Aircraft IT MRO V12.1, Spring 2023

AMOS. AGAIN.

Air Greenland takes off with AMOS, the world-class M&E software solution.

Air Greenland joins the ever-growing helicopter group within the AMOS Community and their mixed fleet is a perfect showcase of how AMOS allows customers to manage fixed and rotary wing aircraft within one MRO software. The system offers fully integrated end-to-end support for all processes with the capability to support a paperless operation.

“ With the selection of AMOS as Air Greenland‘s future MMIS system, we are confident that our future requirements will be met,” says Air Greenland Technical Director

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.

When we enter details of our destination into the SatNav in our car, it will offer several alternatives depending on whether you want to use the most direct route, the fastest route, a route that avoids certain types of road, or even a scenic route. The destination remains the same but our chosen route will depend on a number of factors. We face a similar range of choices when deciding on a new IT software solution. There are some things that every IT project needs to achieve, better costs and cost management, greater efficiency, enhanced safety… readers will know them all. But different organizations will wish to meet those objectives in different ways and that is partly reflected in how software packages are configured these days.

Some will prefer to have a single end-to-end, all-encompassing solution while others will opt for a core solution with a number of single-issue point solutions integrated with it. There are no hard and fast rules here but what users want it not to have to log out of one system and into another at various points while performing their tasks. It is time consuming and, if the different systems involved don’t share data, there is opportunity for error at each change of system.

In this issue, we have a super case study from FedEx Express on the implementation of a new maintenance planning solution that has enabled the

carrier to simplify planning and to optimize heavy maintenance checks. There is also a great ‘How Technology Works’ piece from IDMR Solutions about the digitization of that heart of the maintenance planning process, the maintenance planning board; replacing the need to keep returning to check, with a system that can be viewed on engineers’ devices. In another case study, you’ll read about how Chrono Aviation and WAAS, Chrono’s engineering business, implemented a new MRO IT as part of the business’s growth strategy. And we have a powerful white paper detailing the transformation of Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) from an Airline’s internal MRO to an independent MRO ready to serve the wider market. Of course, all IT projects have to be implemented and, in the ‘What IT can do’ article in this issue, you’ll read about how ROTA Technology does that for clients.

In his take on how he sees IT, Allan Bachan asks us ‘what is our solution blueprint’ in order to make the best use of the solutions already available in the business? As usual, it wouldn’t be Aircraft IT without our vendors and, in this issue, Rusada, REDifly, RecoSense and Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) all complete their Job Cards for you. Add to that our regular round-up of news and technology developments and the comprehensive ‘MRO Software Directory’ and you have Aircraft IT MRO: organizing ideas to help with your decisions.

Aircraft IT MRO: using IT as the means to understand and control the business

CONTENTS

06 Latest News and Technology updates

Keeping up with what is happening in a complex and evolving business world is a challenge. At Aircraft IT MRO or here in the Aircraft IT MRO e-journal the latest developments are sorted and ready to read.

40 WHITE PAPER: Embracing MRO digital transformation

Adnan Mansur, Head of Digital and Innovation Services, ADE

ADE discusses and showcases its digital transformation journey and how they leveraged the latest technology to achieve its goals.

50 VENDOR JOB CARD: Asia Digital Engineering (ADE)

Muhammad Adib Aiman Mohd Nardin, shares ADE’s journey to a standalone MRO and how technology has informed the business’s success

In the first of our Q&A pieces, Muhammad Adib Aiman Bin Mohd Nardin, Business Development & Marketing Manager, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), completes his Job Card for Aircraft IT.

52 WHAT IT CAN DO: The secret of a successful MRO IT System upgrade project

James Cornelius, President of ROTA Technology

Mapping out the key steps when upgrading an MRO IT system includes managing software changes, enhancements and much more.

56 CASE STUDY: Maintenance planning at FedEx Express: Today and the future

Roger L. Hutchinson II, Manager TechOps Strategic Mx. Planning, FedEx Express and Elliot Margul, CEO Aerostrat

How FedEx Express has benefitted from a new maintenance planning solution, which simplifies maintenance planning and optimizes maintenance checks.

