of more than 900 employees, operating in 15 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to serve airlines, governments and air forces worldwide. Sabena Engineering is part of the Orizio Group, a unique industrial ecosystem focused on the sustainable development of the aerospace industry that brings together agile, forward-looking and high-tech companies. CrossConsense: Founded in 2002, Frankfurt Germany-based
CrossConsense offers its customers in the commercial aviation industry, highly skilled services, designed to buttress their productivity and uptime performance, based on sound knowledge in the areas of maintenance, engineering and logistical support. CrossConsense maintains a staff of 20 dedicated, experienced, and motivated team workers. The company’s portfolio stretches from AMOS Support, BI-Management, Data Migration and Hosting to the products Aircraft Fleet View, ACSIS (tool for predictive maintenance), AviationDW (tool that supports airlines to get an overview over all KPIs the airline is interested in) and the Approval App. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian’s FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd., CrossConsense also offers solutions for Fuel Management, Turn Process Management and other software applications as well as AFIRS hardware that collects data during flight. CrossConsense is dedicated to helping airlines to achieve their goals through the application of innovative technology solutions. FLYHT is headquartered in Calgary, and is an AS9100 Quality registered company and CrossConsense is ISO9001 certified.
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– IoT data gathered in real time from every inch of the aircraft to automate maintenance management – Trusted to support safety and maintenance requirements, from regulatory compliance to maintenance planning and execution Discover more → © Copyright IBM Corporation 2023. IBM, the IBM logo, and Maximo are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corp., in the U.S. and/or other countries.
SUBSCRIBE HERE FOR FREE… AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 11
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
flydocs announces five-year partnership renewal with Cebu Pacific Air In early November 2023, flydocs, a leading digital records and asset management solution provider for the aviation industry, announced a five-year extended software deal with Cebu Pacific Air, the Philippines’ leading carrier, to digitize and automate processes of daily records and asset management of its fleet of over 80 aircraft. The renewed partnership will benefit Cebu Pacific Air with a seamless interface through flydocs’ enhanced integration with the leading M&E software AMOS to support aircraft records auditing and receive a fully paperless approach to its records and asset management. Commenting on the partnership, Savas Toplama, Chief Commercial Officer, flydocs said; “We extend our gratitude for this longstanding association with Cebu Pacific Air and it is an honor to extend our partnership to support them with our digital records management software solutions. We stand committed to making them a truly paperless airline
with both flydocs and AMOS’ together, to provide improved operational efficiencies leading to cost savings and enhanced customer satisfaction, giving a competitive edge in the aviation industry. We truly value our customers, and being selected as their customer solution partner of choice establishes the value digitally driven aircraft transitions can create in aircraft maintenance. We look forward to continuing our support in making the journey of Cebu Pacific Air completely digitized within aircraft maintenance.” Commenting on the announcement, Shevantha Weerasekera, VP Engineering-Maintenance at Cebu Pacific Air said; “Over the past three years, as a long-term partner, we’ve grown with the support of flydocs, a global leader in digital records and asset management as we have been able to successfully work through their commitment of being innovative to digitizing our aircraft maintenance records. The integration of flydocs and AMOS would benefit us
by improving operational efficiency, data accuracy, real-time Information, and compliance management. The significant extension of our agreement represents a deepening of our partnership as we look forward to continuing our close collaboration with flydocs.” flydocs: flydocs is an asset management solution provider with the aviation industry’s most comprehensive solution for creating value out of aircraft maintenance data. They offer the tools and expertise that allow all industry stakeholders to drive sustainable innovation to help build the future of the commercial aviation asset lifecycle. Recognized as a global leader in digital records management, flydocs was founded in 2007 and is 100% owned by Lufthansa Technik. With over 300 employees in multiple locations spread across the globe, flydocs is trusted by over 75 airlines, lessors, and MROs to deliver measurable long-term operational and cost efficiencies.
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eVTOL regulations set to transform business aviation, says Web Manuals
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In mid-October 2023, sustainability, industrial electrification and advanced air mobility (AAM) are a growing interest in the commercial aviation sector. New advancements in how sustainable aircraft and eVTOLs are regulated will have big implications for business aviation organizations. Web Manuals, a world leader in digital documentation for aviation, is advising that digitalization is crucial to preparing the industry for ongoing compliance and ensuring safety in the face of changing regulations, as an abundance of new structures are forecast to fall into place over the coming years. Krister Genmark, Vice President of Sales, says: “Further eVTOL and UAM developments are set to truly take off within the next decade, which will
significantly disrupt the industry’s regulatory framework as we know it. While certifying these new aircraft is a unique and ongoing challenge for regulators, new processes and structures will likely introduce a minefield of complexities for all aircraft operators – old and new. For those looking to maintain a competitive edge during this era of regulatory disruption, the value of digitalization has never been so exposed. With the ability to rapidly publish regulatory amendments, digital tools enable greater collaboration between regulators and operators, supporting the certification process for new aircraft. For existing business aviation operations required to adapt their practices to align with pending changes, being digital is key to moving the industry forward.”
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 13
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Revolutionizing engineering technology: Etihad Airways and QOCO Systems sign MoU to further explore QOCO’s applications In mid-November 2023, Etihad Airways, the national airline of the UAE, and QOCO Systems Ltd signed an MoU to further enhance and explore QOCO SaaS solutions of MROTools.io and Aviadex.io. QOCO’s ambition is to transform the way engineering professionals engage with the digital world, enhancing connectivity and streamlining user experiences. Key features of QOCO applications that Etihad are exploring include: • Effortless Integration: Seamlessly integrates with existing maintenance processes and systems for a unified experience. • Enhanced Security: Incorporates state-of-the-art security protocols ensuring data protection and user privacy. • Versatile Functionality: Offers a diverse range of functionalities catering to different user requirements.
Etihad Airways & QOCO systems Ltd signs MoU at Dubai Airshow 2023
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efficiencies. Replacing legacy processes with digital applications around the tool, manpower assignment and digital data exchanges are at the core of everything QOCO will offer Etihad Airways.” stated Andy Graham, Chief Commercial Officer & Partner at QOCO. “Etihad Airways is committed to modernizing its digital ecosystem in order to improve safety and enhance operational efficiencies with the vision to lead the industry in digitalization. The airline’s partnership with QOCO is another example of Etihad’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of technological advancements and driving innovation. QOCO’s advancements in supporting digitizing engineering and maintenance make them an ideal partner for Etihad to explore opportunities and collaborate to improve our operations.” added Paul Kear, Senior Vice President Technical, at Etihad Airways.
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NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
FlyPal-SMS neo plus solution gets endorsed by Heligo Charters
Heligo Charters Pvt Ltd (HCPL) which operates 17 Helicopters in India, announced at the end of November 2023 that they had upgraded themselves with Bytzsoft Technologies application FlyPal SMS neo plus as a part of its Safety Management System. Bytzsoft Technologies Pvt Ltd is a global aviation software solution company based out of India and supports airlines, charter operators and MRO’s across the regions. Air Cmde Anil K Sinha (Retd) Vir Chakra — CEO of HCPL said, “Our association with Bytzsoft Technologies dates back over a decade now with its various applications. We are expanding and safety is paramount to us. Our senior management evaluated FlyPal-SMS neo plus application and recommended for its deployment. We found that the application is at par with any international application, very
easy to navigate, meets all functional requirements and, most importantly, is backed by excellent customer support. We will exploit the application to improve the process flow, efficiency, data analytics, better risks management and strengthen the safety culture.” Nitin Deshpande VP- Business Development & Customer Success at Bytzsoft said, ”We believe in upgrading and enhancing the features of our product to meet the customer needs and it pleases us more when an existing customer reposes its trust in us. The FlyPal SMS neo plus is an integrated application combining SMS requirement of ICAO 9859 and QMS requirement of AS9100. We have been serving the aviation industry over 20 years and our cloud-based application is our service to sustainability. We are thankful to Heligo leadership team and we are committed to partner in their growth.” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 15
NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Binter Technic signs for AMOSeTL In early December 2023, Swiss-AS were delighted to announce that Binter Technic (including Binter), one of their valued customers, has signed up for AMOSeTL. As the airline embarks on this new journey towards a paperless future with AMOSeTL, its fleet of mainly ATR 42/72 aircraft will add a further 34 aircraft to the currently fast-growing pool of aircraft to be managed via AMOSeTL. This marks another milestone in the continued growth and industry adoption of AMOSeTL. The use of AMOSeTL will allow Binter to better achieve all the benefits expected from an electronic Techlog, such as reduced aircraft turnaround times and process cost reductions, but also reach heightened data consistency and accuracy thanks to real-time data availability and instant and seamless integration with AMOS. Noteworthy is the recent availability, from AMOS Release 23.12, released on 1st December 2023, of the new Cabin mode of AMOSeTL for all AMOS customers. This complements the Pilot and Maintenance modes introduced with AMOS Release 23.6. Thus, the AMOSeTL functional suite has now reached full market maturity and Swiss-AS are confident that this achievement will further enhance the value proposition for our users. With the first AMOSeTL go-Live on the verge of happening at another of our customers, this solidifies AMOSeTL’s position in the market. With their enhanced mobile application portfolio and the newly released AMOSeTL, AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 16
Swiss-AS is proud to support Binter Technic and all other customers in their digitalization and paperless projects. “At Binter we are committed to innovation and digital transformation. In maintenance, work is already being done with digital signature and paperless processes with AMOS. With the addition of AMOSeTL, we will fully digitize end-to-end processes, from operator to MRO”, highlighted Javier Bretón, Managing Director of Binter Technic. Binter and Binter Technic: Flying the skies over the Canary Islands since 1989, Binter begins its operations to connect the islands by air focusing on public service. The airline also connects the Canary Islands overseas. Binter operates 15 connections outside the Archipelago and also 19 flights to international destinations in Africa, Portugal, Italy and France. The aviation company has one of the most modern fleets of ATR72 in Europe, and is becoming the first European Company to operate with Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. Since 1988, Binter has grown to a group of 16 companies. Its aim is to offer a complete customer service and guarantee impeccable quality in each specific branch of the air transport sector. These companies make up the Binter system. Among this Binter system is Binter Technic, an ATR
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Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul service provider headquartered in the Canary Islands. The MRO provider has more than 25 years of experience in ATR maintenance and performs complex structural repairs, cargo conversions, modifications, engine workshop, engineering support and interiors. AMOSeTL: AMOSeTL is a native application developed by Swiss-AS that
provides a paperless aircraft technical logbook application that is tightly integrated with AMOS. It allows the end-users to bring AMOS to the flight deck by digitizing the paper techlog, enabling seamless Pilot-to-Maintenance collaboration. Its objective is to be the most attractive, intuitive, and innovative fully integrated by providing a best-inclass mobile user experience that adapts to the end-user’s mission.
Web Manuals wins three new customers In late-October 2023, Web Manuals, a world leader in digital documentation for the aviation industry, announced the signing of three new customers. Joining Web Manuals’ global community is Fly House, a California-based jet management and charter company; St. Maarten Airways (SXM Airways), a specialized provider of private air charter services in St. Maarten, the Caribbean; and Celestial Airways, a private charter business based in Dubai, UAE. Suran Wijayawardana, chief aviation officer, Fly House, said: “At FlyHouse, we have committed to significant investment in custom built technology for our aircraft owners, clients and internal processes. Our team has so far been impressed with how easy it’s been to edit and manage documents with Web Manuals, following a successful demo comprised of 50 readers, five editors and three compliance libraries. Together, we believe in the power of digitalization and look forward to working with the
incredible team at Web Manuals as the best partner for FlyHouse.” Captain Jeff Oliver, Chief Pilot of SXM Airways, said: “The Web Manuals team were highly accommodating and offered live demonstrations of the product with easy-to-understand details. We were particularly impressed with the ability to access all safety regulations within a singular tool. Working with Web Manuals will allow us to navigate a complex regulatory environment, while enhancing operational safety for our charter customers.” Krister Genmark, vice president of sales Americas, said: “It’s an honor to witness an increasing number of aviation businesses recognize the value of switching to a digital documentation system when it comes to safety and compliance. Welcoming three new customers is truly exciting and we’ve enjoyed getting to know the teams at Fly House, SXM Airways and Celestial Airways during such a pivotal industry event.”
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 17
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Seabury Solutions applies AI to scheduling, data wrangling and revenue potential forecasting Seabury Solutions integrates AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions to improve financial and operational models, for its growing solutions platform
In mid-October 2022, Seabury Solutions, a market leader in providing Information Technology solutions for the aviation industry, announced the integration of AI solutions through strategic partnerships. “Aurora’s intelligent scheduling technology improves MRO throughput, resulting in improved transparency and reduced costs, while also resulting in superior operations management. Aurora was developed to help tackle difficult, mission-critical scheduling problems—by using artificial intelligence technologies to encode extensive expert domain knowledge with advanced algorithms to generate
more efficient schedules. Today, Aurora manages the most demanding operations for organizations such as The Boeing Company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Bombardier Learjet, Spirit AeroSystems, General Dynamics Electric Boat, Korea Aerospace Industries,
and the US Air Force, US Space Force, and US Navy,” said Richard Stottler, President, Stottler Henke. “Having seen OEMs and Tier 1s invest in predictive maintenance driven AI channels, it was crucial that AI found its way into enhancing data quality and integrity using data driven models. This acts as a segway into helping organizations visualize commercial impact of decisions using an Aircraft, Engine or Component’s Airworthiness and Maintenance data. KeepFlying sees great potential for Airlines, MROs, Lessors and Banks to create financial twins for the Assets they operate, lease, maintain and finance to predict costs, revenues, asset placement, commercial potentials and risks using Machine Learning models trained across different Aircraft and Engine types.” remarked KeepFlying CEO, Sriram Haran. “Our decision to include AI into our Functional
“The system is one of the biggest advances in Line Maintenance, Engineering and Operations that I have ever encountered.” Andy Pyett, Line Maintenance Control British Airways CityFlyer
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 18
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Architecture was taken right before the Pandemic started and it was included in our road map together with a five year plan to execute it. After understanding the necessity of tools driven by AI in areas such as Scheduling, Planning, Revenue Forecasting (specifically for Airframe and Engines MROs, lessors and Financial Institutions) we took the challenge of inviting specialized strategic partners to deliver a set of solutions that will only improve our digital transformation platform and benefit not only current but also future customers,” stated Seabury Solutions CEO & President, Bijoy Mechery. Stottler Henke Associates Inc.: Founded in 1988, Stottler Henke Associates, Inc. applies cognitive modeling, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other advanced technologies to solve problems that defy solution using traditional approaches. The business develops intelligent software solutions that provide advanced capabilities for planning and scheduling, autonomy, knowledge management and delivery, education and training, and machine learning and data analytics. Keepflying®: KeepFlying® ascertains financial and risk forecasts in a post pandemic era where creditworthiness and legal hassles can consequentially present pitfalls when repossessing an Aircraft or Engine in case of an Event of Default. The business combines the expertise of AI & Deep Tech professionals who are committed towards dealing with the extremes of large streams of unstructured, scanned
data that accompany assets and advanced sensor data that transmit every second from an Aircraft or Engine, with Finance and Risk professionals who focus on protecting the Residual Values of Assets as they move between lessees, across borders. Seabury Solutions: Seabury Solutions was established in 2002 and forms part of Seabury Capital. Since then, they have been delivering leading IT solutions to enhance the operational and financial performance of some of the world’s largest enterprises. Utilizing decades of technological expertise in-house, Seabury Solutions has leveraged this knowledge into a suite of products that enhance the decision-making process for Asset Management, MROs/M&E, Regulatory Compliance, Safety Oversight & Performance Analysis. With more than 100 customers ranging from some of the largest corporations in the world down to the smallest, and with clients across more than 45 different countries, Seabury Solutions is building strong and long-lasting customer relationships. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 19
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Finnair successfully live with AMOSmobile/STORES • First AMOSmobile/STORES launch customer live on AMOS 22.12 • Implementation project dedicated to re-design internal processes to reach improved efficiencies. • AMOSmobile/STORES Roadmap for future releases: Receiving and Goods Handling Modules In early December 2023, Swiss-AS was delighted to announce that on October 17, 2023, Finland’s Flag Carrier, FINNAIR, became the very first launch customer for the second module of Swiss0AS’s mobile suite, and successfully went live with AMOSmobile/STORES using the product in AMOS 22.12.
First launch customer live
AMOSmobile/STORES is set to enhance efficiency in warehouses and stores management, taking us one step closer to a paperless future. This implementation introduces a range of essential processes into Finnair’s operations, including Binning, Picking, Inventory, Parts Transfer and Return functionalities. As of today, the Tooling functionalities of AMOSmobile/ STORES are not part of Finnair’s operational scope. Witnessing Finnair’s journey toward enhanced warehouse and store management, Swiss AviationSoftware anticipated the positive impact of this milestone on their operations and the industry as a whole. Swiss-AS remains dedicated to delivering transformative AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 20
solutions that empower businesses in today’s dynamic digital landscape. The deployment of AMOSmobile/STORES initially benefits approximately 40 warehouse employees across three warehouses at Helsinki Airport. Following this success, the plan is to consider expanding the deployment of AMOSmobile/STORES to FINNAIR’s outstations, marking a pivotal advancement in store management. One of AMOSmobile/STORES’s objectives is to optimize support for barcodes and labels across all store locations as well as enhancing operational efficiency and reliability. The seamless process and successful implementation are a testament to the dedication of all teams and individuals involved. This accomplishment reaffirms Swiss-AS’s commitment to delivering successful projects and their vision for revolutionizing store management. “I am very excited about the implementation of AMOSmobile/ STORES in our warehouse operation. The implementation project has been characterized by great collaboration between Finnair and Swiss-AS. We are confident that taking this step towards a paperless warehouse operation is a strong foundation for success and enables further development in other material management functions” said Tony Veevo, Head of Material Operations at Finnair Technical Services.
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AMOSmobile/STORES Roadmap for future releases • The development of AMOSmobile/ STORES will persist in upcoming AMOS releases. • In AMOS 22.12, our AMOSmobile/ STORES suite already allows customers to work offline, with the possibility to reconcile data when the connection is restored. • As part of the development of AMOS 23.6, Swiss-AS has worked on the introduction of Quick Receiving for orders and shipments, to provide the possibility to perform simple receiving actions, such as receiving an order or marking a shipment as ARRIVED. Swiss-AS’s team is constantly working towards offering the best user-experience by letting AMOS provide most of the required data input, with the use of different sources (interfaces, standardized documents, etc.). • For the upcoming 23.12 AMOS release, the new Goods Handling module is planned to be extended with functionalities to scan certificates with OCR capabilities. The receiving scope will also be extended to all order types, and new features for the management of Outgoing Shipments will be introduced to add order details to existing shipments seamlessly. Swis-AS’s customer-centric approach ensures continuous alignment with the evolving needs of their valued customers. A Swiss-AS spokesperson added, “We extend our heartfelt gratitude to FINNAIR and all our
launch customers for their unwavering trust in our innovative product. Swiss-AS is committed to support all our customers in their journeys toward successful deployments. We are confident that this milestone will inspire other customers to explore the transformative potential of AMOSmobile/STORES.” Finnair: Finnair is the flag carrier and largest full-service legacy airline of Finland, with headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helsinki Airport, its hub. Finnair and its subsidiaries dominate both domestic and international air travel in Finland, its major shareholder being the State of Finland. Finnair just reached 100 years of service in November 2023, making it the sixth oldest airline in continuous operation, and is consistently listed as one of the safest in the world. Swiss Aviation Software & AMOS: Swiss-AS as an industry leading M&E / MRO software provider offers an end-to-end integrated, highly intelligent software suite, designed to cover the management of the entire spectrum of maintenance activities. AMOS in combination with its mobile package empowers its large and loyal aviation customer base — ranging from pure operators of all sizes, over major low-cost, regional and flag carriers, and large airline groups to MRO providers — to digitalize and automate their maintenance processes and connect with other industry solutions beyond the boundaries of AMOS via the data messaging platform AMOScentral. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 21
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Gestair, Spain’s largest business jet operator, selects TrustFlight’s Centrik for real-time operational management
In early December 2023, TrustFlight, a technology innovator focused on digitization of the aviation industry, announced that Gestair, Spain’s largest business jet fleet operator, a European benchmark which also specializes in MRO and flight support services, has selected TrustFlight’s Centrik solution for real-time operational management of their fleet of more than thirty-five (35) aircraft and growing. “We are very pleased to have implemented Centrik. This innovative software allows us to effectively integrate the Company Management System with Operational and Training AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 22
domains, providing us with complete real-time monitoring while also reinforcing our Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system,” said Rafael Melero, General Manager of Gestair Aviation. He continued, “The implementation of electronic records and the centralization of operational management processes in our European AOCs in Malta and Spain makes us more competitive, more efficient, more productive, and even safer thanks to the ease of use of Centrik.” Centrik, which removes costly, outdated paper-based processes and procedures for fleet operators, MROs,
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regulators, and airports around the world, increases operational efficiencies and safety by providing a complete picture into an organization’s operational profile. With modules that digitize multiple departmental functions, including Risk, Safety, Compliance, Manuals, Documents, Meetings, Training, EFBs, and more, Centrik is the world’s only all-in-one management system for every element of successful maintenance and flight operation departments. “With over 80,000 TrustFlight users across the world, our suite of solutions are empowering organizations to gain real-time operational oversight, improve efficiency through tailored solutions, and provide intuitive, actionable outcomes to end users in a way that’s currently unique to the market,” mentions Karl Steeves, Director, TrustFlight. “As we expand our reach globally, it is becoming clear that Centrik is a best-in-class product designed specifically for the aviation marketplace — a sentiment echoed by our trusted partners.” Out of the world’s ten largest business jet
operators, five of them currently leverage TrustFlight solutions as part of their digital transformation. In addition to Centrik, the firm also offers Electronic Tech Log, MEL Management, and Reliability Analytics software that seamlessly integrates for a unified user experience that leads to accurate, actionable decision-making across the enterprise. TrustFlight: TrustFlight is a digital technology innovator focused on the aviation industry. The company’s best- in-class digital tools and services provide new levels of safety, efficiency and insight to
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everyone involved in the operation and maintenance of aircraft. TrustFlight boasts a suite of digital solutions. Electronic Tech Log automates flight data entry, scheduling, and maintenance recording. Centrik offers managers a 360-degree view of company operations. MEL Manager serves to digitize and manage minimum equipment lists. Originally founded by two commercial pilots, TrustFlight has grown to become a global firm supporting a wide variety of airlines, airports, maintenance providers and regulators. Gestair Group: Leader in Spain and European benchmark in business aviation with more than 45 years of experience in the sector, Gestair Group has three strong business areas: Gestair Aviation, Gestair MRO and Gestair Aeroplanning, which offer a 360º service in business aviation. The company has a fleet of more than 35 ultra-long, long, medium and short-range aircraft, to offer the best solution for any type of flight, and two hangars at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport to house and maintain aircraft.
