Aircraft Maintenance Management Module

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Aircraft Maintenance Management Module

• Aircraft Maintenance Costs Factors

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Maintenance Costs influencing factors

• Aircraft Maintenance in General
• There are many factors impacts aircraft
  maintenance cost that must be understood,
  reviewed and managed properly as the DMC is a key
  indicator required for assessing incurred costs
  when for example validating OEM/MRO maintenance
  proposals.
• These factors are almost standardised in the
  industry and are best described by the two major
  Aircraft OEMs Boeing and Airbus. These factors
  were listed as shown in figure (2) below in a
  detailed manner as part of Boeing presentation in
  Dubai (Boeing, 2008).

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Maintenance Costs influencing factors Contd

• These factors are divided into two main
  categories where
• a) Airlines influence the costs of
• - Airline operations and Maintenance practices
• - Accounting and Support practices
• b) Airframe and Engine manufacturer designs
  influence the costs of
• - Product support
• - Airplane reliability and Maintainability

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Airline policy factors

• For a better understanding of those factors,
  further elaboration is itemized below 2009).
• i- Airline Policy
• a) Maintenance Policy
• - Maintenance programs, In-house and Outsourcing,
  
• b) Modifications and reliability improvement
• c) Cabin standards based on Commercial Policy
• d) Outstation Aircraft handling
• e) Human resources efficiency
• f) Inventory and operation service levels

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Aircraft design related factors

• ii-Aircraft Technical Specification
• a) Engines thrust
• b) On board maintenance and troubleshooting
  system (e.g. A380 NSS/OIS)
• c) Standardisation of Aircraft systems
• d) Electrical distribution and In Flight
  Entertainment systems
• e) Technology evolution- On board Mobile
  Telephone and SATCOM.
• f) New components and systems design with less
  maintenance requirements

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Aircraft Operation factors

• iii- Aircraft Operations
• a) Utilisation and stage length
• b) Average Take-off and landing weight
• c) Average load factors
• a) Environment Dusty, sandy and hot
• b) Runway conditions
• c) Maintenance Facilities distance from Aircraft
  Ramp.

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Aircraft Age/Quality factors

• iv-Aircraft Quality and Maturity-Aging
• During the initial five years, we have new
  induction aircraft with lower maintenance costs
  considering the warranty effect. As shown in
  figure 2.3, from 5-15 year, the aircraft maturity
  period of almost steady maintenance high costs.
  Thereafter 15 years and beyond aging period of
  the aircraft starts where corrosion would be
  found more often on the airframe, structural
  fatigue inspections will commence and engines
  will require LLP replacements and higher shop
  visit rates.

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Power Plant Maintenance Costs Influencing factors

• The Power plant consists of Engines, APU,
  Cowlings, and thrust reverser. The maintenance
  costs of these items have been historically high.
  The main Engine Cost drivers are Off/ON Wing
  where the influencing factors are similar to
  those of the aircraft such as design, materials
  properties, flight length, de-rate and aging.
  These are best described by Airbus extracted
  slides below from a maintenance cost presentation
  report below figures 2.4 2.6.(Airbus, 2009).

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Maintenance costs Benchmarking

• Highlights
• Benchmarking is the process of comparing the
  cost, cycle time, productivity, or quality of a
  specific process or method to another that is
  widely considered to be an industry standard or
  best practice. (Six Sigma 2009).
• In the airline industry benchmarking becomes
  vital due to the continuous improvement in the
  maintenance processes and modifications by the
  OEMS for the purpose of enhancing safety and
  performance of the aircraft and that is why
  Airlines do benchmarking exercise to themselves
  first at an envelop of two or more periods in
  different years or with others in the industry.

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• Boeing states that Airlines must define the
  reporting and accounting standards that are
  needed to benchmark and enable an airline to more
  fully understand, control, and optimize those key
  performance indicators and financial metrics.
  Benchmarking reports are generated to assist
  airlines in understanding their technical
  operation performance to give visibility of areas
  for potential maintenance cost reduction. Within
  the context of benchmarking, the maintenance cost
  data and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are
  used regularly to specify high cost areas,
  identify gaps for possible investigation and
  induction of potential solutions or improvements
  to existing processes, review progress and
  outcomes.

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Benefits of benchmarking

• The benchmarking exercise would achieve the
  following benefits
• Assist the airline to pin point the
  inefficiencies in its processes and introduce
  corrective measures in a timely manner.
• Identify cost optimization opportunities when
  compared to other best in class.
• Work in groups or forums together with
  OEMs(Original Equipment Manufacturers), MROs(
  Maintenance Repair Organizations ) and other
  airlines to jointly arrive at the most effective
  solution towards industry known technical
  problems.

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Benefits of benchmarking contd

• The airline can review the structural
  organization of other airlines and MROs in order
  to apply the most efficient structure to its own
  departments.
• Analyze the airline KPIs so as to alter or amend
  based on latest industry trends.
• When compared to others maintenance practices in
  industry, an airline works aggressively to reduce
  the waste in terms of labor and materials used.
• 7. A Regular benchmarking exercise helps the
  airline to gain and sustain competitive advantage
  and match the best in class.