64 VENDOR JOB CARD: RecoSense Labs Inc.

Amith Srinivas tells us how enriching content intelligence for customers has powered RecoSense Labs success in a challenging market

In another of our Q&A pieces, Amith Srinivas, CEO, RecoSense Labs Inc, US, completes his Job Card for Aircraft IT.

66 CASE STUDY: Chrono Aviation and WAAS benefit with a modern IT solution

Dominic Cayouette, Project Manager, Chrono Aviation and Peter Mortimer, Executive VP Canada, Rusada

How Chrono Aviation, and its MRO subsidiary WAAS Aerospace, implemented an MRO IT solution as a key pillar of their growth strategy.

74 VENDOR JOB CARD: REDifly

Patrick Clancy shares the vision for a modular, configurable electronic techlog that makes REDifly a trusted partner for aircraft operators

In a further one of our Q&A pieces, Patrick Clancy, CEO, Integrated Aviation Systems, completes his Job Card for Aircraft IT.

76 HOW I SEE IT: Aviation MRO IT: What’s your solution blueprint?

Allan Bachan, Vice President, ICF

To properly use all of the capabilities of your IT and technology assets, you need to understand them and, for that, you need a live blueprint.

80 HOW TECHNOLOGY WORKS: Taking a digital solution to MROs

Israel Revivo, CEO and President, IDMR Solutions Inc.

When IDMR Solutions updated their solution, they added capabilities for loyal users and targeted MROs with a digital maintenance planning board

86 VENDOR JOB CARD: RUSADA

Mary-Clare Stephens reveals the teamwork, continuous improvement and change management capabilities that keep Rusada on top.

In the final Q&A piece in this issue, Mary-Clare Stephens, Head of Client Services at Rusada, completes her Job Card for Aircraft IT.

88 MRO Software directory

A detailed look at the world’s leading MRO IT systems

New Vendors join Aircraft IT

In every issue, one of the most pleasant tasks is to record the new vendors who have joined Aircraft IT. This issue is no exception with seven great vendors adding their expertise. Our new vendors are…

Dent & Buckle, a comprehensive system for managing complete airframe damage and repair records, dent & buckle is a powerful web-based application for engineering departments, providing a 3D graphical view, with 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, users 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 the user organization

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. Solutions are designed to meet the unique needs of Output42’s clients and help them achieve their business objectives. Since

2008, Output42 has been serving major airlines worldwide and has successfully delivered numerous projects such as creating, enhancing, extending, migrating and supporting systems. The business has a proven track record of delivering high-quality solutions on time and within budget. Clients trust Output42 for their expertise, commitment, and ability to deliver innovative and cost-effective solutions that drive their business forward.

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, the business continues to perfect the art of staffing. On behalf of 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 and every candidate and a seamless experience for the customer.

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 ADE offers 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 for all of their customers at all times.

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 to drive sustainable innovation to help build the future of the commercial aviation asset lifecycle.

Recognised 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.

Whether you’re an airline, lessor, MRO, trader or OEM, flydocs is designed to drive a digital approach to managing your maintenance records and aircraft transitions. The solution seamlessly integrates with leading M&E platforms so you can quickly and accurately access live digital lifecycle compliance information to demonstrate asset airworthiness condition, protect your asset value and deliver major cost savings.

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; and airlines chasing solution to cut fuel burn on ground.

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.

Welcoming the new Vendors, Aircraft IT COO, Scott Leslie commented, “It’s really good to be able to add these excellent solution developers and vendors to the growing number of vendors partnering with Aircraft IT. As we always say, it is our

AAR acquires Trax, a leading provider of aircraft MRO and fleet management software

Accelerates AAR’s strategy to offer digital solutions to aftermarket customers • Adds higher-margin services offering with intellectual property and recurring revenue • Expected to be accretive to Adjusted EPS in first full year.

