GROUP TASK

Reading through the article, identify at least 5 issues in areas of aircraft maintenance and describe the following

1. Difficult areas that may be faced.
2. The potential solutions possible.
3. The risks involved.
4. Relate to regulatory areas that may be involved.

451 MAINTENANCE & ENGINEERING Converting a maintenance and engineering system from a traditional paper-based system to a fully mobile configuration is a large challenge. Various levels of sophistication are possible. Airlines and MROs need to consider the levels of technological change and the associated costs. The challenge of switching to a mobile and paperless system the potential for airlines and independent maintenance providers to increase efficiencies and save costs by operating on a totally mobile and paperless basis for all maintenance and engineering (M&E) activities has been discussed for 20 years. A key issue that has prevented airlines and maintenance organisations from making these improvements is that many technological changes are needed to switch from a paper-based to a paperless system. A few airlines have led the way towards a mobile and paperless M&E operation. Most have done this for just one or two elements of their M&E activities, such as in-house base maintenance, while other processes continue as before. A full grasp of a paper-based system's inefficiencies is needed to appreciate all the benefits of a fully mobile and paperless operation. The main elements of M&E are the engineering management functions, line maintenance, hangar and basc maintenance, component management, and engine management and maintenance. modification status must be recorded manually in an operator's M&E IT system. The cost of maintenance check preparation and planning with a paper system is therefore high, because of complications such as maintenance task applicability to aircraft L/Ns, and manually preparing parts and materials for a check. Using paper task cards also makes it difficult to plan a sequence of tasks for an airframe check to reduce MH consumption and shorten the aircraft downtime. Check planning is more complex for subcontracted maintenance. While technical document management is carried out electronically, subcontracting checks can involve preparing routine paper task cards, or transferring electronic task data to the maintenance provider's IT system. Electronic data transfer is difficult because of the lack of data standards for M&E, such as the formats and number of characters used for part numbers (P/Ns). Data is translated for the maintenance provider, and translated back to the airline's standard on completion of the maintenance check (see The complexities of data transfer between ME & CMS systems, Aircraft Commerce, December 2014/January 2015, page 40). With a paper-based system, recording task completion, findings, and MH, parts and materials used means manually keying them into the airline's M&E system. This adds to the MH used and the time needed to update the aircraft's maintenance status. An aircraft's component configuration must be constantly monitored, which uses a large number of MH if done manually. This process has been automated by swiping barcodes to record component changes P/Ns and serial numbers (S/Ns). Line maintenance Most inefficiencies in line maintenance occur when rectifying faults. Faults that occur in the air are detected by built-in test cquipment (BTE), generating a central maintenance computer (CMC) fault code, or are observed by the flightcrew, who record them in the flight and technical logs. CMC codes can be relayed to the airline's flight operations and maintenance control centre (MCC) while an aircraft is flying, so preparations to rectify the defects can be made before it lands. Non-CMC faults cannot be analysed until the aircraft has landed, so these can be entered into the M&E system up to two days after they have occurred on the aircraft, and only after they have been rectified by line mechanics on the ground. Rectification of the defect will therefore be recorded on the technical log up to two days before the defect is entered into the M&E system, so the aircraft's maintenance status on the technical log is often out of synch with the operator's M&E system. CMC and non-CMC faults will be analysed using the troubleshooting manual (TSM) or fault isolation manual (FIM). These manuals have cross-references to other manuals, such as the aircraft wiring manual (AWM). It is time-consuming to go through these paper documents. As soon as a fault has been identified, after receiving the CMC code, a work order must be written to rectify it. This may require a change in location, and will involve arranging labour, parts and materials, and tooling, all of which takes a lot of time when done manually. The completed rectification task must be recorded on the aircraft's technical log, Engineering management A main element of engineering management is managing manuals and cach fleet type's maintenance programme Implementing regular updates to paper manuals and documents from the aircraft's original equipment manufacturer (OEM) requires a large number of man-hours (MH), as do maintenance programme management, and management of airworthiness directives (ADs), service bulletins (SBs) and engineering orders (FOs) to individual aircraft line numbers (L/Ns). Changes to an aircraft's Issue No. 131. August/SEPTEMBER 2020 AIRCRAFT COMMERCE