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Elements of Benchmarking

• In the airline industry these elements are used
  in the benchmarking exercise
• Incurred DMC per flight hour (FH).
• Man-hours consumed per FH.
• Material per FH.
• Overhead Cost per FH.
• Line Base Maintenance events cost per FH.
• Engine cost per FH.
• The top 25 components cost per FH. Major cost
  drivers

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Implications of Benchmarking

• Despite the abovementioned benchmarking benefits,
  airlines must be cautious while conducting
  benchmarking review as there are many
  implications associated with benchmarking such
  as
• It can affect the airline competitive edge.
• It can breach the contractual Non disclosure
  Agreements (NDA).

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• It can give provide false results if comparing
  airlines have different fleet sizes and or unique
  maintenance or on board service standards. We
  cannot for example compare Emirates that have
  high cabin and maintenance standards with perhaps
  Air Arabia which is a low cost carrier with no
  frills.
• If the benchmarking results or recommendations
  are not taken into consideration, then the whole
  exercise would be a waste of time and effort.

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• This whole chapter is aimed to have a better
  understanding on the maintenance cost elements
  and breakdown in terms of direct or indirect and
  significance of such costs implications on
  overall airline Direct Operating Costs (DOC). The
  Maintenance costs se are further analysed to
  understand the ON/OFF maintenance elements with
  regard to Line, Base and Shops activities.
• Furthermore, we have reasonably touched on the
  influencing factors on the maintenance costs
  mainly from Aircraft and Airline operations
  aspects.

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• The maintenance costs optimisation is with no
  doubt a primary goal of airline community where
  they ought to understand their processes and KPIs
  very well in order to reduce inefficiencies where
  possible, hence effects of optimisation on the
  Airline maintenance practices was reviewed.

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Benchmarking examples- Aircraft and LRUs
Reliability

• Operators need to collect, organize and report
  reliability data to many different organizations
  Manufacturers, suppliers, regulatory
  authorities.
• Some of the benefits of reliability data
• Assist operators and manufacturers to attain and
  maintain higher
• reliability through trend monitoring.
• Facilitate maintenance program development,
  escalation and de-escalation.

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• Determine which modification has a better payback
  by comparing
• removal and failure rates of operators
  incorporating various Service
• Bulletins/modifications.
• Determine if certain problem areas are unique to
  an operator or if
• others are experiencing the same problems.
• Assist the Operator to obtain remedies from
  suppliers due to the shortfall in achieving
  contractual MTBUR targets.
• Millions annual savings from reduced delays
  and cancellations, reduced non-routine
  maintenance.

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Benchmarking- ATA SPEC 2000 chapter 11

• ATA Chapter 11 has 9 records
• 1. LRU Removal record
• Purpose Collect details of the components
  removed from an aircraft
• as well as reasons for removal and details of
  component being installed.
• Fields include elements such as the manufacturer
  part and serial numbers, the operators unique
  part and serial numbers if applicable,
• hours and cycles data for the removed and
  installed components.

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• 2. Shop Findings record
• Purpose Collect detailed component tear down
  reports from an airlines shop or other repair
  facilities.
• Fields include elements such as fault found, part
  numbers of the
• piece parts that are replaced, modifications
  incorporated in the shop visit.

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ATA SPEC 2000 chapter 11 contd

• 3. Aircraft Hours and Landings record
• Purpose Collect detailed hours, cycles and
  utilization data from
• operators. This data can also be used as the
  basis for MTBUR
• calculations, etc.
• Fields include elements such as days out of
  service counts and ETOPS specific hours and
  cycles, etc.
• 4. Aircraft Event record
• Purpose To capture aircraft event data such as
  delays,
• cancellations, incidents, etc.
• Fields are very comprehensive and can capture all
  elements of a
• schedule interruption tracking system. Attributes
  specific to ETOPS operations are also captured
  with specific data elements.

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ATA SPEC 2000 chapter 11 contd

• 5. Aircraft Logbook record
• Purpose Collect technical/journey log entries
  such as pilot reports, maintenance corrective
  action, etc.
• Fields include elements such as discrepancy
  symptom code,
• corrective action codes, findings code.
• 6. Scheduled Maintenance record
• Purpose Collect scheduled (heavy and line)
  maintenance data,
• findings and corrective action, and provide
  reference ability back to the operators
  maintenance program.
• Fields include elements such as OEM MPD task
  number, operator
• unique task number if applicable, task inspection
  method and
• associated findings.

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ATA SPEC 2000 chapter 11 contd

• 7. Service Bulletin/Modification record
• Purpose Provide data on service bulletin/mod
• incorporation and un-incorporation.
• 8. Aircraft Status Change record
• Purpose Capture changes in aircraft ownership,
• operator, long term storage disposition, engine
  model
• changes, etc.

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• 9. Summary Counts record
• Purpose Collect summarized rate and count
  information
• on an operator's fleet, e.g. schedule
  interruption counts by ATA, etc.