In late March 2023, AAR CORP, a leading provider of aviation services to commercial and government operators, MROs, and OEMs, broke the news that it has acquired Trax USA Corp., a leading independent provider of aircraft MRO and fleet management software.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Miami with approximately 110 employees, Trax offers critical software applications to a diverse global customer base of airlines, MROs, and government aircraft operators supporting approximately 5,000 aircraft. Trax’s comprehensive solutions support the entire spectrum of maintenance activities and create the system of record required by airlines, MROs, and government aircraft operators. Trax’s eMRO product is a web-based enterprise MRO software solution for managing aircraft maintenance and fleet management, including materials planning and purchasing, engineering, scheduling, regulatory compliance, work orders, and personnel. Its eMobility products provide a suite of mobile applications, including task cards, digital manuals, electronic log

books, fleet status, and warehouse management.

The Trax acquisition accelerates AAR’s strategy to offer digital solutions focused on its core aviation aftermarket customers. Trax adds established, higher-margin aviation aftermarket software offerings with recurring revenue to AAR’s portfolio, and its complementary customer base provides opportunities to cross-sell products and services.

“We believe we can support Trax’s continued growth by investing in its platforms and by leveraging our global relationships to help Trax reach additional customers. We also believe that over time this combination will allow more customers to better access AAR’s parts and services offerings as Trax is the materials management system used by thousands of buyers and planners at airlines around the world,” stated John M. Holmes, AAR’s Chairman, President, and CEO.

“Trax has led the industry in developing next generation maintenance ERP systems for over twenty years. By combining two leading independent aftermarket services providers, we create a compelling and unique offering to support the global aviation industry. We are excited to partner with AAR to further accelerate Trax’s growth and development,” added Jose Almeida, Trax’s CEO.

AAR: AAR is a global aerospace and defense aftermarket solutions company with operations in over twenty countries. Headquartered in the Chicago area, AAR supports commercial and government customers through two operating segments: Aviation Services and Expeditionary Services. Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Four key facts about dent & buckle

In late February 2023, dent & buckle shared its latest developments and ideas…

1. dent & buckle will integrate with dentCHECK, allowing users to link to dentCHECK data sets and attach any of the detailed measurement and analysis data to a damage record within dent & buckle. It will streamline the process of getting dentCHECK data into an aircraft’s dent & buckle records.

2. Internal structures module: dent & buckle will add internal structures components to its 3D models, this will allow important areas such as cargo floors and cabin floors to be exposed and damage records accurately located.

3. Aircraft data import functionality: dent & buckle will add functionality that allows customers to add new aircraft data to a spreadsheet and then import it into dent & buckle. It should streamline the onboarding of new aircraft and will give customers a valuable tool to prepare the new data.

4. DaBML machine learning damage recognition: dent & buckle are working on developing some machine learning tools that automatically identify various categories of damage in real time from a live data stream, recorded video or still images. New damage records can be created in dent & buckle from any identified damage.

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JetAviation.com

Conduce’s second customer in Bahrain, seventh customer in the Gulf region.

Texel Air is a Cargo Airline and MRO based in Bahrain. It was founded in 2013 by Chisholm Enterprises and commenced operations in 2014. The airline has its main hub at the Bahrain International Airport and its fleet consists of one Boeing 737-300F and two Boeing 737-800BCF as well as two Boeing 737-700FC FlexCombi, capable of swiftly converting between passenger and cargo operations. Texel Air is an ACMI/charter cargo airline and Aircraft Maintenance Repair Organization (MRO), supporting global clients and is committed to going the extra mile for customers.

As part of the project, the Conduce eTechLog8 application will be fully integrated into Texel Air M&E. Conduce’s depth of experience and practical ELB knowledge is expected to facilitate an on-time and on-budget ELB project, with full fleet paperless ELB operations targeted completion in Q2/2023. In addition to the journey and defect paper logs, the project will additionally digitize certain Forms, Checklists and briefing files, taking advantage of Conduce’s eDoc8 and eForm8 features, allowing fully interactive PDF forms to be completed on the ELB device.

of Airworthiness at Texel Air.

Paul Boyd, Managing Director at Conduce added, “Conduce are extremely pleased to welcome Texel Air as our twenty-first customer. The adoption of eTechLog8 provides many benefits to an ACMI provider, enabling real time fleet status data to be available 24/7 for flight operations anywhere in the world.”