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Asiana Airlines goes live with AMOS
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• Swiss-AS strengthens its presence in the Korean market • Modular AMOS software package to serve specific needs • AMOS customer tailored implementation to support technical documentation management In early December 2023, Swiss AviationSoftware announced that it had inked contracts with Asiana IDT, being the IT services provider of Asiana Airlines and its subsidiaries. The company signed for a tailored edition of AMOS to support the maintenance activities related to the fleet of Asiana Airlines, Air Busan and Air Seoul, counting up to 108 aircraft in total. The Korean group of airlines was searching for a state-of-the-art technology to the visualization and management of technical documentation as well as to perform and record the production and maintenance execution activities. The modularity of AMOS combined with its ability to integrate with the existing IT landscape allowed Asiana Airlines to consider for their technicians to use
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 24
chosen capabilities of AMOS. Following a detailed functional assessment of AMOS, Asiana IDT has awarded AMOS as their preferred solution to increase its efficiency to generate complete and accurate job cards and to seamlessly integrate with their master MRO software SAP. This new partnership is another example of AMOS’ modularity and flexibility to improve performance in targeted areas and its ability to seamlessly integrate with another legacy system. By implementing a customertailored AMOS module package, Asiana Airlines aims to more efficiently provide its users the capability to assess and share technical content according to the evolving OEM maintenance requirements. The AMOS OEM Document Library supports the following documents: AMM, MMEL, TSM, IPC, MPD Task Card (SGML / TSDF / XML and S1000D format) and, when uploading the OEM publication, it becomes a digital interactive object to be viewed in AMOS, in addition, the frontend users may create and modify
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Work Instructions, Work Templates & Jobcards directly from those OEM documents. With the workflow setup and interfaces within their legacy systems, the users are able to collect and generate Workpackages with Jobcards in PDF format for the mechanics to perform the given tasks. Both project teams have kicked off the implementation project of AMOS in June 2023. The Swiss-AS project manager delivered a tailored on-thejob training to Asiana Airlines’ key users. Right after, both implementation project teams reviewed the processes in place and mapped them with the existing AMOS processes. In parallel, the data migration project team has identified and fixed the data migration scope and plan, aiming to automate as much as possible the procedure by using data transformation tools. The many various aircraft types that compose the Asiana Airlines’ fleet
involved some with many different types of documents and formats to be handled. Nevertheless, the project was timely completed within five months and the airline went live with AMOS end of November 2023. Aircraft safety is key factor of Asiana Airlines’ corporate philosophy — airworthiness at its heart. In this context AMOS becomes a crucial tool within the airline’s digital ecosystem to support its continuous seek for maximum safety through optimized and efficient maintenance activities. Asiana Airlines: Asiana Airlines, headquartered in Seoul, Republic of South Korea, was founded in 1988. The global airline and its subsidiaries Air Busan and Air Seoul serve domestic and international routes with a mixed fleet of 108 aircraft of types A320, A330, A350, A380, B767, B777 and B747. Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website
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Philippine Airlines and EXSYN Aviation Solutions join forces In mid-November 2023, EXSYN Aviation Solutions was delighted to unveil a groundbreaking collaboration as Philippine Airlines joins forces with the aircraft data experts at EXSYN. This strategic partnership marks the commencement of an extraordinary journey characterized by innovation, efficiency, and excellence. In an age where the aviation industry is undergoing rapid transformation, this alliance places Philippine Airlines at the forefront of this evolutionary shift.
This collaboration with EXSYN is a testament to the airline’s forwardthinking approach and its eagerness to embrace cutting-edge expertise and solutions. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 25
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Air Algérie live with AMOS • Swiss-AS to convince another National Carrier in North Africa. • AMOS implementation completed, with its mobile solution AMOSmobile/EXEC as part of the post go-live projects. Following several tender processes to assess the most suitable option to support its maintenance activities, in early December 2023, Swiss-AS was thrilled to announce that the North African flag carrier has awarded AMOS as its new Maintenance Information System. Air Algérie, largest public Algerian carrier, opted for the Airline/MRO edition of AMOS allowing its fleet of 58 aircraft to benefit from the latest technology in an aircraft maintenance program. The much-anticipated AMOS go-live of Air
Algérie is now finalized, with the project having commenced last year. This significant endeavor marks a turning point for Air Algérie, as it positions itself for improved data management, enhanced business processes, and greater operational efficiency. One of the greatest challenges identified during the project’s planning and execution was the crucial aspect of Data Migration. Recognizing the importance of accurate and optimized data structures as the foundation for a successful AMOS launch, Air Algérie has dedicated extensive resources, under the data transfer management of Swiss-AS’ experts in AMOS Data Migration, to ensure a seamless transition of data. By addressing this
challenge proactively, the airline aims to achieve an elevated level of data correctness, thereby setting the stage for an overall efficient AMOS
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implementation. One of the most exciting prospects that AMOS brings to Air Algérie is the exceptional level of data transparency
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it offers. Unlike its legacy system, AMOS provides real-time access to critical maintenance and engineering data, facilitating prompt decisionmaking, and enabling Air Algérie to respond swiftly to changing operational demands. This new found data transparency will undoubtedly fuel the growth and success of Air Algérie as it continues to excel in the aviation industry. Looking beyond a successful AMOS implementation, Swiss-AS is delighted to have entered a long-term partnership with Air Algérie that will ensue a series of additional post go-live projects, such as the deployment of AMOSmobile/EXEC as well as the adoption of more modules within AMOS (e.g., Shift Planning, Advanced Reorder Proposal, Approval Control). These projects aim at providing Air Algérie with further cutting-edge functionalities to stay at
AircraftIT-MRO-eJournal_108mmx144mm_RGB_FINAL_Outlines.pdf
the forefront of technological advancements in aviation maintenance and to set a cornerstone within the digitalization journey of Air Algérie. As of 2025, Air Algérie expects to phase in new aircraft (5x A330 NEO, 2x A350, 8x B737 MAX9), which aligns perfectly with AMOS’ capabilities. The introduction of new aircraft will undoubtedly bolster Air Algerie’s operational capabilities, and Swiss-AS is proud to be part of this transformative journey that sets the stage for a new era of growth and success. Air Algérie: Air Algérie is the C national flag carrier of Algeria, founded in 1947. With a rich history M spanning over seven decades, the Y airline has played a pivotal role in connecting Algeria to the world and CM has earned a reputation for its MY commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction. CY Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website CMY
Gulf Helicopters Company (GHC) Soars to New Heights with Strategic Partnership with EXSYN Aviation Solutions
K
In mid-November 2023, EXSYN Aviation Solutions was delighted to share the exciting news that Gulf Helicopters Company (GHC) has forged a strategic partnership with EXSYN Aviation Solutions. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in EXSYN’s mission to elevate helicopter maintenance and engineering to new heights. The integration of EXSYN’s state-of-the-art Aircraft Data Quality Management and Analytics platform with the AMOS MRO/M&E software system will enable smarter data management, predictive maintenance, and unparalleled operational efficiency ensuring that safety and reliability continue to be sky-high standards. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 27
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Ramco Aviation Goes Live with Enterprise Software for GA-ASI’s SGSS Program In early December 2023, Enterprise aviation software provider Ramco Systems Corporation announced that its U.S. based, wholly owned subsidiary Ramco Systems Defense and Security Incorporated (RSDSI), has completed the Phase I implementation of its Aviation M&E MRO Suite V5.9 at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), the world leader in unmanned aerial systems. Ramco Aviation Suite provides GA-ASI and its customers with end-to-end visibility of all aspects of GA-ASI’s new SkyGuardian Global Support Solutions (SGSS) program. With modules for Engineering & CAMO, Journal Log Entry Management, Maintenance, Supply Chain Management, General Accounting, as well as Safety, Compliance & Quality, Ramco’s one-stop solution enables GA-ASI and its customers to track supply chains and maintenance from start-to-finish, at a
global level. By utilizing the data gathered from its customers, the comprehensive suite also empowers GA-ASI to enhance its product engineering, optimize
supply chain for parts and services, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In addition, Ramco’s next-gen innovations like its Ramco Anywhere
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mobile apps, hubs and digital task card will facilitate part pooling and optimization of maintenance execution for GA-ASI. Sam Richardson, VP of GA-ASI Sustainment, said, “We are very excited to go-live with Phase I of Ramco Aviation Suite for GA-ASI’s SkyGuardian Global Support Solutions (SGSS) Program. We have worked very closely with the Ramco team to come to this point where we have a level of assurance that the functionalities for supply chain and maintenance tracking provided by Ramco’s solution will support our MQ-9B SkyGuardian remotely piloted aircraft and the overall SGSS Program.” Manoj Kumar Singh, Chief Customer Officer — Aviation, Aerospace & Defense, Ramco Systems, said, “It has been a great privilege for Ramco to serve GA-ASI in supporting their SkyGuardian Global Support Solutions (SGSS) Program. This go-live is a testament to the successful collaboration between the Ramco and
GA-ASI teams, as well as the strong functional capabilities of Ramco Aviation Suite. We are confident that Ramco’s solution will help GA-ASI continue to provide immense value to its clients.” Ramco Aviation Suite is trusted by more than 24,000 users to manage more than 4,000 aircraft globally. With over 90 Aviation organizations onboard, Ramco is the solution of choice for top Airlines, 3rd party MROs, large HeliOperators, leading Defense organizations, and major Urban Air Mobility companies around the world. Available on cloud, Ramco Aviation Suite provides accessibility with ‘Anywhere Apps’, significantly accelerating organizational efficiency and agility. Ramco is changing the paradigm of enterprise software with Artificial Intelligence based solutions, intelligent voice enabled user experience, and advanced features such as digital task cards, offline maintenance capability, conversational chatbots, HUBs and cognitive solutions. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 29
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CrossConsense Successfully Executes Data Migration Project for Luxair’s New B737MAX Aircraft Integration CrossConsense, a leading provider of innovative aviation technology solutions based in Germany, proudly announced, in mid-November 2023, the completion of yet another successful data migration project. This endeavour involved the integration of the aircraft type B737MAX into Luxair’s Aircraft Operations Control (AOC) system, a critical step in enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring a seamless transition for the Luxair fleet. Luxair, the national airline of Luxembourg, embarked on a strategic initiative to incorporate the B737MAX aircraft into their fleet. Given the significance of this endeavour and the expected usage of the B737MAX for the next 15-20 years, Luxair’s management recognized the need to establish a sound foundation in their AMOS system. The airline engaged the expertise of CrossConsense’s data migration specialists to accomplish this crucial task. The primary aim of the project was to seamlessly integrate the new B737MAX aircraft type, hitherto not part of Luxair’s AOC, into the existing Luxair AMOS system. This integration also encompassed the meticulous migration of aircraft-related data for AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 30
two B737MAX aircraft into Luxair’s AMOS. “We are thrilled to have played a pivotal role in Luxair’s strategic initiative to integrate the B737MAX aircraft into their operations,” said Axel Christ, Managing Director of CrossConsense. “Our team of dedicated data migration specialists worked tirelessly to ensure a smooth transition, enabling Luxair to leverage the full potential of the new aircraft type within their AMOS environment.” CrossConsense’s extensive experience in aviation technology solutions, coupled with their proficiency in data migration, proved instrumental in the success of this project. The seamless integration of the B737MAX aircraft into Luxair’s AOC system sets the stage for enhanced operational capabilities and streamlined maintenance processes. Christoph Blaha, VP Technical Services at Luxair stated: “With CrossConsense’s expertise and tools, we could handle the 737MAX plane’s complex data migration process efficiently. This collaboration has helped us to reduce the time required to set up this new fleet in AMOS and phase-in two aircraft in only a few months. The collaboration with CrossConsense enabled us to take
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benefit of all AMOS functionality in record time.” With this latest achievement, CrossConsense continues to solidify its reputation as a premier provider of aviation technology solutions. The company’s dedication to excellence and its unwavering commitment to delivering tangible results position them as a preferred partner for airlines seeking to navigate the complexities of technology integration and data migration. Luxair: Founded in 1961, Luxair is a key player in the economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the surrounding Greater Region. Passenger air transport is probably the activity best known by the general public. Luxair offers fast air service to most major cities, business centers and international hubs in
Europe. The airline offers maximum flexibility to its business customers and quality travel to its leisure customers. Luxair’s tour operator
offers a wide range of packages and themed holidays through its tourism division. Luxair is also the provider of airport services at Luxembourg
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Airport and its air cargo division handles all kinds of goods with ease and efficiency. Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website
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Asia Pacific Airlines enhances EFB capabilities with Comply365
Comply365 to Enable More Efficient Content Delivery to Crews
Aviation-software leader Comply365 was pleased to announce in early November 2023 that its mobile platform will enable Asia Pacific Airlines — a cargo airline that transports emergency relief supplies, US Mail, live animals and other important cargo — to better manage and deliver mission-critical content to its flight crews. Asia Pacific Airlines, headquartered in Guam, specializes in air cargo services throughout the Pacific region, often delivering critical supplies and relief efforts during times of crisis with a fleet of Boeing 757s. The all-cargo jet AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 32
service needed a better way to manage and update its operational manuals and track compliance in its EFB (Electronic Flight Bag). “We serve many small island nations where the remote locations create unique challenges for air cargo transportation, and we needed a reliable solution that would bring more sophistication and efficiency to our EFB,” said Adam Ferguson, President at Asia Pacific Airlines. “Comply365 will reduce our manual processes, enabling us to better manage and deliver the information our crews need and seamlessly track our read and signs.” Using Comply365’s app, crew members will be able to review their
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most up-to-date operational content more accurately and quickly, even in the most remote locations. The cargo carrier also will be able to deliver content and personalized notifications based on roles and locations and drive higher rates of compliance with reporting insights. Asia Pacific Airlines joins multiple cargo airlines among Comply365’s more than 90 global customers, from start-up airlines to the world’s largest carriers, from ultra low-cost to full-service airlines, charter operators, business aviation, ACMI and wet-lease operators, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), flight training and rail operations. “I’m happy to welcome Asia Pacific Airways as the newest member of our Comply365 community, which continues to grow in the Asia-Pacific region,” Comply365 CEO Tom Samuel said, adding. “We’re excited to bring a great mobile experience to Asia Pacific’s crews, and we’re proud to support the valuable services they provide, especially in times of vital need.” Asia Pacific Airlines: Asia Pacific Airlines was
formed in 1998 to serve Micronesia and the Western Pacific with much needed all-cargo jet service. The Fleet and Service has grown to encompass the entire Pacific theatre, providing scheduled and ad-hoc charter service, with bases in Guam and Honolulu. APA is an FAA part-121 Supplemental
all-cargo carrier, headquartered in Guam, making the airline the westernmost US part-121 based carrier. APA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tan Holdings Corporation, which has called the Western Pacific its home for over 50 years. Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website
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31/05/2023 16:37
CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
Virgin Atlantic uses an electronic record system for lease requirements and returns
Lee Butterfield, Head of Aircraft Programmes and Asset Management at Virgin Atlantic explains how a digital records system has brought efficiency to M&E and has made lease returns so much easier AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 34
CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
A
s with any case study, readers will first want to know something about the subject of the study. In this case, it is the airline Virgin Atlantic, a medium sized transatlantic carrier that has been flying for nearly forty years. The fleet of 41 aircraft includes a mix of Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 787, and Airbus A330 and A350 types; and they all have individual ship-names. It is also the youngest fleet in the Transatlantic market with an average aircraft age of 6.2 years and, apart from a few CEO aircraft which are being phased out, our aircraft are predominantly next generation which are more efficient. We also flew the first 100 percent, no blend, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) transatlantic flight in November 2023 with a Boeing 787. The main base of operations is Heathrow Airport from where the airline serves destinations across the USA as well as the Far East and Middle East, a broad range of destinations. Virgin Atlantic has had a great and valued business relationship with flydocs right from the software developer’s inception in 2007 to where flydocs is today, using the platform for storage of all of our electronic documents, for lease return transactions where our lessors also interact with the product. Using the flydocs application has really aided the smooth return of our aircraft with all aircraft going back on time and all user queries answered in detail. We’ve also been part of the ongoing development of the solution; when flydocs have been trialing new systems or improvements to applications, Virgin Atlantic has helped on the testing journey and helped to embed those as well. We renewed the contract with flydocs three years ago and also the involvement of Lufthansa Technik, and can say that we like the people at flydocs and find the business easy to work with.
HANDLING DOCUMENTS BEFORE FLYDOCS
Prior to the implementation of flydocs, record keeping at Virgin Atlantic was all manual; our records consisted of the paper dirty fingerprint copies only and many of the boxes were held in a safe facility. Demonstrating compliance was very challenging, with trying to retrieve specific records both time consuming and costly. Because of that, preparation for lease hand back needed to start many months out. As an example, looking at the Boeing 747s that we returned during Covid; after twenty years of service, the paper records for those aircraft amounted to about ten tonnes of paper going back with the aircraft to the owners. Utilizing the flydocs platform those paper records were scanned into flydocs making them accessible through the desktop. But the lessor still needed the paper records at return and the actual paper was shipped back to the lessor by sea in shipping-containers. Prior to the introduction of flydocs, during the lease return process, or even at annual records inspections, we would have been leafing through paper records, all of which would have had to come on site at the end of lease when the lessor would have access to go through them. The team would
then be sorting through physical boxes looking for individual records. As a future next step, we’re evaluating and working with our lessors with a view to moving over to full electronic records to support returns in the future: we’re not quite there yet but the basis of our returns process at the moment is the flydocs system. So, if a certain job card is needed or a dirty fingerprint for a repair that’s been done, we can access that all through flydocs and produce those documents as scanned whereas before it would have all just been by accessing the physical paper records.
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CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
Essentially the business case was all about efficiency: it was built around improved asset management and the compliance benefits realized through digitizing our records. Preparing records for lease returns, would be reduced from months to a few weeks with additional cost saving on lease returns through the ability to remotely interrogate the records. A digitized system would also create efficiencies allowing us to reduce cost and complexity in our processes. All of that made for a strong business case.
THE IMPLEMENTATION
The technical team from flydocs came into the business at Virgin Atlantic and worked with our IT teams to integrate the flydocs platform with some of our existing compliance systems. Then, starting with our oldest fleet of Airbus A340s, they began the massive task of scanning and uploading documents from the present day all the way back to birth. flydocs links compliance data with the maintenance records and this allows us to retrieve specific information at the click of a button. The system also has additional functionality for tracking repair mapping which has been an industry issue for many years. With flydocs being a cloud-based platform, records can be uploaded and retrieved from anywhere around the world. It assembles the records in such a way that, come lease return, the process is massively simplified, presenting extremely accurate and comprehensive records.
THE BUSINESS CASE FOR FLYDOCS
Everything is moving towards paperless now, and with that in mind, we’re about to introduce a new TRAX eMRO M&E system which will come online next year. That will allow us the option to go completely paperless in Engineering and Maintenance. We won’t be producing paper job cards as it will all be done on tablet devices. So really, the flydocs approach was ahead of its time in terms of the drive towards paperless. It doesn’t mean that we don’t keep the paper records because we still do but look forward to a time when we are completely electronic. However, when we’re going through those returns transactions and queries are coming in from the lessor, it can all be dealt with electronically.
“Essentially the business case was all about efficiency: it was built around improved asset management and the compliance benefits realized through digitizing our records.”
We have local office instructions and Engineering Department procedures that outline how the returns process works, interactions with the lessors, the timelines and, prior to the implementation of flydocs, that will have all been a manual process. Those instructions and procedures had to be updated as did our relationship with the leasing company. One of the first things we do now, when we engage with a lessor and as we get towards an end-of-lease process, we
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CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
outline the flydocs platform for them, how we use it, why we use it and to confirm that they are happy to accept flydocs as the medium in which queries can raised and answered. How that works is, the lessor will ask a question, that goes into flydocs and is assigned to the appropriate team member who will identify the document that the lessor wants and send that back for their assessment and approval. All of that is documented and so, as mentioned above, procedures had to be re-written but essentially flydocs simplified the process. In terms of every day processes, the use of flydocs was written into our current procedures. The actual process changes were minimal but included such things as tracking repair records, see above, which was an industry-wide challenge at the time. When it came to aircraft lease returns however, it transformed that whole process from start to finish. The main challenges were, from an IT perspective, getting the different systems talking to each other. This took several weeks to overcome with both Virgin and flydocs teams working closely together. After that, the challenge that followed was the scanning of all the historic records onto the system and filing them correctly. This was undertaken by the flydocs team. In all it took around eight months to set up and load the many years of historic records for 44 aircraft onto the system. Departments such as Airworthiness Records, Aircraft Acquisitions and Returns, IT, QA, and Procurement were all involved in the project.
“The main challenges were, from an IT perspective, getting the different systems talking to each other. This took several weeks to overcome with both Virgin and flydocs teams working closely together.” WORKING WITH FLYDOCS
It’s great working with the flydocs team and we have a really good commercial and working relationship. There are well-established communications channels with various functions such as flydocs Support. If there’s any technical problems with the system, we usually know about it before it happens when, say, there’s going to be an outage. Commercially, we have a very long-standing relationship so when it comes to renegotiating the contract or even down to detailed points around how things are working, there are well-established processes for handling that.
Predict maintenance events, costs, and shop visits What-if scenario planning Centralised visibility of assets Track return conditions
BOOK PRODUCT DEMO sales@flydocs.aero
Lifecycle Asset Management
Optimise asset costs from phase-in to phase-out
www.flydocs.aero AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 37
CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
With the original implementation, there was an element of on-site training from flydocs, initially in a classroom. But most of what training happens now is bespoke for individual needs and online. We don’t train everyone on every aspect of flydocs because that would be unnecessary. Different functions in the airline use flydocs for lots of different things such as, as a document repository for maintenance technicians’ approvals while others just input and update records while others again, in asset management, will be interrogating those records and sharing them with lessors. As we bring new users on and depending on what they’re doing there is training but, rather than do the training piecemeal, if we have X number of new people join the team who need exposure to one or another element in the system, flydocs will deliver virtual training online plus
“The platform being intuitive was actually part of our decision to select them as a supplier. It meant training was far less onerous and time consuming.” written procedure notes are shared. It’s a mix of online training and guidance material and there is very little need for face-to-face training as it’s mainly incremental training these days.
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CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
In summary, the flydocs team was extremely professional, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the project. Any issues we found along the way with integration were dealt with swiftly. Training still took place and, later, online courses became available. As flydocs is used to different degrees by almost every department in engineering, training was made available to all. There is obviously some baseline training required, see above, but once you’re into the system, it’s very straightforward having been refined over years of service to make it simpler to use. If anybody in our team does have an issue, they can simply tell us and we’ll direct them to the right person in flydocs, there’s nothing else that we have to do. flydocs is a very intuitive system compared to other systems we have used where training can be cumbersome on an initial and recurrent basis. The platform being intuitive was actually part of our decision to select them as a supplier. It meant training was far less onerous and time consuming. People saw very quickly how it saved them time and how it improved their ability to do a great job. As the platform transformed how people can get information at the click of a button, instead of trawling through boxes for many hours, there was clearly a very positive response from our teams. As stated above, the use of flydocs was written into our procedures. Although I don’t recall there being any change management issues, with any new system introduced to the business, we would always need to demonstrate regulatory compliance. With any new platform that is proposed, Virgin Atlantic follows an established and recognized change management and risk assessment process.
We have a very structured process for introducing new software and, as far as the regulator is concerned, we will always keep them appraised of any major changes we are making to our systems. Whether they would need to sign that off or approve it, we find that, given the close relationship we have with our regulators, we would always inform them. Similarly, whether they would then want to come in and see a demonstration of the system before we implement it will be decided on a case-by-case basis. Depending on the outcome of that analysis will dictate the level of involvement, if any, from the regulator. They can
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CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
monitor that through our safety and security action groups because we’re very open with our regulators and they come in to our monthly meeting where implementation of a new system would be tracked as a management of change item. Albeit we keep our regulators up to date with any changes undertaken within the business where appropriate, there was no formal regulatory approval needed to move to flydocs. We worked internally with our own Quality Assurance department, and they completed audits on flydocs and the platform. As an example, the new M&E program that I mentioned earlier has now been running for a couple of years. All of the scoping out, risk assessment, stakeholder analysis, process mapping, user acceptance testing is undertaken as a very formalized and managed project in itself. We would also run systems in parallel while a new system is being introduced just to check. You can do all the testing you want but until you actually press the button and run it live, you’ll never quite know. That happened with the old system while the introduction of flydocs was in progress. For an IT-related system there were very few problems experienced while implementing flydocs. From previous experience, we thought the set up would
“Being a cloud-based system helped enormously. We sent RFPs to a number of document management companies, some with platforms far more established than flydocs. But today, 15 years on, there is no doubt we made the right choice…” be far more challenging. Being a cloud-based system helped enormously. We sent RFPs to a number of document management companies, some with platforms far more established than flydocs. But today, 15 years on, there is no doubt we made the right choice for Virgin Atlantic.
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CASE STUDY: VIRGIN ATLANTIC
OUTCOMES AND FUTURE PLANS
We have gained significant savings in time and effort to store, maintain and interrogate records. That said, the efficiencies that a system like flydocs brings to the business can be a double-edged sword. Any business would adopt ideas and systems that will help to save costs and cut overheads but that will also often mean less people are needed, something that needs to be factored in, planned for and handled carefully. Plus, of course, in a sector where labor is at a premium, there might well be other opportunities for personnel to move to. But Virgin Atlantic has been as efficient as possible and is always looking for new opportunities in our applications. So, we’ll always be interested in innovative businesses such as flydocs who can support our growth and sustainability of the business. We treat these relationships as partnerships as opposed to traditional customer supplier arrangements and, in that, we look to our work with flydocs as a partnership. We’re very open about what we’re doing in our business and look to our partners to support that. We continue to work closely with the flydocs team to assess system enhancement and work together on developing the systems. flydocs are looking into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and we’re very much on board with that. Taking a partnership view of our relationship, we’d be keen to see how we can support flydocs but also what the benefits would be to our business in doing that. For us, further automation and the efficiencies of AI and where that could be built into the current applications would be of interest. Where there are still manual processes within the platform, we’d be interested to know how we could automate that and get AI working for us and predicting outcomes, for example, plus making recommendations, and just making the whole end-of-lease transaction smoother through the use of technology. I foresee more advances and I understand that will be coming from flydocs.
