Practical example: Common data issues airlines experience and how to solve these issues
Many airlines reach out to us as they experience major data issues. So, to start of what kind of aircraft data issues do they experience, Bruno Cadete highlights a few:
1. Counters control for aircraft's - counters end up not having a consistent history
The life cycle of an aircraft is measured by the value of its life counters. The number and complexity of the counters varies per aircraft type and operation type, but all have at least 3 basic counters, flight hours, flight cycles and Calendar Days. So, it is of utmost importance to make sure these are kept in control. One of the main issues we encounter in many airlines is that because of work procedures or interfaces between operations and maintenance, the counters end up not having a consistent history. Sometimes it's just 5 minutes per flight. However, if one accounts for the thousands of hours that an aircraft flies, 5 minute per flight can quickly become an issue.
2. Configuration control/management
Other common issues we encounter frequently is configuration control/management. This can be divided further into two areas: modifications control and components control. In the first area, it is common to see issues related with the incomplete information about certain modifications embodied on aircraft, specially on older fleets. In some cases, due to the complexity of the modification or the airworthiness documents that require the modification on the aircraft, some engineers end up not filling in all the required information for maintenance to know the exact status of the aircraft configuration. That may lead to issues, specially when the aircraft is transferred between airlines and the knowledge of the configuration status is dependent upon individuals working in the previous airline. In the second area a common issue we find is the systems having incomplete information about the components that are installed on an aircraft. It can go from a component being completely missing in the system but physically being installed, to having a component that is installed but in the wrong place, or in a more critical case having a life limited component that is installed in the system but lacking the counter information required to control it's life cycle and maintenance.
3. Setup of the static data
Other issues that sometimes exist are related with the setup of the static data (i.e. data that does not dynamically change on a daily basis) like a maintenance program. The maintenance program is the document that compiles all the relevant information to keep an aircraft airworthy. Of course, when a written document is converted into the systems rules, some adjustments must be made. Therefore, it's not uncommon to see that the conversion of the written MP to the systems MP ends up missing or changing the way a task is to be controlled. In some cases, the issue might be just that some maintenance is done before the necessary time but in others it can result in completely missing a maintenance activity.
Often these issues are identified when operators
Want to sell an aircraft or deliver it back to the owner;
Replace their current main MRO/M&E system;
Or perform an Airworthiness Review
Often these data issues can be related back to the actual implementation of the MRO software system. So what went wrong in the past:
Only using the standard definitions and set up of the new MRO/M&E software system due to a lack of knowledge and even also thinking that it’s a new system so everything is already better than the old one.
Pure focusing on transferring the data from the old MRO software system to the new MRO software system without ‘looking’ at the data itself. An error in system A will be an error in system B. This means engineers will have to deal with the same problems in the new system.
The engineer has a new more modern and might even in the beginning faster MRO software system but the error he/she experiences is the same. This might result in the fact that he/she thinks the system is not set up properly and
Either thinks this needs to be corrected and gets back to the team behind the system (back-end) so that it’s solved
Or thinks well I had this issue in the past and used this workaround (extra file for example) so I continue with that. This means further adding up ‘dirt’ to the pile
If you continue like that after 5 to 10 years instead of having 100 issues you have more than a 1000. At that point the system will be so full of issues of inconsistent data that when the company wants to sell an aircraft or transfer an aircraft you can’t as the data is not in place properly.
A practical example: Maintenance Planning
The maintenance planning department is responsible to ensure that maintenance on the aircraft is performed within the defined limits of the checks or task and all applicable requirements (such as manpower, materials, ground time, tooling, manuals) are available prior to commencement of the maintenance activity. Once a particular check or task is performed its reported back in order to have the interval recommence and determine the first next iteration / due value of the specific check or task. With intervals ranging from 1 day all the way up to 30.000 flight hours one would be able to establish a full scheduled maintenance expectation of every aircraft during the utilization of an aircraft at the airline. Having the required parts, materials, tooling and manpower properly setup would then subsequently enable to plan all of these demands over multiple years and take adequate preparations as a maintenance organization.
If the system in use misses some of these parameters and data points a maintenance planner can only see the next due event and not the subsequent future events or only have a narrow view on parts, manpower, ground time or tooling demand requirements. That limits the planner ability to plan medium to long term maintenance. In this example the maintenance planner would actually have to use one or multiple excel sheet next to the MRO software in order to calculate and plan the 2nd and 3rd subsequent events for a certain maintenance.
how to solve this?
Addressing data issues and the impact these have on efficiency and costs of daily business processes starts with establishing a baseline view on where data issues exist and which impact these have on airworthiness compliance, costs of maintenance or costs of performing a certain business process. A methodological approach would include:
A full data health check on the system in order to identify the full scope of issues their impact as well as corrective and preventive actions required to correct the data
An ease-impact assessment on each observation. Some items might be more difficult to solve and others might be more easy to fix. Subsequently each correction of data might have a different impact. Assessing each observation in an ease-impact overview allows to identify a proper sequence of corrective & preventive actions
Dedicated taskforce to rectify the issues. Correction of some of these data issues can be projects on their own. Think of updating all task cards in the maintenance program with the correct manpower and tooling requirements. Or a full review on documents status per aircraft. With CAMO engineers needing their full attention on managing daily business processes an investment needs to be made in deploying a dedicated taskforce with adequate knowledge to address the identified data issues in an effective manner
A solution for continued monitoring of data health needs to be activated on the system used in order to detect any potential new issues arising at an early stage and address these prior to causing further harm downstream.
What EXSYN can do?
With our aircraft data scan we use the various tools and know-how to benchmark the continued airworthiness data in your system(s) against industry standards and best practice. Detailed reports on static data, organization efficiency as well as tail-by-tail airworthiness data health give a detailed view on potential issues existing and their impact. During a debriefing workshop our experts brief you thru all issues encountered, their potential impact and our recommended actions.
If needed, we can mobilize dedicated data cleansing taskforces to embed within the client CAMO department to start addressing some of the identified data issues. In addition, and by connecting the EXSYN Aircraft Data Operations Platform to your MRO software system, airlines can enable a continuous monitor on the data in their MRO system in order to detect any aircraft data issues at an early stage and take corrective actions.