Formed in 2013, Texel Air is a Bahrain registered cargo airline and maintenance repair organization (MRO), dedicated to providing cargo charter operations, ACMI and aircraft maintenance services to a wide range of customers with diverse requirements. The 737-300F, the two 737-700FC and now two 737-800BCF aircraft provide flexibility and versatility to service the region and beyond. Texel Air fills a niche market for specialized ACMI and charter cargo requirements requiring resourceful solutions while meeting tight deadlines with uncompromising levels of customer service.

Texel Air operates its maintenance services (MRO) from a purpose-built Code D aircraft hangar and office complex at Bahrain International Airport. This provides services to its own Boeing 737 fleet plus third-party operators utilizing BCAA and EASA 145 approvals. Further service offerings include providing a temporary base for visiting airlines’ fixed and rotary wing aircraft for specific projects. The maintenance and hangar services follow the same philosophy as the airline, providing specialized bespoke solutions to support a wide variety of customers from both civil and government backgrounds.

Conduce: With offices in the UK and Australia, Conduce provide robust mobile solutions for the world’s airlines. eTechLog8 is the world’s leading ELB solution to replace paper technical logbooks. eTechLog8 is fully certified for use by 25+ AOC operators and fully integrated with the leading MIS/MRO backoffice airline systems.

SriLankan Airlines goes for AMOS

After many months of discussions, and after overcoming the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic that occurred in the midst of the new software selection process, Swiss-AS was delighted, in mid-March 2023, to welcome SriLankan Airlines as a new member of the AMOS customer community.

Optimizing value by opting for AMOSmobile/EXEC and cloud hosting

With regard to paperless maintenance, the use of AMOSmobile/EXEC, a touch-optimized add-on to AMOS, will enable SriLankan Airlines to perform all line and base maintenance activities in a paperless manner, adding value not only in terms of cost, but also in terms of time, ensuring high productivity whilst maintaining quality, safety, and consistency. To complete the package, SriLankan Airlines has also selected Swiss-AS Cloud Hosting, which includes the proven AMOS Operation Services. The hosting

services are an effective means of eliminating the need for SriLankan Airlines to maintain a technical infrastructure on site whilst enabling them to operate in compliance with the latest security and IT standards.

Commenting on the project, Chamara Perera, Group Head of Information Technology SriLankan Airlines said, “I am pleased to announce our partnership with Swiss-AS and the adoption of the AMOS NewGen MRO System, which is a crucial step toward realizing our digital vision. The implementation of AMOSmobile and cloud-hosting services will allow us to digitize and streamline our maintenance procedures, increase efficiency, and reduce overall costs through process automation. We look forward to a successful Go-Live and utilizing state-of-the-art features for which AMOS is highly trusted and appreciated by its loyal customer base.”

“I am confident that AMOS will provide SriLankan Engineering with modern technology and insights

base maintenance, component tracking and much more. We can further enhance the safety and reliability of our aircraft and passengers’ onboard experience by leveraging on the technology and tools of AMOS,” added Arjuna Kapugeekiyana, Head of Engineering SriLankan Airlines. Go-Live is targeted for the end of 2023.

OLATU® is the interactive training platform to acquire knowledge and skills in aircraft fleet management, logistics, maintenance, and more...

VAECO / Vietnam Airlines sign up for AMOS in a festive ceremony

In early December 2022, AMOS including the AMOSmobile signed and kicked-off an agreement having determined that AMOS suite met VAECO’s expectations. The festive signing ceremony took place in Hanoi on 6th December 2022 and marked a successful conclusion to a long and complex pre-sales journey for all involved.

Vietnam Airlines Engineering Company (VAECO), a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines, has signed agreements with Swiss Aviation Software Ltd. (Swiss-AS) and NGS Equipment and Communication Joint Stock (NGS), the Swiss-AS local partner in Vietnam, who will support Swiss-AS in the process of implementing the MRO software solution AMOS.

Five years ago, Swiss-AS released the AMOS MRO edition, specifically designed to fulfil the needs of MRO providers. This AMOS edition, successfully implemented several times since its release, as well as the Swiss-AS AMOSmobile packages for stores management (AMOSmobile/STORES) and line/base maintenance (AMOSmobile/EXEC), fully met the functional requirements that VAECO and Vietnam Airlines were looking for in their tender process.