“We’ve gone through multiple asset returns, mid-term inspections, annual inspections and it’s all gone seamlessly. The fact that we don’t talk about the system is a compliment to it because it simply does what we wanted it to do…”
To summarize, if you asked me what was keeping me up at night, it wouldn’t be flydocs; the system works, we have a good relationship, it’s intuitive. We’ve gone through multiple asset returns, mid-term inspections, annual inspections and it’s all gone seamlessly. The fact that we don’t talk about the system is a compliment to it because it simply does what we wanted it to do when we took it on board. We look forward to growing with flydocs and to seeing future innovations in the product because, like everything around aerospace technology, it’s ever evolving. In closing, I would like to thank Rick Daniels, the manager who was in place when flydocs was first implemented. Rick’s input to the interview was a great source of information for events that happened at the time.
LEE BUTTERFIELD
With over thirty years in commercial aviation spanning across airline, MRO and supplier environments. Lee started his career in maintenance in 1990 and has progressed through many roles within the industry. His experience in leadership roles started in 2007 at LHR and has progressed through people and operational focused roles, to his current position of Head of Aircraft Programmes and Asset Management.
VIRGIN ATLANTIC
Virgin Atlantic is a medium sized transatlantic carrier with a fleet of 41 aircraft including a mix of Boeing 787, and Airbus A330 and A350 types. It is the youngest fleet in the Transatlantic market with an average aircraft age of 6.2 years and the aircraft are predominantly the more efficient next generation models. The main base of operations is Heathrow Airport from where the airline serves destinations across the USA as well as the Far East and Middle East.
FLYDOCS
flydocs, a global leader in digital records and asset management, provides the most comprehensive platform for unlocking value from aircraft maintenance data. Trusted by more than 75 airlines, lessors, and MROs, flydocs empowers stakeholders with tools and expertise to drive sustainable innovation in the asset lifecycle. With over 790 project-managed transitions, flydocs is a reliable partner in managing aircraft acquisitions and disposals, ensuring operational excellence and maximizing the value of your investment.
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AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDOR JOB CARD
VENDOR JOB CARD: ULTRAMAIN
Mark McCausland discusses how an active commitment to making maintenance more efficient and paperless has always been the bedrock of Ultramain’s success Mr. McCausland began his aviation career in Carlsbad, NM, in his father’s flying business (FBO). His diverse roles in the family business eventually led him to develop aircraft maintenance software, laying the foundation for ULTRAMAIN. While working for his father’s FBO, he also joined the New Mexico Air National Guard, serving as a guardsman for over 25 years. When not deployed, he owned and operated Ultramain Systems and is the President and CEO. Mr. McCausland resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where Ultramain Systems corporate offices are located. He is married and has two children. Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business? Mark McCausland: Mark McCausland, President, Ultramain Systems Aircraft IT: How did Ultramain Systems get started? MMcC: ULTRAMAIN® was first developed in the 1980s with the goal of providing best practices and efficient operations to the aviation industry. Over the years, ULTRAMAIN has continually evolved by incorporating various technological advancements to ensure our commitment to serving the sector. Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives Ultramain Systems? MMcC: Our philosophy is that our software serves a purpose beyond mere utility. We are dedicated to developing products with a focus on optimizing
efficiency, fostering cost reduction, and improving compliance, aimed at delivering superior software and services to our customers. Aircraft IT: What has Ultramain Systems greatest business achievement been to date, and why? MMcC: Ultramain Systems played a pivotal role in the industry moving toward paperless operations. For decades, the concept of ‘paperless’ has been promised within the aviation industry, but no one put
together a comprehensive end-to-end solution that allowed operators and third-party maintainers to get there. That was all changed by Ultramain with the introduction of ULTRAMAIN ELB™ in 2007, followed by ULTRAMAIN Mobile Mechanic™, Mobile Inventory, Mobile Executive, GATe, and other mobile apps. Ultramain has been at the forefront of innovative solutions for the aviation industry for a long time. Our team has built-up extensive experience and expertise along the way.
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AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDORJOB CARD
Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them? MMcC: Not a disappointment really, just an observation. We understand that it’s a big change to go from being dependent on paper to paperless systems. The aviation industry has been slow to embrace and adopt paperless operations even though our paperless solutions have been available to the industry for over a decade. But paperless operations is no longer the domain of just innovators. Even regulators see the benefits. Operators and maintainers are actively and eagerly seeing our digital solutions and we lead the industry with mature proven systems in this area. Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what Ultramain Systems does for aircraft maintenance customers? MMcC: ULTRAMAIN significantly enhances operational efficiency and reduces costs for aircraft maintenance customers.
“ULTRAMAIN provides optimization for all aspects of the aircraft maintenance process including labor, parts, maintenance planning, scheduling and execution.” Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT? MMcC: Paperless real-time systems that accurately and efficiently allow users to accomplish their work where they work using mobile devices. All ULTRAMAIN implementations bring about paperless operations. Optimization also comes to mind because of how little optimization is available. ULTRAMAIN provides optimization for all aspects of the aircraft maintenance process including labor, parts, maintenance planning, scheduling and execution.
Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about Ultramain Systems. MMcC: Aviation maintenance is inherently complex, and I like ULTRAMAIN because ULTRAMAIN makes it simple. ULTRAMAIN is easy to use and provides me with all the capabilities I need to accomplish my work without the hassle of dealing with paper. I use it on mobile devices where I do my work. It works for me rather than me having to work for it. It’s great! Aircraft IT: Mark, thank you for your time.
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
Helvetic goes from a fully managed system to a SaaS solution Christian Suhner, Chief Technology Officer, Helvetic shares the airline’s journey to a fully modern and capable MRO system with AMOS AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 44
CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
I
want to share with readers the migration of Helvetic’s managed AMOS system from Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS) to the latest SaaS (Software as a Service) version of the solution. One reason to share is that it was a really good migration, for which Swiss-AS can take a lot of credit. Our experience was a well-organized migration and a use case for how it should work. This case study will be about the experience of a small airline and the reasons why we think that this move was a good step: I hope that it might be of interest to readers who will, perhaps, face similar challenges in the future. We’ll cover the whole program (figure 1).
AMOS - from a fully managed system t o SaaS solution Content
The Reason
The Summary
The Migration
The Changes
The Benefits The Risks
“Helvetic is quite a lean organization with just 35 backoffice staff including a small IT department of just five people managing the whole of the airline’s IT environment.” Swiss-AS resources and more. Finally, in the summary, we’ll ask was the target set by management achieved? But let’s begin by looking at Helvetic Airways.
HELVETIC AIRWAYS
Figure 1
We’ll look at the reasons behind the change and what were the management objectives, what did we want to achieve from the change and then the execution of the migration project, things like the timeline, challenges encountered and resolved, coordination with Swiss-AS, etc. We’ll also consider how the responsibilities between Swiss-AS and Helvetic changed during the program. Positive impacts such as cost savings, operational improvements and more will be covered as well as downsides like the impact on independence, aligning with
As a regional carrier with 18 aircraft, Helvetic flies twelve second generation Embraer E190-E2 and E195-E2 plus six E190 first generation. At the time of writing, there were 480 employees of which 370 were flying crews, pilots and cabin attendants, 35 back-office staff and 75 employees engaged in maintenance. We have had our own Part 145 organization for more than ten years. Helvetic is based in Zurich where the airline has hangar space and conducts line operations and some line maintenance as well as some degree of base maintenance by our own maintenance team. For more than ten years, Helvetic has been using AMOS from Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS) as our maintenance software.
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
As the numbers show, Helvetic is quite a lean organization with just 35 back-office staff including a small IT department of just five people managing the whole of the airline’s IT environment. We have a three-pillar business strategy with the biggest pillar being ACMI/wet lease flights: last summer, thirteen Helvetic aircraft were flying out of Zurich with flights operated by us but on behalf of Swiss International Airlines. Besides that, there is a small charter flight business and, during the summer, some scheduled flights out of Zurich and out of Berne but that’s really a small part of the operation. So, what does that mean for the IT department. The strategy with the biggest pillar in the wet lease flights leads to a focus in the IT department on Operations: we focus on Operations and not on the commercial part of the IT. So, not a large involvement for distribution systems, booking platforms, pricing etc. which is all outsourced as Software as a Service (SaaS), a small part of our IT investment.
THE REASON TO MAKE THE CHANGE
Helvetic Airways was founded in 2003 and, as you might imagine, in the twenty years since start-up, the IT infrastructure has grown to be increasingly mature as further capabilities get added on. For instance, if there is a new business model, a new application is needed and there are new legal requirements which need a new application… throughout its development we have built and regularly topped-up an increasingly large and complex IT infrastructure. Along with that, we realized that we were also getting increasingly inefficient and complicated to
AMOS. AGAIN.
“The average number of SaaS applications used by organizations, from surveys between 2015 and 2021, increased from eight in 2015 to 110 in 2021 and that has continued to grow since then…” manage for a small organization like ours. For that reason, four years ago we decided to develop a digitalization strategy, one part of which was to ease the management of these applications. From the beginning, it was clear we would not be able to manage that on our own. There were two options: we could take the existing IT infrastructure ask an IT supplier to manage that whole complex system and pay them to do that or there was the possibility to change the whole system and transform it to a new system which we could manage by ourselves. We thought about how we could achieve that and, in figure 2, there are a few statistics that illustrate why we decided to go for SaaS.
Choosing the right platform for our organisation was crucial, as we needed the product that would have the capability to go well beyond requested scope, and would provide Croatia Airlines with a long-term strategic advantage. We are looking forward to implementing AMOS as our new software system in the near future.” says CEO of Croatia Airlines
Croatia Airlines takes off with AMOS, the world-class M&E software solution. AMOS‘ state-of-the-art capabilities will empower Croatia Airlines to effectively manage its fleet‘s maintenance, engineering, and logistics processes, ultimately reducing downtime and increasing aircraft availability. By leveraging the advanced features and functionalities of the AMOS software, Croatia Airlines aims to enhance its maintenance processes, and overall operational efficiency.
SWISS-AS.COM
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
AMOS - from a fully managed system to SaaS solution The Reason
Software as a Service – SaaS • global SaaS market is projected to grow from$102 billion in 2019 to $195 billion in 2023 • The growth of SaaS users is expected to outpace the growth of the SaaS market itself, with a projected rate of 12.7%, reaching nearly 2.2 billion users by 2022. source: statista
AMOS - from a fully managed system to SaaS solution The Reason Cloud-based workloads account for 75% of workloads in 1 out of 5 organizations (Source: Fortinet 2021) About 39% of respondents are already running at least half of their workload on the cloud. Another 58% said they planned to run that much
Figure 2
workload in the cloud in the
The global market for Software as a Service is projected to grow from just over $100 billion in 2019 to near $200 billion this year, 2023. There are expected to have been about 2.2 billion users in 2022. The average number of SaaS applications used by organizations, from surveys between 2015 and 2021, increased from eight in 2015 to 110 in 2021 and that has continued to grow since then as it will grow further in the future. The growth is largely due to the increased adoption of SaaS applications for their scalability and cost effectiveness. In a 2021 survey, one out of five organizations said that they already have more than 75% of their workloads (figure 3) in the Cloud.
next 12-18 months. Figure 3
As you can imagine, workloads will increase in the future and more than half of the organizations surveyed said that they planned to have more than 50% of their workloads in the Cloud within the next twelve to 18 months. The leaders or drivers of this transformation are the United States of America where the biggest part is on Cloud adoption and where, together with Western Europe which is slowly catching up, there is 82% of the World’s Cloud computing (figure 4).
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
AMOS - from a fully managed system to SaaS solution The Reason Cloud adoption by country The U.S. and Western Europe still dominate cloud computing (Source: ReportLinker) Combined, these two regions
“The goal is, at the end, to have no local networks at all at Helvetica Airways facilities by 2025. It’s not an easy target but it is what we have set for ourselves to achieve.”
account for 82% of the world's cloud computing.
Credit: Gartner 2022
Figure 4
As other regions catch up, the speed of disruption will increase even further in the next few years. That is why Helvetic Airways decided to not focus on daily operational systems management any more but to focus on application consulting and digital innovation projects. We have more than fifty applications of which 90%
are cloud based and our target for 2025 is that we want to have 100% Cloud only by then. We want to reduce the managed on-premises servers (hardware) to zero. The goal is, at the end, to have no local networks at all at Helvetica Airways facilities by 2025. It’s not an easy target but it is what we have set for ourselves to achieve. And, we aim to reduce the number of managed virtual servers by 80%. There is a common misunderstanding about moving to the Cloud: it’s not just taking a virtualized server from your basement to the Cloud and then saying that you’re on the Cloud. That might help with the scalability, with the ability to simply move a slider if you want more disc space or more memory but that alone will not help with efficiency. You’ll be doing the same duties on a server based
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
somewhere in the Cloud as for a server on your premises. Real efficiency comes with outsourcing the management of the applications: that’s what Software as a Service is and, for that reason, nearly three years ago, we approached Swiss-AS to discover what kind of solutions they have because AMOS is one of the biggest applications that we use. They presented their hosting solution and we took the decision to migrate just over two years ago.
THE MIGRATION
I have to say that we were honestly pleased to find that this was a really easy migration in which we had a five-step approach during a two-month timeframe (figure 5) with the full-time involvement of three people from Swiss-AS and two people from Helvetic.
AMOS - from a fully managed system t o SaaS solution The Migration
• Google Cloud infrastructure (automated) deployment • Infrastructure according customer needs • Monitoring setup
VPN tunnel • Site to Site VPN tunnel setup between the customer and GCP
GCP setup
• Interfaces setup • Email server configuration • Printers configuration • Data migration Sybase => PostgreSQL • Reports conversion Migration / customer integration
UAT • Key users acceptance tests • Main features tests • Monitoring / performance comparison
• Production migration
Cutover and golive
Easy migration • Parallel set-up
“A lot of the work was carried out by Swiss-AS with Helvetic Airways only needing a very low use of its own resources in the project. At the go-live there was a downtime of about one hour; then we got the new link for the new client, downloaded it and had the new application running in the Cloud.”
• Data Migration during the Go-Live • A lot of the workload was performed by Swiss-AS, which meant a low use of Helvetic Airways resources Figure 5
We knew the size of AMOS and it is part of Helvetic Airlines’ daily engineering operations but it was an easy parallel set-up prior to the migration. Also, with AMOS on the Cloud, we did not have to share a multi-tenanted service but had our own discreet SaaS on the Cloud. At the beginning of the project, Swiss-AS handled the set-up with the automated deployment on Google Cloud. We provided them with the VPN (Virtual Private Network) tunnel; they then migrated the first part of the data. We did the user acceptance testing mainly for performance reasons and then we had the go-live which was really easy. A lot of the work was carried out by Swiss-AS with Helvetic Airways only needing a very low use of its own resources in the project. At the go-live there was a downtime of about one hour; then we
got the new link for the new client, downloaded it and had the new application running in the Cloud. It was an easy and a successful migration. Inevitably and as with any project, there were some challenges plus the business still has some old-school needs such as printers for rotable labels, batch readers and rotable batch printers still reliant on local infrastructure. That will be a challenge for the future; to work out how we can adapt these local infrastructures into the Cloud to have them in a closed environment together. These were the biggest problems: the system was running well but a problem was that one printer was not working properly. In the new IT environment, if we have a problem with the printer and it’s not a hardware problem, then it’s more difficult to solve the problem than before, when everything was on our own local network. But, in the context of what we have gained, these are really small problems.
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
THE CHANGES
After the migration, the tasks around the business are assigned in a different way and there are some tasks that we no longer need to care about (figure 6).
AMOS - from a fully managed system t o SaaS solution The Changes
“And last but not least, whereas before we had to care about the database maintenance and so on, now we have a maintained database, a data lake maintained by Swiss-AS. We just can pull out the data…” THE BENEFITS THAT WE HAVE GAINED
The motivation for this migration was never really from a financial point of view because, with an IT department of only five people, it’s difficult to reduce it further. Our real aim was to access resources that could help with tasks like the data analysis (see above) for example. With the changing of the tasks, we’re trying to be more efficient and more effective. We don’t need network specialists or database admins anymore which, in times of labor shortages, especially in Switzerland, is a benefit. Swiss-AS knows better than anyone else how to run their system, something that is true for any applications; the developer of the application knows better than anyone else how to run their system and, importantly, how to protect their system in the best way — see below. Swiss-AS has the resources that they can share for all of their hosted clients so that Helvetic does not need to.
RISKS TO BE AWARE OF
Figure 6
We no longer need to worry about system availability anymore nor about the operating system, database updates, database back-ups, monitoring operating system metrics, operating system log files, or system parameters and back-ups. All of that is handled within the hosting contract. This means that Helvetic can really focus on application user support and being the center of excellence for the departments. AMOS is a big, complex application covering several departments working with various modules and we are trying to align the processes between each department and help them to understand the application. We do not focus on the technical IT parts but, as an IT department, we now try to focus on the business process part. And last but not least, whereas before we had to care about the database maintenance and so on, now we have a maintained database, a data lake maintained by Swiss-AS. We just can pull out the data and, whereas before we didn’t have the capability to analyze that data, now we can take the appropriate resources for this task.
Notwithstanding the benefits, the changing of task assignments has an impact on risk management, a topic that is everywhere at the moment whenever we’re talking about information security and safety relevant data which we need to protect. First of all, you need to verify that any provider has the respective security processes. As a basis, there is the ISO 27001 certification of the operator and there are some pre-conditions such as that we have the data saved on Google Cloud in Switzerland. But, ultimately, it’s all about sub-contractor management. If I’m flying as a pilot in command on the Embraer there are a lot of sub-contractor duties within the whole environment. If I see the list in the manuals, the responsibilities of a pilot in command make up a very long list but s/he doesn’t do it all themself. They don’t do the fueling themselves, they don’t load the aircraft or do the calculations of the loading. What the pilot in command does is the verification of the service outsourced by the company and done by somebody else. Here, it’s the same as for the software provider: service level verification includes not only response times but also database back-up, re-install procedures, verification of some penetration testing results; that’s part of the verification and the first part of the summary, that’s what we see, the biggest challenge in the future.
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CASE STUDY: HELVETIC AIRWAYS
Bearing in mind our target to have zero local servers by 2030, we have considered how we would manage if there was a server outage. If we do the risk assessment of the maintenance itself, there are contingency procedures using paper hard copy. In fact, almost all processes have hard copy contingency procedures both in maintenance and in flight operations. There are also several internet connection possibilities including the Wi-Fi at the airport or 5G connection at the airport. We will have more requirements coming with information security and sub-contractor management will be more important than ever in the future, especially with requirements coming with EASA Part IS in the next two or three years; there will be complicated requirements and we need to care that all the benefits we have gained from outsourcing will not be wasted with compliance processes internally. That’s why we’re trying to include the IT management, security management, safety management and the subcontractor management of the whole operation. That’s our challenge for the years ahead which, for a small organization, will be a task in itself.
SUMMARY
Our experience with two years of AMOS hosting, has been a great success, not only the migration itself but also the operation of the SaaS since. Within the last two years, there was only one downtime incident which was solved within one hour and, as importantly, the root cause was followed up efficiently. But, other than that, we had no system related incidents. Helvetic Airways was able to reduce the manpower count and costs for AMOS Application Management which has enabled us to focus on new projects like the eTLB digitalization and integration. For the future, Helvetic will only be adopting SaaS solutions. Of course, moving to the hosted service did mean that the costs went up but, on the other side, it was worth it for the improved quality of our processes and for the compensatory cost reductions such as the reduced manpower costs. I hope that this case study will provide readers with some insight which might help if you are embarking on a similar course with similar decisions to make.
“Within the last two years, there was only one downtime incident which was solved within one hour and, as importantly, the root cause was followed up efficiently. But, other than that, we had no system related incidents.”
CHRISTIAN SUHNER
After graduating from the Horizon Swiss Flight Academy with his Airline Transport Pilot License, in 2006, Christian joined Helvetic Airways as Technical Services Coordinator and, in 2009, became a pilot with the airline. While working as a pilot, in 2014 he was appointed Deputy Nominated Person Flight Operations and, in 2016, Nominated Person Flight Operations. In 2020, he took on the role of Chief Technology Officer at Helvetic Airways.
HELVETIC AIRWAYS
Helvetic Airways is a Swiss airline. Established in 2003, the entirely Swiss airline offers European destinations in the short and medium-haul sectors and operates from Zurich and Bern-Belp airports. The 18 strong fleet operated by Helvetic Airways AG consists exclusively of Embraer aircraft: E190, E190-E2 and E195-E2. Helvetic Airways has one of the largest fleets for short and medium-haul regional flights in Europe.
SWISS AVIATION SOFTWARE
Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS) offers a functionally unsurpassed and technologically state-of-the-art maintenance system. AMOS is a comprehensive, fully-integrated software package that successfully manages the maintenance, engineering and logistics requirements of modern airlines and MRO providers by fulfilling demanding airworthiness standards. Over 200 customers from all over the world and ranging from pure operators, major charter, regional and low-cost carriers up to large airline groups and MRO providers make up the AMOS community
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 51
AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDOR JOB CARD
VENDOR JOB CARD: EXSYN AVIATION SOLUTIONS
Divya Das Podiyat explains how a great team that understands the market and is able to react to change is the foundation on which EXSYN success is built Divya is the Customer Success Manager at EXSYN. Since 2015, she has been an integral part of the organization. Her tenure involves collaborating with a wide array of customers and diverse projects spanning EXSYN’s full range of solutions. She dedicates herself to enhancing customer satisfaction, ensuring they derive optimal value and satisfaction from EXSYN’s offerings
Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business? Divya Das Podiyat: Divya Das Podiyat, Customer Success Manager at EXSYN Aviation Solutions. Aircraft IT: How did EXSYN get started? DDP: EXSYN began its journey as a consultancy firm with a primary focus on assisting airlines in the implementation of MRO systems. Through numerous projects, we encountered diverse use cases that inspired the development of what has now evolved into EXSYN’s comprehensive aircraft data quality management and analytics platform. Within this platform, we offer solutions for efficient aircraft data management, drive business value through analytics, and provide technical support services to facilitate clients in adopting our cuttingedge technology. At the heart of our platform are
two core applications: NEXUS and AVILYTICS. These applications uniquely position EXSYN as a niche leader, offering digital solutions tailored for aircraft maintenance and engineering data. Our commitment is to empower aviation stakeholders with innovative tools that enhance data quality management, analytics, and overall operational efficiency in the dynamic landscape of aircraft maintenance and engineering. Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives EXSYN? DDP: Change is a constant factor in this evolving digital world and EXSYN’s biggest strength is the adaptability to change. Having a competent team with aviation background and IT experience, and which comprehends emerging challenges swiftly, enabling the creation of innovative solutions in a timely manner. AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 52
Flexibility, efficiency, and open communication stand as enduring pillars of EXSYN’s strength. Aircraft IT: What has EXSYN’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why? DDP: Throughout the pandemic, prioritizing investments in the company and its workforce has led EXSYN to achieve remarkable milestones. One such accomplishment is the product, NEXUS, which revolutionizes the workload for maintenance and engineering teams. NEXUS serves as a comprehensive data quality management solution, streamlining the handling, validation, exchange, and monitoring of airworthiness and maintenance data for aviation companies, while ensuring compliance with industry standards. EXSYN strives to encourage automation and digitization and this platform is a perfect step towards achieving that.
AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDORJOB CARD
“Change is a constant factor in this evolving digital world and EXSYN’s biggest strength is the adaptability to change. ” Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them? DDP: Despite our strong commitment to integrating predictive maintenance, we’ve encountered a significant obstacle: the readiness and scarcity of comprehensive data sets that are necessary to adopt predictive analytics and predictive maintenance philosophy. Based on this experience, our focus is on supporting operators to manage their aircraft data and have a continued level of data accuracy. To achieve this, we offer our customers data health checks to continuously validate their
system, ensuring their system remains clean, up-to-date, and efficient by using NEXUS to become ready for predictive analytics. Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what EXSYN does for aircraft maintenance customers? DDP: We assist our customers in effectively managing aircraft data, ensuring sustained confidence in data accuracy, and enabling their technical operations to extract value from their aircraft data.
Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT? DDP: To digitize and seamlessly integrate the administrative workflows for aircraft airworthiness management and maintenance from start to finish. Currently, there is an excess of inefficiency in these processes, with data being manually registered in various locations and systems. This transition isn’t just the next progression for individual airlines; it is a paradigm shift that will unfold industry-wide, fostering collaboration among all stakeholders in the aircraft maintenance value chain. Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about EXSYN DDP: EXSYN made a difference and is a valued partner that seeks the best solutions together with the customer. Aircraft IT: Divya Das Podiyat, thank you for your time.
FREE WEBINARS Hosted by a different MRO IT vendor, sessions provide airlines, aircraft operators and MROs with the perfect introduction to the vendor’s software solution.
CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WEBINARS
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
Streamlining maintenance planning at JetBlue Erin Ritola, General Manager, Maintenance Planning, JetBlue explains how a nextgen heavy maintenance planning solution was implemented © AIRBUS: J. DARCY
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
A
lthough I trained as an aircraft technician, I joined JetBlue shortly after 9/11 and took a maintenance planning role rather than as a line technician. In 2006, I joined the heavy maintenance team as a controller taking all of the planning work for heavy maintenance with me. We split heavy maintenance out of our Planning organization to keep it centralized to heavy while letting line maintenance planning focus on line maintenance. Even before 2015, we realized that wasn’t really working well for JetBlue overall. The airline had grown quite a bit with, then, 200 aircraft and we were working towards what we called our TechOps 300 project which was to consider how we were going to operate at 300 aircraft instead of the small-fleet point of view that we’d had before. So, I reconsolidated planning back into one group and brought with me the heavy maintenance scheduling concept that I’d been developing over the past decade. © AIRBUS: P. DOVIE/ AIRWIND
THE CHALLENGES OF THE OLD SYSTEM
At that time, I started working together with two other planners for heavy maintenance and realized that the system that I had developed (figure 1), while it was endlessly customizable and had worked well for JetBlue in the past, wasn’t going to work for us very well in the future.
JetBlue HMV Planning 2004 - 2020 Excel-based Scheduling
“…we were working towards what we called our TechOps 300 project which was to consider how we were going to operate at 300 aircraft instead of the small-fleet point of view that we’d had before.”
Pros
was that fact that it was really difficult to train other planners on the system plus, it was hard to share. We tried splitting it by fleets for which, at the time, we had two primary fleets, the A320 fleet and the E190 fleet and were starting to take on the A321 aircraft and get into sub-fleets. But even with splitting the system, trying to marry all that material back together into one published document just didn’t work. It was tedious, it was time consuming and, as we added more people to the team, it became increasingly error prone.
• Endlessly customizable Cons • Limited resource input • Difficult to train • Timeconsuming
SELECTION CRITERIA FOR A NEW SYSTEM
• Error-prone processes
Figure 1
The reason was that it was completely Excel based and while there was a tremendous amount of detail in it, which our team liked along with the detail and the information in it, when we tried to teach it to the new planners, they just didn’t get it. So, the first big con that said that we needed to find something else
So, our VP at the time agreed that we should shop around for a new solution, but I hate to shop. I find what I need, decide if I can afford it, make sure that it’s going to work and buy it. However, the VP wanted us to shop the market, look at all the offerings out there then generate detailed reports on the pros and cons of the different programs and find the industry leading, next generation heavy maintenance planning software that will lead JetBlue into the future. That launched a review of what was in the market but first, we established what we wanted to do. Our main focus was to get away from the spreadsheet; no more
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
the beginning it was simple; no blocks and automated scheduling production with automated reporting; we didn’t want manual tallies or inputs, it all had to be automated. Second was scenarios; we wanted to be able to see options and to be able to show people the consequences of decisions they were making. We wanted to understand how a program is going to work and evolve over time and where we’re going to have work, where it makes sense for us to have work. We need to be able to do this quickly, to show the difference between all of the scenarios and to be able to rapidly get that over to people who really don’t want to give us the time of day.
Ease of schedule publication
The next part was ease of schedule publication. This is still something that we struggle with today; trying to get out that big picture of all of the schedule options we have but making them make sense to people so that they can use that information as the basis for decisions (figure 2).
Automated Scheduling Objectives
“Planning sets the strategy for the organization; it sets the tone and says where you are going; it can start and stop aircraft.” manually moving blocks of information around. Then we considered how did we want planning to work overall? Planning is more than just putting work into work orders, and it’s a whole lot more than the basics of who does what, at what time, where and with what stuff. Planning sets the strategy for the organization; it sets the tone and says where you are going; it can start and stop aircraft. If the planning team don’t do their work properly, then the production teams are sunk. So, we started an epic shopping trip with the idea that I wanted to change how planning worked. I wanted to get our heads out of the granularity of everything that we were doing day-to-day and push us forward into leading conversations about how we do the work that we needed to get done so that we would be setting strategy for how our aircraft operate not just putting things into work orders and making sure they’re in the shop on time. On that basis, we decided on some basic requirements that we needed for our next generation, industry leading, heavy maintenance planning software. In
Our Goal
The Basic Requirements
The Great Ideas
Quickly generate schedules for longer periods of time.
• Automated schedule production & reporting • Rapid scenario production • Easy schedule publication / information sharing • Ability to interface with other programs (M&E System)
• • • •
Shift Planning focuses from generating schedules to leading discussions on how best to achieve work goals in short-term and long-term windows, facilitated through schedule scenarios
Schedule optimization Maintenance Program flexibility Complete forecast input WO generation
Figure 2
This is for an audience that goes from material groups all the way up to senior VPs and finance, and our exec crews, for them to have great ideas that are going to help us. We have to be able to talk hyper-technical on one side and then high enough detail where we can get non-technical people on board with us on the other side.
Interface with the M&E system
The next basic requirement was that we wanted to make this easy on ourselves, to be able to interface with our M&E system which, for JetBlue, is TRAX. We wanted to ease the burden of washing information from one system to the next, back and forth, which was something we were concerned about at the time as we were looking for another third party to handle our schedule. We took this another step and added the things that I called the great ideas. So, those basic requirements would give us an automated schedule but it was not going to be industry leading, next generation at that stage; it was going to have that potential but not be there yet at that time.
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
Performance Starts With A Plan
“…to show a schedule that optimizes only for cost value versus a schedule that optimize for days out of service was a step in the direction of simplifying the job of identifying an opportunity cost.”
Since switching to Aerros, our customers have: • Increased fleet size with minimal increase in overhead • Increased plan detail by 9x and plan length by 4x • Reduced time to budget by half
Schedule optimization
The next thing we started to look for was schedule optimization. Those who work in planning will know, especially if they work with contractors, that a schedule that optimizes for cost will probably look very different from a schedule that optimizes for days out of service; the question is, which one is better and how do you evaluate that? One of the things that airlines struggle with, especially on the tech ops side, is how to identify opportunity costs. Being able to show a schedule that optimizes only for cost value versus a schedule that optimize for days out of service was a step in the direction of simplifying the job of identifying an opportunity cost. The question is, where do we want to place the value? Is it in time or is it in the money or some combination of both? Or is there another factor that we want to optimize for? How do we want to handle all of this stuff? At the time, we were starting to work towards using our own data. Having been a start-up in 2000, JetBlue was responsible for the maintenance program and how it was worked, and we’d finally amassed the data set to be able to start pushing our program to work for JetBlue based on our own data. This is particularly important for JetBlue because, excluding the pandemic, we have industry leading aircraft utilization. The basic schedule in the maintenance program that comes from the OEM, really didn’t fit for JetBlue. I was doing AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 57
Learn how Aerros can dramatically improve your planning results today.
aerostratsoftware.com info@aerostratsoftware.com
CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
industry-leading, next generation heavy maintenance software could help us to make that happen, that was something that we wanted to investigate further. The last step and the most tedious aspect of planning is work order generation; what could we do with that? So, we started a development project with somebody else who said that they could do all of this for us. However, two years and countless bugs later it crashed. It was intensely painful for JetBlue to have lost all of that time and effort, and have to start over. But that’s what it was.
JET BLUE AND AERROS FROM AEROSTRAT
We not only had to start shopping again but there were also a few leadership changes at the time. Then Aerostrat came into the frame with a solution that was ready. We’d had a lot of conversations during that time with other groups explaining what we’d done, where we’d been and where we could go. In this, they all broke into two main groups. One was ‘the systems that are set-up are for black check methodology, repeating C checks for ever’, while the other groups were those in development and, following our previous experience, that was not something JetBlue wanted to repeat. Also, the vendors offering black check methodology were saying that, that is now the OEMs work and they could set it up or us within a week which seemed a bit too quick. Aerostrat came in somewhere in the middle: they were beyond development, they had a product that we’d be able to implement and work forward with right away but they also had the flexibility and the willingness to talk about all the work that we had done, what we had at the time and where we wanted to go into the future. So, we opted to work with Aerostrat (figure 3). checks on average six to eight months ahead of the rest of the industry because the utilization rate was forcing it. However, that didn’t necessarily mean that the aircraft were indicating that the work needed to done. On the other side, there were times when the aircraft were indicating that work really needed to be done. The challenge was how to balance out the program, how to step away from the basic black check methodology with which everybody is most familiar and incorporate our real experience into the scheduling system in order to have a program that works for JetBlue. To be able to do that, we needed a complete forecasting template. Any one of our aircraft today will have from between 1400 and 1800 individual tasks running on them on any given day and the planners go through all of those to group them up into A checks, B checks, C checks, 75,000 hours services… things like that, to help us manage tasks so that we don’t have to look at every single one of those 1,500 or so tasks every day. But even then, pulling those groups together is a significant amount of work and making sure that they line up and repeat on the basis that we want, so that we can leverage each opportunity in the way that works best for us, takes a lot of skill and time. If our
JetBlue & Aerros
Implementation
Change Management Challenges
Complete Buy In
• 2020 schedules maintained in duplicate, 2021 fully in Aerros • Implementation of technical data very easy due to Aerostrat support
• It looked different
• Scenarios
• New check name nomenclature in tallies • Pandemic lockdowns
• The Slack View
Figure 3
The research and decision process started in 2019 and went into early 2020 which is when we decided to implement Aerros in JetBlue. All readers will be aware of what happened in 2020 and things quickly got intense. Although
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
“This was a difficult time to change manage something this big. Our teams had been seeing the same style of maintenance schedule, the same style of tallies for that information in the heavy maintenance schedule since 2004.” implementation could have been easier, we opted to go through through numerous scenarios during the pandemic as well as numerous datasets, working with Aerostrat to get the information in to the system. Partly because of our previous experience, we did run 2020 schedules concurrent through Aerostrat at the same time until we were confident that we were going to be OK. With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that was unnecessary; once we had the data set together and once it started working, it would have been fine. With tremendous support from Aerostrat, we got there, we know exactly how it all works and in 2021, we proceeded with the brand-new schedule. This was a difficult time to change manage something this big. Our teams had been seeing the same style of maintenance schedule, the same style of tallies for that information in the heavy maintenance schedule since 2004. And I had been very accommodating over the years to make sure that they got all of the data that they wanted in the way that they wanted it. But now we had a new system that looked different, had different nomenclature, the way things worked was different and everybody was distracted by events in the wider world at the time when we were making that change. While we were confident on the tech side and on the planning side, the rest of the organization was not. So, implementation was more challenging for us because everything looked different and felt different and nobody wanted to make time to learn anything; it all felt hard. We actually got buy-in from our stakeholders starting with internal and tech ops first with scenarios showing the options. We were successful, when everyone was thinking that because they weren’t flying their aircraft, they didn’t have to do heavy checks, we realized that we had to do heavy checks or we’d pile up a mountain of work that we’d be unable to climb over after the pandemic. Showing scenarios, showing different options, actually showing everybody that, if we just stopped the heavy checks throughout the time of the pandemic, what we would need when we wanted to fly again. That realization jump-started acceptance.
And then there was the final thing, the big thing, the overall view. This really got us over the hurdle with everybody during the pandemic; they could visually see the health of our schedule, accounting for time remaining on things just by looking at the picture. That made all the difference for us. We chipped away over time and got tremendous support and we gave people options so that they could understand that they were going to get the information that they needed and they were going to be involved in conversations to make sure that their interests were accounted for in the schedule and then overall we could also evaluate, again pictorially, via the rainbow, how well or not well this was working for us now and in the future.
JETBLUE AND AERROS TODAY AND TOMORROW
Today, things have changed: our stakeholder input has become much more dynamic than it was in the past, and we have different stakeholders now than we did then — these days, pilots offer opinions on the subject (figure 4).
Stakeholder input
JetBlue & Aerros Today & Tomorrow Stakeholder Input • New / more dynamic inputs into schedules with high expectation of quick return o Fleet strategy o Aircraft utilization • New inputs from teams impacted by the schedule • Right level of transparency
Figure 4
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Oh the Scenarios! • Ability to create scenarios has led to much greater complexity in managing schedules • Decision-making timeframes do not align to scenario output • Planner detail retention taxed by speed of scenario process
Aerros Mods & Interfaces • Production performance tracking • Ability to merge scenarios in different ways • More/better ways to share schedules without giving direct access to Aerros • Bridges between other areas of business and the schedule Work Packages for Production teams Historical and future data for Finance teams o LLPs o o
CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
Fleet strategy has definitely become a function where, instead of that being an input to us, we work options with our treasury group and finance team, as to what is the best strategy for how we handle these aircraft as it impacts on heavy maintenance costs over time. As stated above, JetBlue leads the industry in utilization and it’s better than ever now that we have been able to show what is the impact of that industry-leading utilization. It’s not just technicians being tired, pushing on the overnights and relying too heavily on the heavy maintenance events to act as a re-set. Now there’s a bigger and more dynamic conversation that lets everybody have a stake into how we handle the fleet into the future. We have also now come into an interesting period where we’re talking about what is the right level of transparency. Our heavy maintenance schedule goes out to about five hundred people who represent about a hundred and twenty different groups covering all aspects of the airline as well as some external stakeholders with our business partners. Not every single person on the distribution needs all the information that we are now capable of putting out but we have to ask what is right for them. We don’t want to be holding too much back, we want to be very transparent and put it all out there but that might not be the best competitive decision. We do need to decide what is right for who and how do we handle that; That was the discussion underway at the time of writing. The other thing that we’ve noticed, on the planning side in particular, is the scenarios of which there are a lot, including for 2024. The challenge is, how do we handle the scenarios and how do we get decisions made for them: decision
“Not every single person on the distribution needs all the information that we are now capable of putting out but we have to ask what is right for them.” making timeframes do not match the building of scenarios so how do we marry those up? How do we keep the information that our stakeholders are looking at, relevant to today? This is new and an interesting problem to have and is something that we’re actively working through with the Aerostrat team. We’re looking for a continued partnership with Aerostrat into the future looking at things like ‘how do we merge scenarios?’ Like ‘these two lines form with this scenario with those two lines for that scenario’ or, ‘this scenario for the rest of 2023 but that scenario for the first six months of 2024.’ How do we marry those into one to say that this is our new standard and start moving forward from there? Those are the new problems we have and are engaging with Aerostrat to work through. The other thing that we miss by far the most from our old Excel days is production performance tracking. When things went bad in the old Excel days
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CASE STUDY: JETBLUE
We have a concept with our stakeholders that all of our MROs are equipped with everything it takes to build a plane from the ground up and the walls are lined with AMPs who cannot wait to get onto an aircraft and do their work. However, that is not our reality and showing that difference matters to us; showing that impact visually is something we want to be able to do in the future. And then the other thing too, as we have changed our conversation going forward, we need new bridges, we need bridges over to different work groups to help them to seamlessly take in our information and for us to take in back from them, also seamlessly, so that we can make decisions faster because that now is our new hold-up. Instead of making a schedule being the hold-up, getting decisions is now our hold-up. That’s where we’re at today and that’s how the implementation of Aerros has worked for JetBlue and we look forward to continuing that work into the future.
ERIN RITOLA
“We’re looking for a continued partnership with Aerostrat into the future looking at things like ‘how do we merge scenarios?’” there would be reds and blacks for delays which everybody could see. What it gave us was an example of a production problem versus a planning problem. How the schedule developed over time and how it all worked out together was visually represented for everybody to see and I really want this back. It’s a high priority for us because it changes how conversations happen. Too often, planners take the blame for problems that are not theirs because they are the ones who out it down on paper for everybody else to see. Showing that difference means that you can have a completely different conversation with your stakeholders. We want that back and Aerostrat are working on it. The other thing that we could do before is we could also show how everybody else’s ‘great ideas’ would impact our schedule. So, if there is a check and an interior modification is added to that, we would add a black to that check for the interior modification because the 30-day check will now take 45 days but, with Aerros, we can distinguish 30 days for the check and 15 days for the added work.
After graduating from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and technology in 2006 with a BSc Aviation Maintenance and Aircraft Maintenance Management, Erin joined JetBlue as Maintenance Planner / EO Planner working with the team to ensure that all maintenance tasks were accomplished to FAA standard. In 2009, she was appointed Heavy Maintenance Controller responsible to maintain the Heavy Check Schedule and, in 2015, Erin was appointed Manager Strategic Maintenance Planning at JetBlue.
JETBLUE
JetBlue operates over 1,000 flights daily and serves 104 domestic and international network destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Europe. JetBlue has codeshare agreements with member airlines of Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance. The 285 strong fleet includes Airbus A320 and A321 Classic, plus Long-Range and neo models as well as Airbus A200 and Embraer E190.
AEROSTRAT
Aerostrat is based in Seattle, WA and offers one product called Aerros, a one-of-a-kind program that manages an airline or MRO’s aircraft maintenance schedule. Aerros enables users to optimize the maintenance program by managing various maintenance and operational constraints, which maximizes event yield, drives costs down, and enables the organization to plan proactively, not reactively. Aerros is also integration-ready and designed to work as an extension of a user’s existing information systems. INTERACTIVE GIVE US YOUR OPINION CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR COMMENT INTERACTIVE SUBSCRIBE HERE CLICK HERE TO READ ALL FUTURE EDITIONS
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 61
AIRCRAFT MRO: HOW I SEE IT
Do you maintain a Solution Blueprint? Allan Bachan explains the valuable and often cost-saving benefits of using a solution blueprint
A
ll too often, newer systems which replace legacy applications bring their own issues and challenges which can quickly fall into the same categories as their predecessors. Data integrity, low adoption and decreased staff productivity are common complaints. During and after implementation, how effectively do you solve previously known issues and challenges? Do you instead get immersed in learning everything about
the new system? How much of this learning is to seek solutions versus simply expanding knowledge on the new software? Are you residing more in a software learning mode rather than the business solution mode? The Solution Blueprint specifies the configuration for in-built system behavior, leveraging available options and settings. It may also include customization components — where some business AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 62
requirements may be met by additional software coding. The key premise of the solution blueprint is one of design. At its core, it solves known problems, and it plots the course for what should be done and what business improvements are yet to come. Further, the blueprint is a living and dynamic charter which defines organizational and system behavior. It should be continuously measured, monitored, and maintained.
AIRCRAFT MRO: HOW I SEE IT
So, do you have a Solution Blueprint which meets the above criteria?
BUSINESS PROCESSES
Well managed business processes are core to all operations. They have many advantages including: • Standardization: All stakeholders understand and execute tasks in a common manner; • Redundancy: Risk is reduced when talent leaves or become unavailable; • Efficiency: Performance is optimized, and variances thereof are decreased; • Consistency: Documenting, auditing, enforcement and compliance are easier realized. Moreover, measurements can be better made using defined process maps, in a way which makes for quick recognition of improvement opportunities. At minimum, responsible roles and organizational units, tasks, decisions, inputs and outputs should be well represented. A hierarchy of processes for each functional group should exist for the entire MRO organization. At the highest level, these would typically include Engineering, Planning, Production, Supply Chain, Human Resources and Finance. Ownership of these processes should be assigned using a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) index and periodic audits against pre-defined performance and compliance criteria should be carried out. It is also advantageous to maintain detailed step-by-step procedures for each task within processes as an easy and ready reference for all stakeholders, participants and actors.
TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS
Software and hardware technology components are essentially tools which enable business processes. These also have roles and tasks within processes and are therefore dependents for the processes. For example, a barcode scanner performs a scanning task and a printer performs a printing task. These hardware dependencies are easier to understand and map than software counterparts / objects.
“Moreover, measurements can be better made using defined process maps, in a way which makes for quick recognition of improvement opportunities. At minimum, responsible roles and organizational units, tasks, decisions, inputs and outputs should be well represented.” Screens, webpages and program names/numbers are commonly used to access and execute business tasks. Within a software application, this typically occurs using a menu path or a typed, touched or voiced command. That is but one element of a software dependent or attribute. The primary user interface. There are several other software configuration attributes which may be known by software (application specific) names including: tables, switches, parameters, codes, workflows, licenses, and reports. Therefore, and by example, to successfully execute a ‘Create Purchase Order’ task in an MRO IT system for the respective business process — the following software attributes must be known and configured within the application: Purchase Order (PO) type (from a PO type table); Approvers (in Workflows); Authorized PO creators (access Licenses); and Format (Report or Form). Once configured, these are all invoked using the menu path or command with which the end user launches the appropriate screen. Because these configurable attributes also influence and affect the behavior of other tasks in the system, their definitions for any organization must be standardized and wellcoordinated across all MRO processes. It must be noted that any best of breed MRO IT application in the market today has a range of two to four thousand (2000-4000) configurable attributes. Imagine, if you will, the number of permutations and combinations possible for all of these attributes. By example, and to put it in simple AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 63
terms; the settings and options on your smart phone for the same device and apps will be different from mine. It is all about user preference and desired experience.
STAYING CURRENT
A full MRO processes catalog should be just about two hundred (200) or so discrete but interrelated process diagrams with all of the organizational roles and technology attributes mapped out. This knowledge and specification(s) repository must be managed so that it always reflects current operations and system configurations. It should be the primary go-to for all end-users and system support personnel. Business processes and procedures should be continuously measured, monitored, and improved. Also, most MRO IT software applications will have at least one version release per year and there will be periodic patches, bug fixes and other changes introduced by the software vendor. The challenge is to remain agile and nimble for all business and software changes spanning the gamut of blueprint elements. This includes adjusting and adding processes as business improvements, maturity and capabilities change; and as system functionality may be altered and introduced. Picture two scenarios: • An end-user — a maintenance technician — needs to cannibalize a part from one aircraft to another. His/her system updates must be done in real-time.
AIRCRAFT MRO: HOW I SEE IT
“…most MRO IT software applications will have at least one version release per year and there will be periodic patches, bug fixes and other changes introduced by the software vendor.” • A new version of the system has been released by the vendor. It includes some major and some minor changes. There is an internal ambition to have this release in production as soon as possible.
Scenario 1 — User manuals
Those of us familiar with aircraft maintenance will know that all of the work done on the aircraft must be referenceable to the approved aircraft maintenance manual (AMM). While cannibalization may be frequent in some organizations, it is not something a particular technician will do on a daily basis. Having access to a procedural step-by-step manual, which must be referenced in his/her corrective action write-up certainly helps. Indeed, quoting the AMM reference is how the regulators ensure that the correct and current procedures are being followed. Similarly, to sustain good production standards and sensible balance of hands-on work versus system updates (direct and indirect time); as well as to preserve data integrity; a tailored step-by-step reference (user) manual for the IT system updates is
also helpful. Where in your organization is this ‘manual’ and how is it kept up-to-date specific to your processes? Is it easily accessible by the end user? Is it seamlessly interactive with the MRO IT system screen(s) by task? Are your user communities and their collective actual experiences key sources for the resulting content?
Scenario 2 — Managing releases
Is there a documented release management strategy and plan for your MRO system? Who owns it — the business or the IT organization? The impact of a new system release or change with in-situ business processes and procedures should be an easy task in a well-managed environment. Where all (changed) configuration attributes or system programs used for your business process tasks, which roles are affected and how they are affected, should be available within hours or days, not months. Once these changes are known and understood, a consolidated project for comprehensive adoption should be defined. This will include processes, data and system configuration changes, which must all be
“The key to true continuous improvement is complete awareness of your current state at any point in time. Only then can any analysis for improvements be done. This current state exists in your Solution Blueprint.” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 64
well coordinated and with assigned owners. Execution of the project will include system configuration, testing, training and data tasks. It is recommended that your ability and wherewithal to fully execute on this is seamless within your organizational structure. Done properly, this will be continuous, albeit with varying intensity at periods during a given year.
SUMMARY
The key to true continuous improvement is complete awareness of your current state at any point in time. Only then can any analysis for improvements be done. This current state exists in your Solution Blueprint. Detailed business processes mapped with enabling technology components provide the best representation of this Blueprint. Structured measurement, monitoring and improvements to the Blueprint should be built-in across the MRO business and IT support organization, as a continuous activity — regardless of whether change is prompted by business or technology initiatives. For now, that’s how I see IT.
ALLAN BACHAN
Allan is a Vice President at ICF with 34 years of industry experience as an Aviation M&E, MRO and Supply Chain solutions and systems domain expert. He is responsible for ICF’s MRO Operations and IT practice and he manages the Aircraft Commerce Consulting relationship with ICF. His experience includes managing application design, development, and full cycle implementation — from selection to go-live — for strategic clients in the MRO industry using different commercially available MRO IT products. In his career, Allan has fulfilled the following leadership roles: MRO IT practice and technical lead; MRO systems Product Principal; M&E and MRO Solutions Director and Manager of Technical Records, Maintenance Planning and Production Control.
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The transition to mobility Stephane Menard, Chief technology Officer, M3 Solutions, Steve Bogie, Partner, AeroATeam and Frank Milillo, Partner AeroATeam identify some considerations about mobility and how to manage mobile devices AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 66
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A
s the material for this article was gathered during a conversation, we have decided to retain the format of the conversation to show how the individual knowledge of each contributor has added depth of understanding to the conversation from three separate viewpoints. We’ll look to cover three main topics here (Figure 1): • The challenges that stem from using a dedicated device model over a shared device model in MRO facilities when managing and synchronizing technical publications & maintenance manuals; • Why a shared device model is crucial for keeping cost of ownership low, maintaining security and improving operational performance; • How automating deployment of MRO mechanic content, application, and operating systems completely remote and unattended can eliminate bottlenecks and increase efficiency.
Topics to be covered •
The challenges that stem from using a dedicated device model over a shared device model in MRO facilities when managing and synchronizing technical publications & maintenance manuals
•
Why a shared device model is crucial for keeping cost of ownership low, maintaining security and improving operational performance
•
How automating deployment of MRO mechanic content, application, and operating systems completely remote and unattended can eliminate bottlenecks and increase efficiency
Figure 1
The focus of the article will be to compare two approaches to managing a fleet of portable devices used daily by mechanics in an MRO environment to perform their tasks (figure 2).
Introducing the Approaches We will compare two approaches to manage a fleet or portable devices.
§
Dedicated Approach where the mechanic is provided with a device. In this case the Mechanic is responsible for the maintenance and update related to his device.
§
Shared Approach. In this case the mechanic check out a device from the tool crib for the shift or task at hand. The maintenance and update related to this device is managed by logistic and IT.
Figure 2
Some airlines have opted to provide each mechanic with a device, the dedicated approach while others have opted for pooled devices shared across all mechanics, the shared approach. These two options each have their pros and cons, and that’s what we’ll cover here.
THE TRANSITION TO MOBILITY
Stephane Menard: Steve and Frank, what are your views on the transition to mobility across the industry as a whole? We have been discussing paperless operations for a while; and yet I’m always surprised to see that some line maintenance departments are still running on paper. What are your views on the state of this transition and its importance related to compliance, risk mitigation and operation efficiency? Steve Bogie: As we exit the pandemic, we’re seeing greater focus on cost and operations efficiency from most carriers. What this means is a heightened awareness of the ability for, in this case, mechanics and those supporting aircraft operations and MRO operations, to be completely dedicated to their job. As a result of that, airlines and MROs are looking to technology in an effort to drive efficiency. Digital and mobility are critical components in achieving maximum hard time for mechanic, EMEs and support functions on the aircraft. This is a new and evolving trend which has been in existence for a while but with a heightened and growing awareness in recent years. Frank Milillo: From the end user perspective, in the heavy maintenance environment, we’re always focusing on increasing optimization; creating an environment where the technician can do everything s/he needs to every day or shift while staying on or near the aircraft and with access to technical publications. This is something that we have been striving for over the years and, in the base maintenance environment, mobile devices offer a great opportunity to move forward. From the maintenance perspective having the publications and the reference documentation with the correct revision (rev) status all the time is key; we don’t have to worry about whether the revision status is up-to-date or whether or not mechanics are working with documentation that is at revision status. A big thing in a base maintenance environment or a heavy maintenance environment is uncontrolled documentation; so, all too often, we get non-compliance findings because there are outdated, non-compliant references that might be on a tool box or on a stand or on the aircraft. Mobile and paperless documentation eliminates that risk. SM: I assume it is a complex transition, moving to paperless. I was surprised to see many corporations are still paper based. From a technology perspective, what does it entail to make this transition? SB: Moving to paperless cannot just happen at the flip of a switch; it involves
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“…do you want the mechanics to be responsible for the device and/or content related tasks such as updating the OS, updating the apps and making sure that the technical publications are synched properly?” SM: If I understand you correctly, you feel that there’s no technology hurdle at this point. Technology is there but it’s more a question of implementation which was probably not true ten years ago. SB: Fair assessment and I’d definitely say that this is not a technology problem. This is about people and change, change management, a questioning process; it’s not a technology challenge.
TWO APPROACHES TO MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT
SM: Right, let’s go to the heart of this article: What is the best model for your organization; a shared device approach or a dedicated one? All airlines will have to go through the process of evaluating which way to go which will not be an easy process but will be worth the effort (figure 3). a lot of coordination, good system partners, good system integration and good training on the new processes as well as designing sound, straightforward processes and procedures that meet the obligations to the regulator. First and foremost is the repository where these documents would sit. You need to build the foundation, transition the business to digital documents and, once that’s sound, get sign off from the regulator before transitioning over, and then quickly generate mobility. From a true IT technical perspective, there are some mature systems out there. You want to integrate those systems tightly with your active director or whichever authentication program you’re on to make sure that the right people have access to the right systems at the right time. But once you’ve made the transition to digital and mobile, there’s a speed and efficiency benefit. Rather than taking days weeks and months to do revisions and distribute the paper (print it and pull it in and out of manuals) in a digital format, that can be done in hours. Considering the savings in printing costs and shipping costs, paper (especially for a very large airline) and the environmental impact of all that, there are lots of benefits to moving in this direction but, as was said earlier, it’s not just the flip of a switch. Any transition to paperless and mobile should be well thought out, well planned and I would encourage anybody looking to do it to closely involve the whole business, front-line workers as well as the regulator.
Choosing a device model is not easy Do you give mechanics the responsibility to manage their device? • • •
Updates of apps and OS. Synchronicity of all content including technical publications and maintenance manuals. Managing Compliance.
How do you deal with logistics issues?
•
Spare device required in the event of equipment failure, low battery, incomplete updates or forgotten/ lost devices.
In a shared-device approach, the IT/ Logistic team manages the asset • • •
Logistic team manages device check-in / check-out. The IT team manages the content for these devices. Can be costly and inefficient.
Figure 3
The kind of question you will have to ask yourself is, for example, do you want the mechanics to be responsible for the device and/or content related tasks such as updating the OS, updating the apps and making sure that the technical publications are synched properly? At the beginning, it might seem manageable but over time the number of apps will grow and then data for these apps will get
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more complex and larger. This is important, especially if you want locally hosted content which is important to ensure that data is always available for your mechanic, even if the Wi-Fi or cellular connection is weak in some areas or not available at all. I’ll elaborate on this some more. Almost all the apps that deal with content have online capabilities; so, the data is always available as long as a network is available, but having locally hosted content enables mechanics to always have access to the data to do their job. So, it provides for a more robust and high availability solution while increasing the efficiency of the workforce. This is not to be minimized as over the last ten years, this model of having data on the devices in addition to online access has proven to be more efficient: a better approach and definitely more reliable. That’s one question. Another one would be, how do we deal with spares? Spares will be needed because equipment will fail, a device will be lost or won’t be updated properly or a mechanic will find, in the morning, that the device is not charged enough to last the day. Should all this be the mechanic’s responsibility? Let’s look at the shared device model. In that case, the IT and the logistic team will manage the devices. The logistic team will manage the hardware as well as device check-in, check-out, tracking the devices, tracking the user, and managing repairs and spares. This could become a cumbersome task as the fleet of devices grows. At the beginning, with a few hundred, that might be fine but when it gets to thousands it will get more complicated. On the IT side, they’ll be managing the content of the devices with all that that entails. In the end, it will be time consuming and costly but at least, in that case, the appropriate staff will be doing what they’re good at. That said, what are the opinions of our two experts? Frank from an Operations perspective and then Steve from an engineering standpoint? FM: I’m on the side of shared devices. Technicians are technicians; they want to fix airplanes, they don’t want to have to maintain a computer or a device or a tablet. We have a hard enough time getting a technician to enter data into the enterprise system that they’re currently using so that has to be made as easy as possible. Placing that burden of updates and the control of the device onto a purpose-built solution and platform strikes me as beneficial. At the end of the
M3 PLATFORM
Device management is complex, M3 Solutions makes it simple.
Bring your fleet of devices together with one platform for a holistic IT solution to ensure all your mission critical tools remain up-to-date, compliant, certified, and ready for business.
Synchronicity across all devices
“Technicians are technicians; they want to fix airplanes, they don’t want to have to maintain a computer or a device or a tablet” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 69
www.m3-solutions.net
Increase operational efficiency
Maximize device readiness
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day, the technician returns the unit to its proper place and goes off until the next day. Therefore, s/he doesn’t have to worry about accountability for it. Also, I think that having the shared responsibility of maintaining the device, maintains the integrity of the unit itself. SB: With most of these decisions, each carrier will have different priorities and approaches. There are pros and cons for each model but putting the onus on people to keep the devices updated has risks. In an environment where compliance is so important and, with a shortage of skilled technician resources available to undertake the work, mobile devices become mission critical when paper has been removed because there is no fallback other than additional devices. If they don’t get updated, they become vulnerable to, say, some ransomware getting on them if somebody is using the device at home for non-work activities. Also, if the technician forgets to plug the device in to charge and the battery goes dead halfway through their shift, that will cause disruptions to the organization with the aircraft service delayed and it not being returned to the line on time. There’s certainly some risk associated with the dedicated device but there are also a couple of pros. Personalization can sometimes be an employee benefit letting them gain ‘ownership’ of the device. Plus, there is the potential for off-site training. There are some upsides to a dedicated device and, at Air Canada, we considered both options very closely before, in the end, opting for the managed device model which very quickly proved to be the right decision. We were very comfortable that the devices were tracked, they were always up-to-date, they were always charged and, if there was some sort of an issue with either the charging and/or the content updating or technical issues, we knew about it right away and could dispatch an IT technician to deal with the issue rather than worry about a non-trained individual trying to troubleshoot it out on the frontline. We very quickly came to the conclusion that the benefits of the shared model far outweighed any downsides and was our preferred solution for Air Canada. SM: It looks as if we’re all in agreement that each team member in an organization should focus on what they’re skilled for: mechanics stay at the airplane, logistics manage the device and the IT team deals with device content or anything related to IT around the device. Of course, it’s easy to say and we realize that it could be complex to implement in any tool cribs and that is exactly why the M3 platform was developed, the system essentially automates the processes that the logistic and IT teams will need to do in a shared device environment. In fact, the concept was developed with Air Canada in 2015 (Aircraft IT MRO Issue 54: Winter 2022 ‘Managing and synchronizing devices of all types at Air Canada’) where M3 was first approached and the idea was exactly that: a shared approach is a better approach for them but we needed to eliminate the heavy lifting of the content management and also asset tracking and maintenance. That’s how M3 Platform came about.
“…the system essentially automates the processes that the logistic and IT teams will need to do in a shared device environment.” THE M3 PLATFORM
Now, I’d like to tell you something about the M3 Platform; what it is, how it works and what it does for a fleet of devices (figure 4).
The M3 Platform
Comprehensive content management & automation
• Automation of operating system & content deployment • Synchronization of complex data structures • Device wipe after each use • Data push & pull • Plus all standard MDM features Inventory Management • Admin can layout infrastructure • Assist in deployment/troubleshooting • Streamline RMA process • Provide a variety of reports
Key features Controls access to devices via RFID, Barcode, NFC readers Physically locks device within the platform Provides access to the network & charges devices Fully scalable from a few devices to thousands scattered worldwide Supports tablet, laptop & smartphone running Windows, MacOS, iOS & Android
Figure 4
The solution can be defined by two main components: the Kiosk hardware and the content management software. The kiosk itself controls access to the devices via a card reader, a badging system which could be an RFID, an NFC or other type of reader. Importantly, when the device is in the kiosk, it is physically locked so that the technician will need their badge to check it out. In the kiosk, the device charges and will communicate with our back-end software which enables the content management. Generally, the solution supports tablets and laptops both of which are deployed with some customers, including Air Canada, and the operating systems supported can be Windows, iOS and Android plus it’s fully scalable, so can go from an installation with only a few dozen devices to some with thousands of devices. Most of the time, the kiosk is in a self-serve environment; so, check-in and check-out is done by the mechanics, eliminating the logistic part of it. When a mechanic needs a device, they go to the kiosk, get a device and go to work. If it gets broken or runs out of battery, s/he comes back to the kiosk and takes a new one. The logistics are taken care of by the kiosk.
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AUTOMATION ADDS REAL VALUE
That is for the hardware, essentially and, as you can see, this really automates the logistic component (Figure 5). The Automation Solution
When deploying an automation solution, a shared device model is key. Mission critical devices require a mission critical management solution.
Figure 5
On the software side, the main function of the solution is to automate content deployment of any kind; it could be an app update, it could be an OS update, it could be technical publication deployment or any other content that requires to be side-loaded to a specific application. By integrating with each app, which we do all the time, the process becomes totally seamless and really zero touch. The IT team is not involved at all when it comes to content management. M3 has a team which is dedicated to that, to automation, and they are constantly integrating apps from different vendors in order to satisfy that goal of seamless and zero touch operation. Additionally, the solution can wipe the device clean after each usage which most of our customers use so that there’s no stored login information or browsing information. If need be, information can be uploaded before performing a wipe if, say, there there’s some data that needs to be synched for the next user and you don’t want to lose that dataset For simple tasks related to device management, M3 has integrated with Best of Breed MDM. For iOS and MacOS we use Jamf, for Android we use Knox and for windows we use Microsoft Tools. The goal was always to make the shared device model the approach of choice and through automation, we believe that it removes all the pain points in an implementation. It means being able to logistically and from an IT perspective, have teams in place where you need them across the organization to deliver these tasks. For those who haven’t used the M3 Platform, this may sound theoretical; so we’ll ask Steve to discuss his hands-on experience with the solution when it was deployed at Air Canada, starting in 2015. Since then, the environment has grown from one to a dozen or so apps and a great deal more of data but when you implement automation, you’re making yourself future proof.
GOING MOBILE AT AIR CANADA
SB: At Air Canada, we did not start by saying we’re going to use M3. Early in the process, we identified the objective of how to keep the mechanic planeside, working on the airplane. The idea was, give the individual a mobile device with all of the digital content that they need to keep them planeside, whether that’s aircraft manuals, IPCs, a view of the inventory stock, scheduled time for the aircraft and even links to fleet specialists and other tools that we had provided. That was our view and that was our goal. We started with one app, a ‘walk before you run’ approach where we wanted to start slow but scale it fairly quickly thereafter. At first, we were using dedicated devices but soon realized that it was very difficult to manage with some of the challenges we covered earlier in the article when devices hadn’t been updated, hadn’t been synched, hadn’t been charged and so on. We looked around for different solutions and ended up selecting M3 which Air Canada continues to use today. This wasn’t without its challenges and, as we scaled, a lot of the infrastructure that we had in our hangar facilities, which was was dated at best, had to be
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upgraded to accommodate the large volumes of data that we were synching back and forth to our M&E system, to our content management system, to things like Boeing Toolbox. At that time, Air Canada was flying Airbus, Embraer, Boeing and Bombardier airplanes so we had to address every OEM. We wanted a single device because we didn’t want to get into different devices for different OEMs, plus it was necessary to scale and build a lot of infrastructure with processes and controls to ensure that the right people had it. Also, the devices were
synchronized to Air Canada’s authentication systems and the corporate cyber security plan was built out to ensure that our devices were secure. All the devices were registered centrally with Air Canada’s IT support organization and asset management organization; it was really just an extension of what Air Canada did. There was a little more work when we did it but that paid dividends in the long run and it saved us from creating dual and parallel systems and processes. Today, Air Canada has complete automation of its device management (figure 6).
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Air Canada today: Complete Automation
STEPHANE MENARD
After three years as Senior Product Manager at Nortel Networks, Stephane was appointed Chief technology Officer (CTO) at Simpler Network in March 1999. In 2010, he took on the role of CEO at M3 Solutions Technologies and then, in 2019, became Chief Technology Officer. Stephane has particular skills in the areas of embedded systems and embedded software.
STEVE BOGIE Air Canada today: Complete Automation Figure 6
FM: Perhaps I can add in a couple of things that we haven’t touched on yet. When we talk about heavy maintenance environments and MROs, we should always focus on safety, quality, schedule and cost and there is a safety element in this shared device system. When you have a system such as that which M3 is offering, there is the consideration of space which, in many hangars, is at a premium; there is also the consideration of productive labor and unproductive labor. There are many organizations with a separate room in which they keep all of their tablets, laptops, printers and other hardware but that room might be at the opposite end of the hangar from where the technician is working and that is unproductive labor when the technician is travelling across the hangar, going to the room and doing what needs to be done — printing up the reference document and then going back to the airplane — which is, again, unproductive labor. The more area and space that’s freed up in the hangar environment, the more organized we can be which, in turn, will lead to increased safety and lower levels of risk. Also, when mechanics use desk top PCs, sometimes they might forget to sign out and them still being signed in is another compliance aspect that we haven’t touched on yet. With a shared device, that unit is with that person and is under the control of that person the whole time. And, of course, with everything in the room at the end of the hangar, there is the cost associated with computers, monitors and devices, the seating and the real estate for all of those things in the hangar environment. That cost is virtually eliminated with a system such as the M3 solution. SB: All that is so true including for people involved in Line Maintenance where the desktop computer might be a long way from the gate where the mechanic has to work on the aircraft. SM: Let’s close by thanking Steve and Frank for contributing to the article. We hope that, our explanations of the move from paper to digital with the adoption of mobile devices and how to manage them will have demystified the process and that readers who have been considering such changes will be encouraged to set out on their own project.
Steve has over 30 years of experience in commercial aviation mainly in the Air Canada, Jazz family. Starting his career in Airport Operations, Steve then moved to Systems Operations Control and then into the technology side of the business until 2020 when he became a partner in the AeroATeam with a continuing focus on technology in the aviation space and helping commercial airlines to move forward.
FRANK MILILLO
Over 30 years in the airline industry, Frank’s career started in the United States Air Force before working in the original Pan Am, American West Airlines, US Airways and American Airlines. At both US Airways and American Airlines, Frank had responsibility for Base Maintenance at a senior level as well as for quality control.
AEROATEAM
The AeroATeam includes industry experienced colleagues delivering complete MRO technical services, operations & technology support; offering incredible people combined with advanced technology licensing, hosting, and custom application development. AeroATeam capability offering combines five critical elements of success: Software Licensing Options; IT Technology Hosting and Integration; Implementation and Management; Maintenance, Engineering, and IT Tech Services; Airline and MRO Technical Operations Business Support.
M3 SOLUTIONS TECHNOLOGIES
M3 Solutions is the company behind the M3 Platform, a comprehensive hardware and software solution for portable device and content management. M3 solutions has sales facilities to service customers worldwide. The solution allows administrators to control the managing, distributing, charging, and monitoring of an organization’s portable device inventory with easy remote and unattended content distribution including OS, App & Content deployments, across all devices in the network, anywhere, within minutes. INTERACTIVE GIVE US YOUR OPINION CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR COMMENT INTERACTIVE SUBSCRIBE HERE CLICK HERE TO READ ALL FUTURE EDITIONS
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 73
AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDOR JOB CARD
VENDOR JOB CARD: OUTPUT42
Steve Crabb believes that well motivated people and best in class ideas have given Output42 its enduring strength and success As the founder of Output42, Steve Crabb has devoted his career to the development and design of cutting-edge aviation software. A true entrepreneur, he has a penchant for recognizing and embracing transformative ideas. His professional ethos is encapsulated in the phrase, ‘simple is hard.’ With a rich background in engineering and a fervent commitment to the aviation industry, Steve is a visionary whose work combines the best of both worlds, pushing the boundaries of technology and the skies above. Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title and the name of the business? Steve Crabb: Stephen Crabb, Founder and Partner in Output42 Software Limited. Aircraft IT: How did Output42 get started? SC: Output42 is a software house founded in 2009 by four individuals with a passion for aviation and technology: Michał Pawłowski, Stephen Crabb, Paul Crabb and Greg Micorek.
Steve and Michał had previously spearheaded the development team behind a prominent airline maintenance system. When the company closed the branch in their city Steve and Michal found themselves at a crossroads, prompting them to start operating on their own. Driven by a motivation to work with like-minded people they teamed up with Greg and Paul to form Output42. With Steve and Michał’s technical expertise, Greg’s business acumen, and Paul’s engineering skills and passion for aviation, the
team set out to revolutionize the way aircraft engineers and mechanics do their jobs. For nearly 15 years, Output42 has been creating and developing high-quality aviation software used and recommended by global airlines, including our main products dent & buckle, BladeFix, and CabinSurvey. In addition to our software offerings, we also provide services to support the aviation and MRO industries. Over the past years, our customer base has grown steadily, a testament to our commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
“We believe in pushing the boundaries of what is possible and venturing into new and unexplored realms, all the while maintaining the fundamental goal of continued business viability.” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 74
AIRCRAFT MRO: VENDORJOB CARD
Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives Output42? SC: The core principle that drives us is a commitment to boldly explore uncharted territories and embrace innovation while ensuring the sustained longevity and success of our business. We believe in pushing the boundaries of what is possible and venturing into new and unexplored realms, all the while maintaining the fundamental goal of continued business viability. Aircraft IT: What has Output42’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why? SC: To be in business you need to stay in business. Output42’s most notable business achievement to date has been its ability to not only establish a presence in the market but also to thrive and expand without relying on external investment. This accomplishment is particularly remarkable because it showcases our capacity to sustain and develop our operations based on the strength of our internal resources and the value we offer to our customers. Additionally, we take pride in the fact that throughout this journey, we’ve managed to create and sustain a content, highly skilled, and everexpanding team. Our employees are at the heart of our success, and their happiness and continued growth within the company reflect our dedication to fostering a positive work environment. Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them? SC: One of the most significant disappointments I’ve experienced in our business is receiving a call from a valued team member, informing us of their decision to leave. Our company thrives on the contributions of our talented and dedicated individuals, and when one of them chooses to depart, it undoubtedly creates a sense of loss and disappointment within our team. The infrequency of such departures underscores the strength of our team’s cohesion and the quality
“…we take pride in the fact that throughout this journey, we’ve managed to create and sustain a content, highly skilled, and ever-expanding team.” of our workplace environment. It reminds us of the importance of fostering a supportive and engaging workplace culture, one that not only attracts top talent but also encourages them to stay and grow with us. This experience has reinforced our commitment to continually improve our workplace environment and nurture our team members, ensuring that their contributions are recognized and rewarded, and that they find fulfilment in their roles. Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what Output42 does for aircraft maintenance customers? SC: Output42 excels at providing aircraft maintenance customers with streamlined solutions that not only excel at their specific task but also result in significant time and cost savings. Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT? SC: AI driven decision making will transform how maintenance is researched, predicted, planned, executed and recorded. We are at the very early
stages now, think early days of the internet before browsers were a thing. Individual solutions will start to pop up that leverage AI and simplify otherwise complicated tasks, i.e., selecting a fan blade, measuring a dent, assessing damage, creating a repair scheme, fix now or defer, completing a defect and almost anything where a decision needs to be made or content created. Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about Output42? SC: When our customers speak about Output42, we want them to express their confidence in our commitment to delivering the absolute best. We aim to be synonymous with excellence, and we want our customers to say that if they seek the best-inclass solution, they need look no further than Output42. We take pride in not just offering ‘me too’ solutions, but in consistently exceeding expectations and delivering solutions that are well tailored and unique. Aircraft IT: Steve Crabb, thank you for your time.
“We aim to be synonymous with excellence, and we want our customers to say that if they seek the best-in-class solution, they need look no further than Output42.” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 75
CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
Kalitta Air takes a big digital step Luke Usher, QC Records Manager, Kalitta Air, shares the airline’s experience of selecting and implementing an electronic Technical Log Book (eTLB)
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CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
A Kalitta Air aircraft in customer livery
I
n this case study, I will outline the scope of our operations, why we required an electronic technical log (ETL), our reasons for selecting TrustFlight, the steps required to digitally transform our operations, a look ahead to what this new capability can do for an airline, and key takeaways one should consider when selecting and implementing an ETL solution.
FROM PAPER TO DIGITAL SOLUTIONS FOR OPERATIONAL RECORDKEEPING
Kalitta Air is an all-cargo Part 121 airline based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We provide on-time scheduled transportation services anywhere, anytime. The business is privately owned by Connie Kalitta and operates an all-Boeing fleet with 24 Boeing 747-400s and five 777-200Fs. Kalitta Air is also the launch customer for the 777-ERSF, which is undergoing conversion at the time of writing. In 2022, we operated around 19,000 flights within the US and to places as far away as the UK and Australia. Kalitta Air employs more than 900 people who machine, design, and build virtually every component on a Boeing airplane in-house to eliminate relying on outside parties for repairs, maintenance, and upgrades for its purposes. From the landing gear to complete engines, Kalitta Air manufactures everything but the bones and shell of the plane, making it a global leader in airline manufacturing and service operations.
WHY KALITTA NEEDED AN ETL SOLUTION
All airlines are familiar with the hand-written tech log. Information such as maintenance details and the deferral of defects are hand-written on paper, which requires human intervention. Then, once the data is submitted for Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA), it is transposed manually. This occurs tens of thousands of times a year, and every time someone makes a manual entry or transfers data, there is a potential for error. It’s not scalable. At Kalitta Air, we needed an ETL solution for three key reasons: safety, efficiency, and reliability.
Safety
Safety drives everything we do at Kalitta Air, including MRO, flight operations, maintenance, and everything in between.
Efficiency
For operators that don’t use an ETL, processes are manual. They’re not efficient and are error-prone. This may include sending information back and forth by email, post, and other methods of manual transmission. As such, there’s always latency involved, and we know that time costs money. Additionally, information is often not always readily available.
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CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
there were enterprise-wide benefits for our organization (figure 1). We didn’t just want to replace old processes; we wanted to enhance our processes using the three priorities of safety, efficiency, and reliability.
“We didn’t just want to replace old processes; we wanted to enhance our processes using the three priorities of safety, efficiency, and reliability…” Reliability
Reliability is the probability that a unit, some piece of equipment, or an event will cause or result in failure, incident, or accident. To improve reliability, we need to access information. Failing that, you can only react and will always be burdened with poor reliability. With one integrated system, we could improve these three priorities within Kalitta Air.
SELECTING TRUSTFLIGHT: A PARTNER AND PEER
At Kalitta Air, we had four considerations when evaluating an ETL implementation partner: benefits, system compatibility, simplicity, and subject matter expertise. Although it may sound obvious, we wanted to ensure that
Figure 1
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CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
“We knew we could eliminate up to 85% of identified errors by doing away with pen and paper.” This was very important to Kalitta Air; we had recently implemented AMOS less than three years earlier. We wanted to ensure that whatever solution we selected had the flexibility to integrate with the applications we used daily. Given TrustFlight’s focus on integrations, it gave us the confidence we needed to select an ETL that we considered future-proof. We knew we still required the same data we previously generated, but we only wanted to change how we processed the information. Finally, and likely the most important, was that TrustFlight are subject matter experts that we consider peers. TrustFlight has deep experience with airworthiness and CAMO/technical services. They’re able to perform the functions we conduct regularly, giving us the confidence to select them as a partner.
System Compatibility
For Kalitta Air, integrating a new Electronic Tech Log that worked with our M&E system was essential. With it being a two-way integration (figure 2), information we entered into AMOS could be leveraged to deliver specific work packages visible to crew and maintenance teams on the line. This allows for reduction in delivery time and human factors while adding additional levels of control.
Enterprise-Wide Benefits
One can replace a process, but it might bring little lasting improvement. In theory, and aside from human errors, walking with a piece of paper, mailing that paper, and scanning and emailing that paper all have the same result yet follow different paths. But which one is the most efficient, and what other processes does it affect? When we assessed our processes and where we could be, we confirmed that the benefits of migrating to digital-based processes were much greater and would make lasting changes to our organization’s operational efficiency. Companies must ensure that any change they’re making has significant value. In Kalitta Air’s case we realized the benefits gained from better resource management. Entering information, reviewing and approving information, then sharing it so that once it’s submitted, it’s visible to the rest of the company is essential. But, the way we did it before TrustFlight’s ETL implementation was outdated when we look at how ubiquitous digital information has become across all aspects of our lives. We knew we could eliminate up to 85% of identified errors by doing away with pen and paper. With digital processes, controls ensure that tasks are repeated in the same manner. We consume a lot of resources including fuel, paper, time, people, and facilities. We’re much more efficient with TrustFlight — a connected electronic ecosystem.
Figure 2
We appreciated that TrustFlight’s ETL was M&E-agnostic, meaning we would be free to switch systems if needed. However, knowing that TrustFlight was also an
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CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
active AMOS M&E user within the CAMO division played a big role in selecting their software. Their team was familiar with M&E systems and we didn’t need to put additional strain on our resources internally to complete the integration.
Simplicity
We appreciated that we could make the Electronic Tech log look the same as we were used to, saving us costs for retraining our large team (figure 3). When you’re trying to train somebody in a new process, the result has to be the same as the old process. For example, we can’t say: “what used to be in A is now in B.”
CALCULATING TRUE VALUE FROM DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
With every significant implementation, there must be value associated with the transition. Otherwise, there would be no reason for a firm to change their processes and potentially disrupt the status quo. The key metrics we used to justify the investment in TrustFlight’s systems included looking at the average error rates per page and per leg with the paper system across 19,000 flights and calculating that on a human hourly rate. We asked every relevant department within Kalitta Air to factor in efficiency gains resulting from the new process. We then factored this by the number of flights, processes, and corrections we had. Although, at the time of writing, it is too early to quantify the actual impact, we are confident that there are significant efficiency gains, and we look forward to comparing our theoretical assessment with practical gains.
OUR EXPERIENCE SO FAR
We had our kick-off meeting in May of 2023 following our visit to an Aircraft Commerce Conference, where we initially evaluated the top ETL providers. Following our kick-off, (figure 4) we had weekly project follow-ups to ensure we were progressing with the implementation.
Figure 3
The customizability of the solution was huge for Kalitta Air, and I’m sure other operators would appreciate the same. This made the ETL much easier to adopt internally.
Subject Matter Expertise
There are software development companies, there are aviation experts, and then there are those that have the right mix of both competencies. We found TrustFlight to be our peers in aviation. The software we use both personally and professionally isn’t always developed from the end user’s point of view. There are a lot of specific use cases in aviation that end users might understand better than the software developers. Use cases are often particular to real-life scenarios in a day-to-day operation, and we found it difficult to communicate with other firms. TrustFlight was able to not only accommodate our requests, but also understand the reasoning behind them.
Figure 4
By September 2023, we ran parallel trials and had a pending authority approval for the change. We started the trials with a very small group on set routes with specific aircraft, mechanics, and crew. There were initial challenges, such as connectivity, due to the nature of our global operations. With TrustFlight’s offline mode — allowing updates to be made independent of internet connectivity — we were able to continue processing inputs as a technical log offline. When
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CASE STUDY: KALITTA AIR
connectivity resumed, the data was fed straight to ground support. This was an unexpected issue and we were happy that TrustFlight had built this into the system, allowing us to continue with our trials. I’m happy to say that our trials have been a resounding success to date. The consistent two-way communication between our firms was key, and it was easy to communicate with a firm that spoke our language. Furthermore, when we had minor hiccups, the TrustFlight Support team was always available day or night to support us. We were seeking this in a partner, and this is what we received.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The process itself has taught us a lot. Some challenges have indeed come up during the implementation. One of those was change management. We ensured that we kept up the momentum, and TrustFlight’s ETL made it easy to reduce friction by customizing the application so it was familiar to Kalitta Air personnel (figure 5).
A Kalitta Air aircraft in customer livery
LUKE USHER
Entering the aviation sector in 2012 as Technical Records Officer at Eastern Airways (UK) Ltd., Luke was appointed Document Controller in 2015 with the responsibility for implementation of a SFDC (Shop Floor Data Capture) module within OASES before becoming Aircraft Maintenance Planner in 2017. In 2021. Luke joined Kalitta Air as Supervisor — Aircraft System Configuration Management & Compliance, before, in January 2022, being appointed QC Records Manager, also at Kalitta Air.
KALITTA AIR
Kalitta Air is an all-cargo Part 121 airline based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, employing more than 900 people and providing on-time scheduled transportation services anywhere, anytime. The business is privately owned and operates an all-Boeing fleet with 24 Boeing 747-400s and five 777-200Fs plus being launch customer for the 777-ERSF. In 2022, Kalitta Air operated around 19,000 flights within the US and to places as far away as the UK and Australia.
TRUSTFLIGHT
Figure 5
In the future, we’re working on having digital records and electronic sign-off capability. The ETL was the starting point for that. With the ETL in place, we’ll move towards scheduled maintenance. After that, we’ll identify any deficiencies within our operations that we can improve and aim to transform those processes. Our takeaway from this exercise was that we had to prepare the company for the change. Policies and processes were re-adjusted with time, but a company needs its people in place first to understand that a change is coming. This implementation was a crash course for process, and we’re still working to do more with TrustFlight in that regard. We couldn’t be happier with our selection and the ongoing support that TrustFlight has provided, and we look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.
TrustFlight is a digital technology innovator focused on the aviation industry. The company’s best-in-class software and technical service solutions provide new levels of safety, efficiency and insight to everyone involved in the operation and maintenance of aircraft. With a robust suite of digital solutions including Electronic Tech Log, SMS/QMS software, MEL Manager software and more, organizations benefit from a 360-degree view of their operations while reducing risk, improving compliance and the accuracy of their data. INTERACTIVE GIVE US YOUR OPINION CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR COMMENT INTERACTIVE SUBSCRIBE HERE CLICK HERE TO READ ALL FUTURE EDITIONS
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 81
AIRCRAFT IT MRO: WHAT CAN IT DO
Reliable data delivered automatically supports efficiency
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Harnessing the power of automated data inflow in aviation: a new era for OEMs Henrik Ollus, VP of Aviation Data Exchange Business at QOCO Systems writes…
n the fast-paced world of aviation, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage; it’s a necessity. For Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the aviation industry, the advent of automated, frequent data flow from airline customers is revolutionizing how they operate, innovate, and interact with clients. This article delves into the myriad benefits of availability of asset data, particularly for key players such as airframe, engine, landing gear, and component OEMs. For a review on the two different pipelines needed to enable dataflow of maintenance system data and operational data see the related article in a previous publication: Digital Thread maturity in aircraft operations: The OEM perspective.
ENHANCING THE VALUE OF ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DATA
Automated data delivery greatly improves the data in the asset management system of the OEM. More frequent data refreshes, granular data collection, and automated validation tools ensure high data quality, keeping all stakeholders updated with the most current and accurate information. This not only improves operational efficiency but also decision-making processes across the board. End-users of the asset management system reap significant benefits from improved data quality. Downstream users of the asset management system include, but are not limited to, those listed in the rest of this article
FUELLING R&D AND COMPETITIVE EDGE
In an industry where innovation is key, the continuous inflow of real-world
performance data is invaluable. This data informs R&D efforts, leading to advancements in engine design and functionality. Such innovation keeps OEMs competitive and at the forefront of technological advancements.
PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE THROUGH HEALTH MONITORING PROGRAMS
The heart of any successful aviation operation lies in its maintenance protocols. Automated, real-time data empowers OEMs to implement more effective Health Monitoring (HM) programs. This proactive approach in maintenance, including Engine Health Monitoring (EHM), ensures that potential issues are identified and addressed promptly, significantly reducing downtime and bolstering safety. By combining maintenance history with full flight sensor data, OEMs gain a comprehensive understanding of an asset’s performance and operational history.
STREAMLINING POWER-BY-HOUR AND ENHANCING REPORTING
For engine OEMs, the integration of automated data collection is reshaping the power-by-hour model. By accurately tracking engine usage, OEMs can bill airlines with greater precision, thereby reducing billing discrepancies and disputes. This automation not only streamlines billing but also significantly eases the reporting burden on airlines and cuts down on manual data entry for OEMs. The result is a more efficient, transparent, and mutually beneficial relationship between airlines and manufacturers.
“This proactive approach in maintenance, including Engine Health Monitoring (EHM), ensures that potential issues are identified and addressed promptly, significantly reducing downtime and bolstering safety.” AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 82
AIRCRAFT IT MRO: WHAT CAN IT DO
REFINED MAINTENANCE WORK-SCOPING
For engine OEMs, particularly those operating under the power-by-hour model, the ability to scope maintenance work with precision is crucial. Automated data provides up-to-date asset performance insights, allowing for more efficient planning and execution of maintenance activities. This precision not only saves costs but also improves turnaround times, enhancing overall service quality.
FORECASTING MAINTENANCE AND OPTIMIZING LOGISTICS
For those OEMs that provide or manage maintenance for the assets, the accuracy and timeliness of automated data are pivotal in improving the mediumand long-term forecasting of maintenance needs and financial planning. This assists OEMs in budgeting, resource allocation, and making strategic decisions that align with both current and future market dynamics. Automated data plays a critical role in predicting the need for spare parts. By optimizing inventory levels, OEMs can mitigate the risks of part shortages or excess stock. This not only streamlines the supply chain but also reduces costs associated with urgent sourcing of parts, thereby enhancing operational efficiency.
CONCLUSION
The integration of automated, daily validated data into aviation OEM systems marks a new era in the industry. It enhances operational efficiency, customer service, and strategic decision-making while opening doors for innovation and
growth. As the aviation world continues to evolve, embracing this data-driven approach will be crucial for OEMs aiming to soar to new heights in a competitive and dynamic market.
HENRIK OLLUS
Henrik is the VP of Aviation Data Exchange Business at QOCO Systems Ltd., where he brings extensive experience in delivering data exchange solutions for collaborative parties in the aviation industry. Leading global deliveries and strategic relationships for the EngineData.io and Aviadex.io SaaS solutions, he ensures that OEMs, Airlines, MRO service providers, and other key players in the aviation industry can effectively share data and jointly create value.
QOCO SYSTEMS
QOCO Systems helps the aviation industry to succeed in the changing world by creating new ways to work, to communicate, and to utilize data. The business’s solutions provide significant improvements to the industry’s complex processes. They enable customers to achieve more by doing less and to realize time-savings in labour-intensive tasks. They also bring visibility to customers’ operations to support decision-making based on real-time information.
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FOR THE NEXT SCHEDULED WEBINAR, CLICK HERE AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 83
DIRECTORY
MRO Software Directory Key ‘at-a-glance’ information from the world’s leading MRO software providers. IT is a powerful force but, to leverage its greatest value, it must be harnessed and directed. It must also be able to handle huge and growing data streams that record every aspect in the lives of aircraft and the processes by which they fly. This challenge has attracted the best brains and most innovative enterprises to create IT solutions for one of the most demanding working environments, Aircraft MRO and M&E. Inevitably, there are many such developers and vendors offering solutions ranging from single function `Specialist Point Solutions’ to complete `End-to-End’ solutions covering the whole process. Only readers will know the specific requirements of their businesses but we have assembled a directory of the best MRO software providers and listed them alphabetically to make it easier for you to undertake a brief-ish (there are 37 providers and the number continues to grow) survey of the market, as a preliminary to starting on any specification and selection process. Or you might simply read it to keep up to date with what is available today.
2MoRO
ADSoftware
W: www.2moro.com T: +33 (0)559 013 005 E: 2moro.sales@2moro.fr
W: www.adsoftware.fr T: +33 (0)4.50.89.48.50 E: contact@adsoftware.fr
Locations: France (HQ), Malaysia and India
Location: France, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil
ADT: Applied Database Technology W: www.adbtech.com T: +1 (425) 466-5013 T: +1 (614) 377-9644 E: sales@adbtech.com
Location: Bellevue, Tampa USA; Istanbul, Turkey
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aero One®, Aero-Webb®, OLATU®
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • AIRPACK
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Wings NG
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • MRO: Line, Base, Engine maintenance • Airworthiness and Fleet Management • Flight and Crew management • Material Management • ERP: Finance, Purchasing, Sales, HR • Training
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • AIRTIME — Fleet management & CAMO • AIRSTOCK — Inventory control & Logistic • AIRDOC — Documentation management • AIRSTAT — Reliability and statistic reports • AIRWORK — Time Tracking Software
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fleet Management • Maintenance Engineering • Material Management • Production Planning • Labor Collection, Billing
2MoRO is an aviation software development company whose software solutions are used in more than 20 countries with teams in Europe and Asia plus partners and resellers worldwide. Users include aircraft and engine manufacturers such as Airbus Helicopters, Dassault Aviation, or Safran Group, plus aircraft operators, airlines and independent MROs. Aero One® and Aero-Webb® complement ERP solutions regarding aviation and MRO-specific needs and Aero-Webb® can also be stand-alone. OLATU®, is a digital training platform providing A&D companies with the tools to train staff 24/7 on all aspects of In-Service Support: airworthiness management, maintenance planning and execution, logistics, and more. The training uses exercises simulating, with Aero-Webb®, concrete scenarios adapted to different generations of aircraft and with increasing complexity depending on requirements.
ADSoftware has developed an integrated fleet management system and logistic package called AIRPACK. This 6 module system answers to the needs of aircraft and helicopters operators, as well as MRO and CAMO centres. It meets all requirements in terms of functionality, traceability, performance, aviation legislation and regulations. Today, ADSoftware counts more than 54 clients worldwide. The strength of ADSoftware is the simplicity of its products; they are Microsoft Windows® ready, Web-enabled, available in various languages and a complete training program can be done in just five days. The company also provides a 24/7 online technical support and extremely competitive pricing conditions.
APPLIED DATABASE TECHNOLOGY (ADT) is a professional services and software development firm that provides MRO software solutions for aircraft operators as well as aircraft repair and overhaul organizations. Our commitment to this business segment is proven with our software package, WINGS, designed specifically for aerospace companies. ADT has been in the software business since 1992 and has built an excellent customer reference base. Our first priority is always customer satisfaction; thus we have obtained 100% customer satisfaction since 1992. ADT has a proven record to develop reference accounts in the Aviation industry along with other high technology companies which are considered to be leaders in their fields.
2MoRO is proud to offer a very dedicated customer service, as reflected by their 95% customer retention rate. They work mainly on a fixed-price basis, and are ISO 9001 certified for aviation software development, maintenance, and support.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 84
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DIRECTORY
Aeroxchange
Aerostrat
Asia Digital Engineering (ADE)
Aviation InterTec Services
W: www.aeroxchange.com T: +1 972 556 8500 E: support@aeroxchange.com
W: www.aerostratsoftware.com T: +1-888-558-2860 E: info@aerostratsoftware.com
W: www.ade.aero T: (+60)3-8660 4333 E: sales@ade.aero
W: www.aviationintertec.com T: +1 807-625-9260 E: info@aviationintertec.com
Location: Texas, United States
Location: Seattle, USA
Locations: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Locations: Canada, Malta
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aeroxchange
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aerros
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • RAAS
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • MRO • Supply Chain efficiencies • Exchange of documents • Commercial trancactions • Procurement
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Heavy/Base Maintenance Planning • Capacity/Workload Planning • Maintenance Schedule Optimization • Maintenace Event Performance Tracking • Heavy/Base Production Schedules
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Engineering Maintenance Services (EMS) • Digital & Innovation Services (DIS) • Engineering Support Services (ESS) • Component & Warehouse Services (CWS)
Aeroxchange is the only electronic business network that supports all MRO business processes within the aviation industry for buyer and sellers. Aeroxchange provides a complete lifecycle of electronic communication from order creation to final invoice. The Aeroxchange service accelerates repair, replenishment, sourcing, inventory pooling and other critical operations in the aviation supply chain.
Aerostrat is based in Seattle, WA and offers one product called Aerros, a one-of-a-kind program that manages an airline’s or MRO’s aircraft maintenance schedule. Aerros enables users to optimize the maintenance program by managing various maintenance and operational constraints, which maximizes event yield, drives costs down, and enables the organization to plan proactively, not reactively.
Aeroxchange automates the exchange of documents and information for commercial transactions. Our electronic platform dramatically reduces manual activity for transaction processed by fax, telephone and email, and increases the accuracy and timeliness of information and document exchange.
Aerros provides robust ‘what-if’ scenario capabilities that allow users to see the effect of different variables. This aids in making sound business decisions concerning the maintenance and fleet plan. Some of these variables are maintenance programs limits, min/target/max yield, aircraft hr/cy utilization, track/requirement compatibility, and maintenance allocations. To forecast an optimal maintenance plan within an operation, Aerros also provides a Capacity Planning feature. This feature allows users to input and view vendor capacity available and labor hour demand to better manage the labor force.
For airlines and buyers, Aeroxchange creates supply chain efficiencies for complex procurement of MRO goods. For sellers and repair service providers, Aeroxchange creates sales channel efficiencies by broadening visibility of inventory and capabilities and streamlining the order process.
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KEY BUSINESS SOFTWARE AREAS • Base maintenance • Line maintenance • Workshop • CAMO functions • Component Warehouse with Asset management Leveraging the AirAsia’s Engineering Department’s best practices and experience, ADE offers end-to-end aircraft maintenance services setting new standards of quality and innovation in the industry by leveraging the expertise of its highly skilled professional team and cutting-edge technologies.a wide range of aircraft services focused on the Airbus A320, A321 & A330 for engineering maintenance services, component and warehouse services, and engineering support services, as well digital and innovation services. ADE aims to uphold the highest standards in when it comes to professional integrity, quality, reliability, driving greater efficiencies and safety, for all of their customers at all times.
Aerros also provides easy-to-navigate scenarios with drag and drop event movement and manipulation. Scenarios can be published so others (including vendors or operators) can view the plan. Aerros provides excellent system stability and reliability with standard IT practices. It is also integrationready and designed to work as an extension of a user’s existing information systems.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 85
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Production Planning and Management • Inventory and Procurement • Inspection Document Management • Reliabiliity and Performance Analysis • Financial and Flight Operations Integration RAAS is an MRO and CAMO software system designed to meet the needs of mid-tier commercial fleet operators. Enabling modern, high-efficiency workflows in a powerful and straightforward package, RAAS is the best fit for midsize fleets and user groups. Scalable, intelligent and 100% browser-based, RAAS includes efficiency-creating features such as automated real time airframe time updating and exchange of aircraft next due items, electronic technical dispatch, MPD/MRB driven program management and check package creation, purchase order e-approval and e-signature, integration with finance/accounting for payables or inventory value management, and of course approved paperless and e-signature maintenance processes from the hangar floor to the cockpit. RAAS customers enjoy the benefits of a widely accessible and easy-to-use inventory management and maintenance support system that through continued use is able to reduce maintenance costs by increasing maintenance procedure efficiency, reducing held inventory, providing proof of quality for inspection escalations, and by directly reducing clerical manpower requirements. The quick deployment, ease of support, and low TCO inherent in cross-platform browserbased information systems coupled with high levels of integration, easy-to-use user interfaces, and many automated reporting and data analysis features make RAAS a leader in its field.
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DIRECTORY
Webinars eJournals Software Conferences News Advisory Unit Want to be involved? Simply email scott.leslie@aircraftit.com for more information
AIRCRAFTMRO IT www.aircraftIT.com
ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions)
The Boeing Company
BytzSoft Technologies Inc.
W: www.asqs.net T: +43 1 306 1234 E: sales@asqs.net
W: www.boeing.com/supportandservices T: +1 206-655-2121 E: BoeingSupportandServices@Boeing.com
Locations: ASQS GmbH, Vienna, Austria; ASQS Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand; Calgary, Canada
Location: Over 65 locations around the world
W: www.bytzsoft.com T: 001 201 270 8019 T: 0091 965 704 2657 E: sales@bytzsoft.com
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • IQSMS (Integrated Quality and Safety Management System) • Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) Service • The IQSMS Suite consists of a total of 10 modules, varying according to the operator. (Airlines, Business Jets, Helicopter, Airports, MROs...)
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Airplane Health Management • Business Consulting • Maintenance Performance Toolbox • Optimized Maintenance Program
KEY BUSINESS SOFTWARE AREAS • Quality Management Module • Reporting Module • Risk Management Module • Document Distribution Module • Emergency Response Planning Module ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions) is a global supplier of highly innovative QMS and SMS software for the aviation industry, supporting more than 200 large and small operators, including airlines, business jet and helicopter operators, groundhandling agents/FBOs, airports and maintenance organizations, in creating a safe and productive work environment. The company specializes in intuitive, integrated, web-based solutions with exceptional customer support. ASQS’s core product IQSMS allows clients to manage operational data 24/7 online and offline with a single integrated tool which significantly simplifies daily tasks. The easy handling of the software creates a positive reporting culture, enables comprehensive quality management and proactive risk management to maximize productivity, reduce operating costs, and optimize internal and external working procedures. IQSMS automates laborious processes like the submission of ECCAIRS or IDX compliant incident reports which, combined with a consolidated, up-to-date regulations database, ensures legal compliance with national and international requirements and standards.
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Location: Over 65 locations around the world
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Technical Content Management • Vehicle Health Mana gement • Maintenance Optimization Consulting Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. Boeing Support and Services combines airplane design and manufacturing expertise with unique access to fleet-wide operational data to offer optimization solutions. With these offerings, Boeing addresses the evolving need for integration and optimization of data and information across the aviation ecosystem to empower smart decision-making. The portfolio includes services and solutions for flight operations, maintenance & engineering and procurement organizations to optimize the operational efficiency of airplanes and operations. Boeing has more than 250 customers for its optimization solutions. The portfolio draws on solutions from a family of Boeing companies: AerData, Inventory Locator Services and Jeppesen, serving operators of Boeing and non-Boeing airplanes.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 86
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • FlyPal®-CAMO/MRO/QMS/SMS/OPS KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • CAMO Engg. & Maintenance Engg • MRO Engg • Audits & Compliance Management • Safety Risk & Assurance Management • Crew Scheduling/FDTL Compliances/ Training Records BytzSoft Technologies Inc. believes in shared responsibility for aviation safety, and they ensure that their aviation software solution provides quality product to customers to aid them in remaining compliant with regulations at all times. The business provides value for money to their clients who use BytzSoft’s products to bring in process and data driven approaches to improve efficiency and effectivity of the employees working with airlines, charter operators, MRO’s and fleet management companies. Management of all these companies can get required data on their dashboard as well as detailed MIS reports at the touch of a finger. BytzSoft’s cloud-based web applications are scalable and deployable at a fast pace, thus reducing the implementation time and improving on margins. No matter what kind of fleet (Fixed Wing or Rotary Wing) you operate, FlyPal® can be configured to meet your needs.
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DIRECTORY
Comply365
Communications Software (Airline Systems)
Conduce
CrossConsense
W: www.conduce.net T: 0044 333 888 4044 E: info@conduce.net
W: www.crossconsense.com T: +49 69 4035 7600 E: contact@crossconsense.de
Location: USA
Location: UK
Location: Nuneaton, UK
Location: Frankfurt Germany
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ProAuthor (XML-Based Authoring Solution) • Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) • Digital Briefing • Document & Communication Manager • Training Solution (LMS Learning Manager)
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • OASES Modules • OASES Mobile • OASES Techlog • OASES Cloud • OASES Web
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • eTechLog8 • eCabinLog8 • eCentral8 • eTraining8 • eForm8 • eDoc8
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED Aircraft Fleet View ACSIS AviationDW
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • XML-Based Authoring Solution (ProAuthor) • Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) • Digital Briefing Flight Release • Document Mgmt. and Distribution Platform • Targeted Distribution w/ Compliance Tracking
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Continuing Airworthiness • Material, Warranty & Commercial Management • Planning & Production • Line Maintenane • Complete MRO workflows
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Logbook (ELB) • Cabin Log • Electronic Forms Designer • Document Viewer
W: www.comply365.com T: +1 (877) 366 2365 E: info@comply365.com
Comply365 delivers secure, cloud-based solutions, focusing on Authoring, EFB and Digital Briefing Solutions, as well as Targeted Distribution of Mobile Manuals. The Authoring Solution, features ProAuthor: the aviation industry’s first and only XML-based solution for authoring, revising and distributing publications. Comply365’s proven Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) solution lets crews access mission-critical information throughout each phase of flight.
W: www.oases.aero T: +44 1621 817 425 E: info@oases.aero
Commsoft’s Open Aviation Strategic Engineering System (OASES) is the all-in-one software for airworthiness maintenance control, meeting strict regulatory requirements. It enables airlines, fixed wing and rotary operators, MROs, and CAMOs to increase efficiencies in the management and monitoring of every procedure or intervention. OASES is used by 130 aviation organisations — national carriers, large third-party maintenance providers, and independent operators — and supported in 55 countries across 6 continents. Commsoft is an MIT group company, part of the Valsoft Corporation portfolio.
eTechLog8 is our world leading Electronic Log Book (ELB), fully approved by multiple Airworthiness Authorities and trusted by customers worldwide. eTechLog8 eliminates the paper technical, cabin, and deferred defect logbooks, and replaces these with an easy to use, workflow controlled mobile solution. Available on both Windows and iOS, eTechLog8 is fully integrated with all the leading MRO and M&E systems. All eTechLog8 customers report significant benefits, ranging from improved efficiency, data accuracy and consistency to faster turnarounds, all contributing to reduced costs. Conduce also offers a fully integrated suite of companion applications, which provide mobile paperless solutions for the cabin log, CBT training, custom forms, and ensuring key documents are at your fingertips.
Digital Briefing helps turn planes faster for more on-time departures with instant feedback to dispatchers when the flight crew accepts a release and signs Fit for Duty.
Conduce has a sliding pricing scale, depending on fleet size and operates as a subscription model, with one flat fee, per tail, per month covering everything: hardware, software, 24/7/365 support, mobile data, future proofed upgrades and more. There are no hidden costs. Ask us today for a tailored proposal.
Comply365’s full-featured Document Management and Targeted Distribution Platform boosts productivity by delivering any type of manual or document directly to any mobile device or stationary workstation.
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Conduce pioneer mobile aviation solutions.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 87
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS Support and Hosting Consulting and Data Migration Business Intelligence solutions App and dashboard development CrossConsense’s portfolio runs from AMOS Support, BI-Management, Data Migration and Hosting to the products Aircraft Fleet View, ACSIS and AviationDW. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Canadian’s FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd., CrossConsense also offers solutions for Fuel Management, Turn Process Management and other software applications as well as AFIRS hardware that collects data during flight. AMOS Support: CrossConsense has a long tradition in providing support for AMOS with one single point of contact for 1st and 2nd level; also realizing well-planned and organized data migration projects for airline customers and Reporting and Business Intelligence Analytics. Aircraft Fleet View is a user-friendly App that gives an always up-to-date view on an airline’s fleet status. It indicates AOGs, delays and other important information with the right level of detail to be useful but not crowded with information. ACSIS is a powerful predictive maintenance software tool developed to assist any airline, operator, MRO facility and OEM to avoid AOGs, delays and turnbacks, improve aircraft utilization, and enhance safety. AviationDW is a managed data warehouse, tailor-made for use with your backend system, e.g. AMOS. AviationDW simplifies KPI creation based on MRO System data.
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DIRECTORY
Dent & Buckle
Ecmanage BV
EmpowerMX
eTT Aviation
W: www.dentandbuckle.com T: +35 444 08300 E: info@dentandbuckle.com
W: www.ecmanage.eu T: 0031(0)70 415 7120 E: info@ecmanage.eu
W: www.empowermx.com T: +1 866-498-3702 E: info@empowermx.com
W: www.ettaviation.com T: +1 208-424-9424 E: info@ettaviation.com
Location: Iceland, Poland, USA, Singapore, United Arab Emirates
Location: Rijswijk, Netherlands
Location: Frisco TX, USA
Locations: Boise, ID, USA
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • dent & buckle software
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Wardrobe management system
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft structural damage reporting • Integration with MRO systems • Mobile apps • Integration with 8-tree dentCHECK • 3D aircraft models
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Online wardrobe management • Controlling the ordering process of garments and accessoires • Native app to enhance ease of use for the users • ISO 27001 / NEN 7510 certified • Trusted by Royal Dutch Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and more
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • FleetCycle® Execution Suite — MRO Manager (FCXM)
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • MISA: Complete Aviation Management Information System
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • FleetCycle® Execution Suite: Production Manager (FXPM), MRO Manager (FCXM) and Line Manager (FCXL) • Maintenance Program Manager (FCMPM), Planning Manager (FCPM), Reliability Manager (FCRM), Material Manager (FCMM), and Maintenance Intelligence (FCMI), Electronic LogBook (FCELB) • Coming Soon: FleetCycle® Executive Suite — Shop Manager (FCXS)
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Accounting • Maintenance • Inventory Management • Purchasing • Human Resources/Payroll
Dent & Buckle is a comprehensive system for managing complete airframe damage and repair records. It is a powerful web-based application for engineering departments, providing a 3D graphical view, advanced document handling and reporting tools. Additionally, Dent & Buckle has a mobile app available for iOS, Android and Windows devices, allowing maintenance crews and pilots to access information in real-time while on the go. With Dent & Buckle, you can easily track and manage all airframe damages, repairs, and maintenance records in one central location. This system streamlines the repair process and improves communication between teams, ensuring compliance with safety regulations and improving the overall efficiency of your organization.
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Ecmanage is a wardrobe mangement system for aviation companies and airlines to control the complete ordering process of workwear, personal protective equipment (PPE) and/or tools. Ecmanage takes the stress out of obtaining and delivering workwear and PPE for your company/customers. In addition, it can be as simple as you like, and can be extensively customised to your needs ander desires. Many customers have chosen Ecmanage, such as the Royal Dutch Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Keulen-Bonn Airport.The main reason that these parties have chosen Ecmanage is the security of the system. Ecmanage is ISO 27001 and NEN 7510 certified.
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EmpowerMX is an aviation industry-recognized software development/consulting-services business. We are purely focused on empowering our customers with the ability to decrease the costs of making air travel safer by equipping their decision makers with reliable, real-time/globally available intelligence for minimizing maintenance turn times/ OpEx while maximizing airworthiness/profits. FCXM allows MROs, airlines, and lessors to effectively control the entire maintenance lifecycle or only the portions for which they are responsible. Airlines can jointly manage their outsourced and insourced activites like engineering reliability, QA and maintenance programs at the line, heavy and shop levels with an expected reduction in cycle times and increase in labor productivity on the magnitude of 16-30 percent. Third-party MROs can run their entire operation from bidding through contracting to invoicing.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 88
The Management Information System for Aviation (MISA), is a fully integrated, and expertly supported product that provides extensive tools for an aviation company to manage all aspects of their business, including accounting, maintenance, inventory management, purchasing, flight operations, employee training, human resources, payroll, labor collection, government contracting, and flight school management. It is a common practice for aviation companies to use multiple applications to manage their operations. Often, such applications have limited interfaces necessitating duplicate data entry — a recipe for inducing errors and decreasing efficiency. And even when interfaces exist, they can be difficult to manage and require resources to build, maintain, and support them. MISA provides the solution for these issues by standardizing, streamlining, and integrating business processes across all the various departments and functional areas within the company; and this integration improves the bottom line while providing employees a user-friendly and consistent application experience across the whole organization and access to real-time, comprehensive, and relevant information from a single system rather than from disparate sources. MISA boasts impressive customer loyalty as evidenced by a number of aviation companies who have used MISA as their ERP system for more than two decades.
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DIRECTORY
EXSYN Aviation Solutions
Flatirons Solutions
FlightWatching
flydocs
W: www.exsyn.com T: 0031-20-760 8200 E: hello@exsyn.com
W: www.flatironssolutions.com T: +1.303.627.6535 E: info@flatironssolutions.com
W: www.flydocs.aero E: sales@flydocs.aero
Location: Amsterdam
Locations: Europe, Asia, USA, Middle East
W: www.flightwatching.com E: beaujard@flightwatching.com E: contact@flightwatching.com E: romain.blanquet@flightwatching.com
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • NEXUS, AVILYTICS
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED CORENA Suite
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft Data Management • Data Migration • Data Integration • Aircraft Reliability Management • Predictive Maintenance • Robotic Process Automation
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Content Management System (CMS) • Interactive Electronic Technical Publisher (IETP) • Maintenance & Engineering • Flight Operations • Tablet Solutions & Mobility
EXSYN Aviation Solutions is a leading industry provider of aviation engineering and data solutions. Located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the team comprises of aircraft engineers with deep IT & data skills. Allowing to combine industry expertise with technology knowledge.
Flatirons provides consulting, technology, and outsourcing for content lifecycle management (CLM). For more than 20 years, we have served global Fortune 1000 customers in aerospace, automotive, electronics, financial services, government, healthcare, and publishing. Our customer engagements help organizations efficiently deliver the right information, at the right time, to the right people by leveraging structured content and digital media — Turning Content into Knowledge®. The CORENA Suite by Flatirons is the leading content lifecycle management (CLM) solution developed specifically for organizations that rely on missioncritical data to design, manufacture, operate, or maintain complex assets over their product and service lifecycles as well as across multi-echelon business networks. For more than 25 years, the world’s leading airlines, aerospace manufacturers, OEMs, and defense organizations have relied on the CORENA product suite to create, manage, and deliver large volumes of technical information throughout its lifecycle. Today, CORENA customers rely on the CORENA suite to modernize their IT infrastructures, improve customer satisfaction, and maintain their competitive advantage.
EXSYN’s aircraft data management platform (NEXUS & AVILYTICS) is deployed with more than 20 different airlines and MROs across 20 different countries globally. Overall, it has already integrated with more than 10 different MRO software’s and 29 different aircraft types. Combining EXSYN’s aircraft data management platform with any MRO software provides airlines and MROs the ability to not just record airworthiness and maintenance data but also drive value from their data through business optimization, maintenance costs reductions and higher fleet availability.
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Locations: Birmingham UK
Location: Toulouse, France
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • APU Fleet Management • Wilco data platform • Wilco fuel saving platform KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • APU & nose to tail predictive maintenance • Fuel saving solutions • Engine trend monitoring • Aircraft data market place • ACARS cost saving solutions FlightWatching has a high level of expertise in Aircraft systems and data management (QAR, DAR, SAR, ACARS, ACMS). Our solutions are agnostic, do not require any HW nor SW modification and allow real time interaction with the aircraft. Our customers are: • MROs looking for solutions to build their own fleet management solutions • OEMs willing to explore and collect aircraft data related to equipment behavior • Airlines chasing solution to cut fuel burn on ground
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Aircraft maintenance records management • Lease asset management • Aircraft transition management • Component & part management KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft maintenance records management • Lease asset management • Aircraft transition management • Component & part management flydocs is an asset management solution provider with the aviation industry’s most comprehensive solution for creating value out of aircraft maintenance data. We offer the tools and expertise that allow all industry to drive sustainable innovation to help build the future of the commercial aviation asset lifecycle. Recognised as a global leader in digital records management, we were founded in 2007 and are 100% owned by Lufthansa Technik. With over 300 employees in multiple locations spread across the globe, we are trusted by over 78 airlines, lessors and MROs to deliver measurable long-term operational and cost efficiencies.
Contact us for your customized digital solutions.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 89
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DIRECTORY
IBM
Infosys
IDMR
IFS
W: www.ibm.com T: +1 877-426-3774 E: ibm.biz/email_IBM
W: www.infosys.com E: russell.viciedo01@infosys.com
W: www.IDMR.com T: +1-347-565-4367 E: irevivo@idmr.com
W: www.ifs.com T: + 613-576-2480 E: AndInfo@ifsworld.com
Location: New York/Tel Aviv
Locations: 60+ Worldwide
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • InForm
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • IFS Cloud, IFS Maintenix
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Technical Publication • Engineering Orders • Task Cards • Planning • Maintenance Programs • Electronic Signatures
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fleet and Asset Management • Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (incl line, heavy, complex assembly, component repair) • 3rd-party MRO bidding, quoting, invoicing, product lifecycle management, enterprise operational intelligence
IDMR Inc. is a global leader offering enterprise SaaS and mobile solutions for content management, document distribution, electronic task cards, and e-signatures in the highly regulated aviation industry. InForm is a software engineered to provide end-to-end comprehensive business solutions integrated with leading M&E systems. InForm supports the industry leaders’ remote and mobile workforces enabling safe and efficient operations. Every day, thousands of engineers, maintenance planners, technical writers, and maintenance technicians rely on InForm for digital delivery of operational content, replacing paper-based documentation. With aviation leaders trusting IDMR, InForm is the solution of choice for several national carriers, Heli-operators, e-commerce, defense and logistics contractors, and MRO organizations.
IFS is a globally recognized provider of software solutions for global aerospace & defense (A&D), including airlines and fleet operators, A&D manufacturers, defense in-service support and independent MROs. IFS’s solutions support project and program-centric manufacturing; a complete spectrum of maintenance management capabilities for sea, land and air assets, from heavy, complex, and component MRO, to line maintenance or at-platform/asset support; as well as all types of procurement models. IFS’s innovative enterprise solutions are designed for the regulated A&D industry and markets where manufacturing, MRO, project and service functionality are business- and operationally-critical whilst also supporting global, core enterprise capabilities for managing finance, inventory and human resources. With flexible, modular and enterprise breadth, IFS solutions empower A&D organizations to quickly adapt and manage change whilst delivering bottom-line value, increasing efficiencies and cost savings, and safeguarding compliance. IFS customers include BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, SAAB, GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, HAL, Emirates, LATAM, Qantas, China Airlines, Air France-KLM, and Southwest Airlines.
Location: IBM is incorporated in New York and has operations in over 170 countries.
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Maximo for Aviation • Maximo Scheduler Optimization • Maximo Inventory Optimization • Maximo Visual Inspection • Maximo Monitor, Health, Predict KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft and Component MRO • Aircraft Configuration Management • Maintenance Program Management • Supply Chain Management Line, Base and Component Maintenance IBM Maximo® for Aviation (MfA) is an Enterprise Asset Management solution designed to manage the lifecycle of aircraft and associated equipment from first entrance into service to the retirement of complex, high-value assets where safety, compliance and availability are key to the organization’s success. This solution empowers aviation companies to streamline the scheduling and management of aircraft maintenance, ensuring regulatory compliance and minimizing aircraft downtime. The efficient execution of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) processes not only boosts flight availability but also extends the lifespan of critical components such as airframes and engines. As part of the IBM Maximo Application Suite https://www. ibm.com/products/maximo, MfA builds on IBM’s decades of leadership in asset and operations management, providing a closed-loop model from capturing and analyzing data to enabling prescriptive maintenance actions. Specific solutions like Maximo for Aviation and add-ons bring more rapid ROI for our customers.
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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Insights • Tracking • Data Analysis The Infosys Aerospace and Defense practice offers predictive asset maintenance solutions to enhance the airworthiness of aircraft. We use a patented knowledge system to digitize structural repair manuals and aircraft / component maintenance manuals. Our knowledge engines simplify data interpretation for maintenance and repair of metallic as well as composite structures / components. The Infosys Asset Genome solution unifies data across operations, including performance data, fuel consumption, and wear-and-tear. It combines data from aircraft health monitoring systems, inspection reports, and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) records to identify issues in design, production and maintenance. Our solution boosts asset performance and extends the lifespan of assets in heavy engineering, oil and gas, and transportation industries. Our Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools map recurring aircraft maintenance issues with flying conditions, altitude, temperature, and pressure, which drives predictive maintenance to eliminate malfunction and minimize service interruptions. Condition-based maintenance improves aircraft serviceability, while optimizing the frequency of scheduled maintenance. Infosys customizes predictive maintenance models for each asset class, and establishes an alert mechanism based on criticality and business value. Our predictive models mitigate failure by identifying and prioritizing maintenance requirements. Significantly, digital manuals, inspection procedures and work scheduling boost the productivity of the aircraft maintenance team. Our knowledge-based engineering approach and web-based tools for technical documentation accelerate recertification after MRO services.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 90
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DIRECTORY
Jet Aviation Staffing
KeepFlying®
Laminaar Aviation InfoTech
W: www.jetaviation.com/services/staffing T: 1-201-637-2211 E: neil.engerran@jetaviation.com
W: www.keepflying.aero T: 1-201-490-206 / 65-9235-2654 E: info@keepflying.aero
W: www.laminaar.com T: +65 6239 0150 E: contact@laminaar.com.sg
Location: 47 Locations Worldwide
Location: Singapore, USA, Australia
Location: Singapore, Denver, Bangalore, Mumbai
Location: Germany, Albania, Switzerland, USA
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Permanent & Direct Hire Placement • Temporary & Freelance Placement • Outplacement • Staffing Marketplace
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ATA SpXchange™ • Engine FinTwin® MRO EDITION • Engine FinTwin® Asset Owner EDITION • Aircraft FinTwin® MRO Edition • Aircraft FinTwin® Asset Owner Edition KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • AI driven ATA Spec Data Exchange • Asset Driven MRO Profitability Modelling • RUL Cashflow & Revenue Models • Asset Lifecycle Credit Risk Analysis • Asset History Data Wrangling
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ARMS®2.5, ARMS®NS, ARMS®on the TAB, InfoPrompt 2.5
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Volabase • iFF
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Network / Commercial Planning with Optimizers • Flight Operations / Fleet Following • Flight Planning & Dispatch • Crew Operations Management with Optimizers • Maintenance, Engineering & Logistics
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Process consulting / organization processes • IT consulting (processes, technologies, infrastructure) • MRO & Flights Ops consulting • Program and project management • Strategy consulting
A future-ready and fully integrated software applications suite for the aviation business: airlines, non-scheduled operators, MROs, airport operators, regulators and training facilities, with in-built optimizers, business intelligence (BI) & Data Analytics. Our offerings may either be accessed as a complete suite covering the full spectrum of operations, or as a stand-alone module addressing a specific functional area, e.g., Network Planning, Flight Ops, Crew, Maintenance, Logistics or Safety or Analytics. The suite has a unified database that allows a seamless flow of data and information between operational functions. Our product is highly customizable and designed to adapt to clients’ specific requirements. We do our own implementations, on a turnkey basis, and also provide prompt, reliable and economical technical support in-life.
Whether it’s about developing a company-wide digitalization strategy, networking machines, moving systems to the cloud or providing solutions and platforms for analytics and AI, using IT services to network machines or providing mobile platforms for cross-company collaboration... whenever companies want to address digitalization, Lufthansa Industry Solutions is the right partner.
KEY BUSINESS / SOFTWARE AREAS • Payroll Solutions • Permanent Placement • Temporary Placement • Outplacement Behind every seamless journey, is the perfect team. Since 1983, Jet Aviation Staffing has been supporting the industry’s most prominent aviation companies by attracting and placing top talent. With thousands of direct hire placements of crew members, maintenance professionals, support staff, management and executive positions, and many more disciplines, Jet Aviation Staffing continues to perfect the art of staffing. When you want to find the very best career opportunity, you can rely on a team of dedicated professionals. On behalf of their external customers, Jet Aviation Staffing upholds in-depth and extensive standards to ensure they are recommending the best talent. Dedicated to the details, Jet Aviation Staffing’s expertise ensures a perfect career opportunity match for each of their candidates and a seamless experience for their customer.
Some of the use cases that the platform address (and this is a growing list) include: • Gate 0 TAT optimization — Spec2500 driven • Ingestion of PDF records for Asset / Shop Visit creation • Work Scope & demand prediction based on Engine profile • AI driven Capacity Balancing — Manpower, Material • AOG costs optimizer — Vendor Rating & Smarter Demand prediction • Slot Sale to Induction Risk Profiler — Dynamic Cost & Profitability forecasts • Scrap Rate predictions and USM impact • Build Goal Optimization based on projected Asset placement(s) and RUL
Lufthansa Industry Solutions
W: www.LHIND.de T: +49 40 5070 30000 E: marketing.sales@lhind.dlh.de
Lufthansa Industry Solutions combines technical expertise with strong industry knowledge and thus support customers when they introduce new digital technologies. They characterize this as… “We are at home in the digital world: We are digitalization.”
• Maintenance Reserves & Rentals modelling • Asset decision profiler — Cost & Revenue impacts • Redelivery Management & Cost profiling (Redelivery risks, Cost impact of risks, Risks mitigation simulator etc.,) • Maintenance Value Economics for Trade — Interest Rates, Valuation Models, Yields. • Spec2500, Spec2000 (Ch 16, 18) AI driven data capture and transition
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 91
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DIRECTORY
Lufthansa Systems
M3 Solutions
Motulus.aero
MRX Systems
W: www.LHsystems.com T: +49 69696 90000 E: marketing@lhsystems.com
W: www.m3-solutions.net T: +1 888-318-4808 E: sales@m3-solutions.net
W: www.motulus.aero T: +44 7932 173833 E: steven.rushworth@motulus.com
W: www.mrxsys.com T: +33 6 20 43 01 27 E: contact@mrxsys.com
Location: Germany and in 16 other countries.
Location: Fort Lauderdale USA, Europe, Asia
Location: Hoboken (Antwerpen), Belgium
Location: Luxembourg/Monaco
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED IT Solutions
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • M3 Platform – Mobile Device Synchronization and Asset Management Solution
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Integrated Crew Scheduling (Pairings and Rostering), Tail Assignment, Network Optimization and Schedule Building
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Blue EYE, Blue MRO, Blue STOK
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • MRO Maintenance Mechanics — Device Synchronisation & management. • Above & Below the Wing Specialists — Device (asset) management • Device Management (SW) — Tablet, Laptop, Desktop, Scanner, Radio running MacOS, Windows, iOS & Android. • Device Management (HW) — Charging, Access Control & Surveillance.
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Motulus Integrated Crew Scheduling (MICS) • Motulus Tail Assignment (MTA) • Motulus Network Optimization (MNO)
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS Operations and Commercial Solutions Flight Deck Solutions Finance Solutions In-Flight Entertainment and Mobile Solutions Professional Services and Consulting The company offers its more than 350 airline customers an extensive range of successful and in many cases marketleading products for the aviation industry. The innovative IT products and services in this portfolio offer customers a wide range of economic benefits while also contributing to improving efficiency and competitiveness. In addition, Lufthansa Systems also supports its customers both within and outside the Lufthansa Group with consulting services and the experience it has gained in projects for airlines of every size and business model.
M3 Solutions is the company and innovator behind the powerful and versatile M3 Platform, a comprehensive hardware and software solution for portable device and content management. M3 solutions has sales and distribution offices in North America, Europe and Asia, as well as a global partner network to service customers worldwide in various environments including Airlines, Military and training. The solution allows administrators to fully control the managing, distributing, charging, and monitoring of an organization’s portable device inventory and enables easy remote and unattended content distribution including OS, App & Content deployments, across all devices in the network, anywhere around the world, within minutes. The M3 Platform supports most laptops and tablets and can work with different device types running any OS, within the same installation. For access control, inventory management, security, privacy, user identification, content deployment, networking administration, and reporting regarding your portable devices and their content, the M3 Platform provides the ideal solution.
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CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo
For many airlines operating costs, fuel and crew costs form a significant part of their cost base. The delivery of an efficient and robust plan whilst continuing to guarantee an excellent customer offering and employee satisfaction is critical to an airlines success, The complexity of such a plan, and its importance to an organisation makes creating schedules and operational plans ideal candidates to be solved by optimization. At Motulus.aero we enjoy solving the problems that haven’t been solved before by deploying the next generation in optimization products. By combining pioneering algorithms with the power of cloud computing we are able to tackle these complex and large scale problems. Specialising in crew scheduling (pairing and roster production), tail assignment and network optimization we help organisations to reduce crew costs, increase aircraft and equipment utilisation, reduce fuel and operational costs, improve revenue opportunities, increase crew and colleague satisfactions, and improve operational robustness. Having deployed products to a number of industries Motulus had an original mission in aviation to develop innovative products for airline crew resource scheduling problems. Following successful implementations with two European airlines the teams expertise has now been stretched to solve network optimization and tail assignment problems.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 92
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Quotation & Invoicing • Project Management & Reporting • Work Report Automatic Generation • eJobCard iPad App • Logistics & Inventory Management TThe MRX Systems software solution is a fully-integrated digital platform enabling aviation professionals to access real-time data and take control over their fleet and their operations. Blue EYE designed for CAMO management (including eTechlog), this module enables you to keep track of the maintenance status of your fleet (including scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, AD, SB), send work orders to maintenance centres and compile all history of parts, repairs, findings in one unique environment. Blue MRO designed for MRO management, this module enables you to digitalize maintenance process from issuing quotations, assigning jobs to technicians, reporting repairs and findings until compiling all related paperwork into one exhaustive and automatically-generated full work report. Blue STOK enables you to link all your MRO centre operations to the associated logistics through powerful features such as demand planning, sourcing (purchases, exchanges, overhaul), invoicing and inventory management. Blue OPS designed for Air Operators, this module enables you to manage all aspects of your operations. In one place, easily manage flight schedules, create and edit flight plans, access an updated database with all information about your crew, manage crew status and planning and allocate team members and resources to flights.
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DIRECTORY
NVable
Output42
QOCO Systems
Ramco Systems
W: www.nvable.com T: +44 141 280 0050 E: contact@nvable.com
W: www.output42.com T: +353 23 88682200 E: info@output42.com
W: www.qoco.aero T: +358 10 501 4001 E: hello@qoco.aero
W: www.ramco.com/aviation-suite/ T: +91 44 2235 4510 E: contact@ramco.com
Location: Glasgow, UK
Location: Ireland, Poland, United Kingdom
Location: Finland
Location: 21 offices worldwide
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ConNVerge for Aviation
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • dent & buckle, BladeFix, CabinSurvey
NAME OF PRODUCTS MARKETED MROTools.io, Aviadex.io
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Electronic Techlog • Electronic Forms (Assessments) • Document Management • Operational Analysis • Station Operational Compliance
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Software development • Data migration • Aviation Data and Reporting Services • System integration • Data Transformation
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Intelligent maintenance • Data management and integrations • Lean operations • Digital tool management • SaaS solutions
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Ramco Aviation M&E Solution, Ramco Aviation MRO Solution, Ramco Anywhere Apps, Ramco flyMORE
The concept behind our CoNVerge platform is simple. We believe that businesses should have the flexibility to easily innovate and add new applications to their toolbox, without being stifled by legacy technology or a single technology brand.
Output42 is a leading aviation software company that specializes in providing a wide range of products, IT development services, and outsourcing solutions to the industry. They have a team of experts with extensive experience in custom application development, product development, and data migration. Their solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of clients and help them achieve their business objectives.
QOCO Systems Ltd helps the aviation industry to succeed in the changing world by creating new ways to work, to communicate, and to utilize data, having been a trusted partner of airlines, MROs, and aircraft OEMs for over ten years.
CoNVerge is all about minimising risk, fuss and capital costs and maximising efficiency. Provided as a service, it combines a hosted environment and web portal with mobile applications and data interfaces to virtually any system. The platform is easily integrated into your existing business systems and brings together the best tools to handle data acquisition and data analysis — all on scalable infrastructure. Best of all, we even take the day-to-day management off your hands. Our CoNVerge platform is blazing a trail in the aviation sector. In a hi-tech industry, where the stakes are even higher, long-standing clients such as British Airways Cityflyer know they can rely on NVable and our custom-designed software to make things simple, safer, more secure and streamlined. We provide airlines with technology solutions that reduce effort, improve processes and produce useful information, with one simple goal — to change things for the better.
Since 2008, Output42 has been serving major airlines worldwide and has successfully delivered numerous projects such as creating, enhancing, extending, migrating and supporting systems. They have a proven track record of delivering high-quality solutions on time and within budget. Their clients trust them for their expertise, commitment, and ability to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions that drive their business forward.
Solutions offered include the following SaaS solutions: MROTools.io for tool management in aircraft maintenance, Aviadex.io for intelligent integrations between collaborating players in aviation. QOCO also provides a wide range of consulting services for customers’ unique needs in the areas of digitalization, process improvement, data analytics, and more. All this is realized by the business’s team of professionals with expertise in aviation and software development. Agility and customer-centricity is built into QOCO’s way of working, which allows them to quickly and cost-efficiently deliver solutions that fulfill the customer’s real needs.
Bring everything together and do IT better when you bring onboard CoNVerge and NVable.
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QOCO Systems’ solutions provide significant improvements to the industry’s complex processes. They enable our customers to achieve more by doing less and to realize time-savings in labour-intensive tasks. They also bring visibility to customers’ operations to support decision-making based on real-time information.
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CLICK HERE for Product Details CLICK HERE to Request Private Demo
AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 93
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Maintenance & Engineering • Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul • Mobility Solutions Ramco Systems offers Aviation Maintenance solutions on premise and on cloud, with multi-tenant capability and nextgen mobility for Airlines, Heli-Operators, MROs and Charter operations. Its comprehensive scope spans the spectrum of organizational needs, including Finance, HCM, Manufacturing, Planning and Optimization, in one integrated platform. Ramco Aviation’s latest Next-Gen digital technologies include: Mobility Solutions: Ramco’s next-gen mobility solutions for maintenance operations are available through an app ecosystem wherein everybody involved can seamlessly execute critical operations on the go, from anywhere, anytime; The BOTS Revolution: Ramco intelligent CHATBOTS deliver parts data, manage AOGs, and perform daily admin tasks for a more personalized and immersive ERP experience; HyperConnected Ecosystem: B2B integrations with AeroXchange, Gains, Logistics providers and OEMs bringing Suppliers, Customers and Logistics providers together on ONE platform Ramco Series 5 reduces Turn Around Time (TAT) while increasing operational performance and compliance through user-friendly interfaces. Ramco has always been an innovator in maintenance IT — enabling clients to focus more on business-critical activities, while the solution processes transactions and decision support, based on intelligent rules. Powering 4000+ aircraft and 21,000+ end-users, Ramco is used by more than 75 operators world-wide.
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DIRECTORY
RecoSense Infosolutions
REDiFly
ROTA.technology Inc.
Rusada
W: www.recosenselabs.com T: +1 206 451 350 E: Info@recosenselabs.com
W: www.redifly.com T: +41 43 555 31 65 E: las@redifly.com
Location: United States, Canada, India
Location: Switzerland (HQ), Ireland
W: rota.technology T: +1 321 710 7682(ROTA) E: info@rota.technology
W: www.rusada.com T: 03333 440730 E: information@rusada.com
Location: Melbourne, FL USA and global
Location: Switzerland, USA, UK, UAE, India, Singapore, Australia
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED DocuSense
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • REDiFly Pilot Log • REDiFly Tech Log • REDiFly Cabin Log • REDiFly Command (Ground System) • REDiFly Core (Integration Module) KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Full Electronic Technical Logbook • Digitization of paper process • Data harvest, storage & analytics • Maintenance and scheduling integration • CAME & compliance support • Defect management
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Consulting, MXF Software, PDS(Process Development System) and custom applications
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Envision
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • AI Transformation & Content Intelligence Solution • Intelligent Document Processor • Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul • Automate Maintenance Audit • Compliance Management RecoSense offers an AI-powered platform for document analysis and data centralization. The platform powers Process Automations and Compliance Management with MROs in the Aviation Industry. RecoSense works as an Engineering partner with customers to build enterprise-specific solutions. Automate processing of manuals, process forms, M&E/MRO Records, job cards - Routine/Non-routine even handwritten, Logbooks, EOs, Technician reports, SFR’s, compliance and inspection reports, etc. with context and extract key Aviation metrics for analysis. The NLP-backed DocuSense platform swims through millions of documents to extract and consolidate the most relevant, insightful information to obtain valuable investment data. It will automate the process, which might take 1000s of manual hours to process, thus reducing Turn Around Time (TAT) while increasing operational performance and compliance through user-friendly interfaces. The platform does not only evaluate the data but also can understand context through RecoSense’s unique knowledge graph.
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REDiFly delivers a sleek and modern Electronic Technical Logbook. We are an independent, data-driven company that offers bespoke software solutions for the aviation industry. We provide a comprehensive framework that can integrate with an airline’s current systems, including MRO, flight scheduling, and crew management, amongst others. What does REDiFly do? REDiFly works with the key people involved in digitizing a client’s current paper-based aircraft technical logbook. In doing so, the solution increases levels of safety and regulatory compliance, streamlines flight-toground connectivity and enables digital archives of secure and searchable aircraft records. REDiFly provides a seamless intersection between flight operations and aircraft maintenance to minimize communication errors while maximizing the efficiency of daily operations.
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • MRO IT Software Implementations • MRO IT Software Upgrades • MRO IT Software Support/Managed Services • MX Long Range Planning • MRO IT Custom Software Development With MRO systems projects and support spanning both the military and commercial markets ROTA brings proven experience to all sides of aviation. Our team has been embedded for years in the business functions we support. In both military and commercial. Specializing in system implementations and upgrades ROTA brings deep knowledge of aviation business processes, integrated into custom built software, to provide not only all testing documentation but also leave customers with a full manual of SOPs moving forward. Aside from upgrades ROTA has completed a number of data projects from cleaning up aircraft configuration to system security overhauls. After these upgrades or projects, training and ongoing admin support can be provided for any MRO IT needs.
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Fleet Management • Base Maintenance • Line Maintenance • Flight Operations • Materials Management Rusada develops ENVISION - an industry leading MRO and Flight Operations solution. With over 100 customers worldwide and a combined fleet of 2,000 fixed wing and rotary aircraft, ENVISION is used by aircraft operators and MRO’s to successfully manage their operations. The latest version of ENVISION is web-based and deviceagnostic with an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Modules, which can be purchased individually or as part of an integrated solution, include: Fleet Management, Base Management, Line Maintenance, Component Maintenance, Materials Management, Financial Management, Resource Management, Quality & Safety Management and Flight Operations.
What makes REDiFly different? It is an independent company that applies a user-centric approach by working closely with customers through the onboarding, trial and go-live phases of an implementation. Its flexibility means that REDiFly adapts to a client’s current processes rather than the other way around.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 94
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DIRECTORY
Seabury Solutions
Sensus Aero
Swiss Aviation Software
TRAX
W: www.seaburysolutions.com T: +353 860 621311 E: mkt@seaburysolutions.com
W: www.sensus.aero E: furkan.ozgunaydin@sensus.aero
W: www.swiss-as.com T: +41 61 582 72 94 E: marketing@swiss-as.com
W: www.trax.aero T: +1 305.662.7400 E: sales@trax.aero
Location: Basel, Switzerland; Miami, FL, USA; Singapore; Tokyo, Japan
Location: Miami, FL, USA; West Sussex, UK; Tokyo, Japan; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • AMOS
NAME OF PRODUCTS MARKETED
Location: Dariaus ir Gireno st.21A,Vilnius, LT-02189, Lithuania
Locations: Ireland, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Kenya, Korea, Netherlands, Philippines, and the USA
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Alkym, EPAS, eAuthority KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Technical Operations • CAMO • MRO • Performance Analytics • Regulator Applications Seabury Solutions is a leading global aviation software development and consultancy company. It was established in 2002 and forms part of the Seabury Capital. Seabury Solutions has built its reputation in the market by delivering industry leading aviation IT solutions catering for some of the largest airlines across the world, down to the smallest operators. We have built upon decades’ of aviation expertise in-house, to leverage this knowledge into a suite of products, that enhance the decision making process for Airlines, Regulators and MROs. With a truly global reach, the network of offices are located in Argentina Australia, Canada, Germany Ireland, Kenya, Korea, Netherlands, Philippines, and the USA. Our integrated aviation software range from Maintenance Systems for Airlines & MROs, Safety Management Software for Aviation Authorities and a range of performance analysis tools within the Enterprise Performance Analysis System (EPAS) Suite. The suite includes modules for Route Profitability, Maintenance Performance, Contract & Invoice Verification Budget Planning, Fuel Planning and Distribution Channel Performance.
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NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Sensus Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) • Sandglass KEY BUSINESS SOFTWARE AREAS • ERP • Time Tracking • Quoting • Planning • Contract Management • Human Resources • Customer Portal • Line Maintenance Sensus Aero Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) is an advanced ERP solution, specifically designed for MRO base and line maintenance and designed around best practices in LEAN operations. It encourages greater efficiency through the identification and creation of processes requiring less human time and effort. The Sensus MRO platform is a module-based system, which is highly customizable to match individual client requirements. Using Sensus MRO software, aviation service professionals can streamline their productivity at the lowest cost and remain competitive in a consolidating market. Cloud enabled data management: The maintenance software system utilizes cloud computing benefits and is accessible from any device or location. Sensus MRO is the premium choice for MRO aviation organizations that want to enable cloud technology but are not prepared to replace an entire ERP system. Sensus MRO software implementation is fast and easy, and is designed around specific business needs that allows the user to undertake smaller projects, or wider, full scope implementations.
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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Material Management • Engineering • Planning • Production • Maintenance Control • Component Maintenance • Commercial • HR • QA • Financial Management • Mobile suite • Flight simulators • Multi-entity functions Swiss-AS positions itself not as a pure software house, but as a company tightly linked to airline business. Being in touch with active aircraft maintenance on a daily basis and therefore able to capture MRO trends at a very early stage, Swiss AviationSoftware unites more than 30 years of IT experience with profound MRO expertise and offers its customers a functionally unsurpassed and technologically state-ofthe-art maintenance system. AMOS is a comprehensive, fully-integrated software package that successfully manages the maintenance, engineering and logistics requirements of modern airlines and MRO providers by fulfilling demanding airworthiness standards. To date, over 190 customers from all over the world steer their maintenance activities with AMOS, which makes AMOS one of the industry-leading MRO software solutions worldwide. The ever growing ‘AMOS community’ ranges from pure operators, major charter, regional and low-cost carriers up to large airline groups and MRO providers — proof that AMOS is fit for any environment, regardless of size or geographical origin.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 95
• eMRO • eMobility KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Engineering & Planning • Production & Shop • Technical Records & Reliability • TRAXDoc Document Control • Supply Chain Management • E-enabled Aircraft Capabilities • Aircraft Mobility apps • Maintenance Mobility apps • Paperless Maintenance • Warehouse Mobility apps TRAX is the global leader in the aviation industry for MRO ERP software, with over 200 airlines and MROs using their products. TRAX has the most advanced maintenance software solutions available for airlines and MROs worldwide with fleets consisting of all types of aircraft. TRAX eMRO is a completely integrated product, in addition, the eMobility suite offers a range of iOS apps to provide mobile accessibility. Organizational efficiency gains can be substantial when using TRAX eMRO and eMobility, and ROI is quickly realized. TRAX maintains its advantage over the competition by developing software that works for customers through modern technology, world class support and strong customer relationships.
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DIRECTORY
TrustFlight
Ultramain
Vistair Systems
Yonder
W: www.trustflight.io T: 44 (0) 330 229 0219 E: info@trustflight.io
W: www.ultramain.com T: +1.505.828.9000 E: sales@ultramain.com
W: www.vistair.com T: 01454 550663 E: info@vistair.com
W: www.yonder.info T: +41 43 215 27 94 E: contact@yonder.info
Location: Leamington Spa, UK; Edinburgh, UK; Luton, UK; St Helier, Jersey
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Location: United Kingdom and USA
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Tech Log, Task Cards • Digital Logbook • CAMO (service) • Aircraft Registry (service)
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • ULTRAMAIN® v9™ M&E / MRO • ULTRAMAIN Mobile Mechanic™ • ULTRAMAIN Mobile Inventory™ • ULTRAMAIN ELB™ • ULTRAMAIN M&E / MRO: 31 modules including: Configuration Management; Line/Base Mx Planning; Line/ Base Mx Scheduling; GATe; Quality Assurance; Asset Management
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • DocuNet • SafetyNet
NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED • Yonder Mind
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aircraft log books • Aircraft maintenance task cards • Digital and paperless working • CAMO support • Aircraft Registry support From inception, TrustFlight has been ingrained in the aviation industry. Founded by two commercial pilots with a proven track record at the intersection of technology and business, the business has grown considerably and with stability, having recently celebrated the opening of a fourth office. Throughout, TrustFlight gained an incredible team with backgrounds spanning different areas of aviation and technology, ensuring a solid presence in the industry. Now offering a range of products and services within the sector, TrustFlight helps to remove costly paperwork and associated errors, preserve aircraft value, and increase efficiency and safety in aircraft operations. Five values shape TrustFlight’s culture, guide the business’s work and the way it grows. Integrity Transparent and open: offering trust to partners and assuming it from them. Responsibility Owning the work they do and taking responsibilty for it: striving to make it the best possible. Leadership Leading from within: providing support for the team to do incredible work and drive the industry forwards. Innovation Products are crafted for the future needs of the industry, going beyond what exists in the market. Excellence Every one of TrustFlight’s values contributes towards the excellence in their products.
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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Maintenance & Engineering • MRO • Military Maintenance • Maintenance Planning & Scheduling • Paperless Customer Care on Mobile Devices • Electronic Technical Logbook Ultramain Systems, Inc. develops M&E / MRO and ELB software for the aviation industry and is the only aviation software provider with customers running full, end-to-end paperless operations from the cockpit to the ground. ULTRAMAIN v9, featuring Mobile Mechanic and Mobile Inventory enables real-time paperless data collection for the full maintenance and inventory process. Combine ULTRAMAIN v9 with ULTRAMAIN ELB, the easy-to-use electronic logbook, and the entire maintenance process becomes paperless. Contact us to learn what you need to equip your organization with customer mobile devices and see why elite aviation customers around the world are choosing ULTRAMAIN to reduce costs and increase aircraft up time.
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KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Aviation Document Management (All format types inc. PDF, XML, S1000D, I Spec 2200) • Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) • Document Management and Distribution Platform • Maintenance & Engineering • Flight Operations • Compliance Tracking • Form Creation and Management • Aviation Safety Management Software Vistair provides document, safety, and quality management technology solutions to support the delivery of improved safety, compliance, and operational efficiency that results in significant commercial savings to aviation organizations. Combining technology, development expertise and service delivery, Vistair’s suite of aviation technology solutions provides both commercial airlines, aerospace and defense organizations with an approach that helps demonstrate a clear link between increased reporting and a change in procedures and behaviors, which fundamentally drives a safer organization. Document Management: DocuNet is the aviation industry’s leading end-to end document management solution, providing a coherent, single point of control for editing, publishing, distributing, and viewing all operational documentation. It provides the flexibility to access documents via the web and mobile devices and can also manage documents in all formats.
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AIRCRAFT IT MRO • WINTER 2023 • 96
KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS • Content Management System • Workflow-based Content Distribution • Compliance Tracking • Content-based Learning Stay in control of your content and bring reliable, rolespecific information to frontline employees — with one fully customizable content management solution. Yonder Mind is an easy-to-use content management solution designed specifically for controlled information like operation manuals, guidelines, rules, or regulations. Our unique approach allows users to work with dynamic content instead of static documents. Dynamic content will display the right information at the right time, depending on the user profile and on the context of use. A powerful search function further improves end-user satisfaction. Yonder Mind brings operational documentation and manufacturer manuals together in one solution. Pilots work with the easy to use YM Offline App and enjoy role-specific revision updates instead of having to go through hundreds of revised pages. Editors create and enhance content in the YM Editor while revisions become manageable again thanks to the fully integrated YM Workflow. Company guides (e.g. Winter Ops Guide) can be created without having to worry about duplicates anymore since information is only contained once in Yonder Mind. And never miss a change in regulation again thanks to our IQSMS Connector. We have over 15 years of experience with electronic documentation in aviation that we can leverage to our customers’ benefit. Our team has a diverse background ranging from a former EFB administrator for a large international airline to a long-haul captain knowing, from his own experience, what crews need.
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