AMOS includes the tools required to fully manage the maintenance program with more efficient data synchronization, allowing the business to pursue the goal of reducing costs and maintenance time, without any concessions being made in terms of

safety and quality, as well as improving the operational readiness factor of the fleet. Furthermore, AMOS provides state-of-the-art modules for planning and controlling all maintenance processes, including optimized assignment of staff resources when defining the production plan — with the objective of increasing labor productivity and efficiency.

The full integration of real-time data in AMOS over the different data streams in AMOS — from material management, to engineering, to planning and production — enables informed and effective business decisions to be made and therefore minimizes flight disruptions, delays, and cancellations.

Increase of Efficiency / Productivity expected

Once the AMOS implementation has been completed, VAECO foresees that labor productivity will increase by 15-20%, that maintenance turnaround times of aircraft will shorten, and that the higher manpower productivity will allow VAECO to extend its third-party maintenance market share, which is currently in great demand as a result of the airline industry having returned to profitability after the Covid-19 pandemic.

AMOS will fast-track the digital transformation process of VAECO/Vietnam Airlines

“The new software will make an important contribution to helping

VAECO become a leading regional aircraft maintenance service provider, while promoting digital transformation and information technology application in Vietnam Airlines’ production and business activities. Thereby, ensuring a solid technical foundation for Vietnam Airlines’ 4-star, approaching 5-star, in standard flight services.” said Mr. Nguyen Chien Thang, Deputy General Director of Vietnam Airlines.

“With the onboarding of VAECO, another Vietnamese customer joins the AMOS customer community and reinforces the Swiss-AS predominant market position in Vietnam. Our strong position in Vietnam as well as Swiss-AS continued investment into the AMOS MRO Edition, have once more paid off. With Swiss-AS now using latest technology (Flutter/Dart from Google) in the further development of AMOS apps, we assure that the large AMOS community will also in future benefit from intelligent, best-in-class, highly secure and enjoyable-to-use software.” said Fabiano Faccoli, the CEO of Swiss-AS.

“NGS is proud to be part of this important project with VAECO and Swiss-AS and will strive to continue our track record of successfully bringing world-best solutions and technologies to Vietnamese enterprises to fast track our country’s digital transformation process, enabling Vietnam to become a prominent player in the region and

globally.” added Mr. Pham The Truong, NGS Deputy General Director.

VAECO / Vietnam Airlines:

Vietnam Airlines owns the largest fleet in Vietnam, with more than 100 aircraft including Boeing B787, Airbus A350, A321, A321neo and ATR72.

Vietnam Airlines is constantly modernizing its fleet, while VAECO is on the verge of growing its aircraft maintenance capacities by deploying new technologies.

Swiss-AS / 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 management of the entire spectrum of maintenance activities. AMOS in combination with its mobile package empowers its large and loyal aviation customer base to digitalize and automate their maintenance processes and connect with other industry solutions via the data messaging platform AMOS central.

NGS: NGS Equipment and Communication Joint Stock company is Vietnam’s leading Information technology enterprise, providing end-to-end digital transformation consulting services, packaged enterprise software implementation, application managed services, Software development, infrastructure, network design, implementation and management services, Cyber security as well as IT education services.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Aviadex.Io — Aviation Data Exchange Service — Goes Live!

In mid-march 2023, QOCO was proud to present Aviadex.io, a revolutionary data exchange and integration service for all aviation industry operators. Harnessing years of QOCO’s experience in aerospace system integration, this innovational solution allows users across the aerospace landscape to exchange data securely after one-time integration while streamlining an otherwise time-consuming process. With Aviadex.io you have control over who receives your data as well as what pieces they see.

Aviadex.io is revolutionizing the aviation industry by facilitating data exchange between main collaborators, airlines, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul businesses (MROs). With improved accessibility to essential information across the ecosystem comes unleashed potential for value creation, while automation saves time from employees, reducing human errors and any risks associated with it — making precision a reality in this fast-paced space. Aviadex.io unlocks data potential by streamlining the flow from start to finish — from access and delivery, to processing for compatibility across systems, all the way through validating information for optimal accuracy and consistency.

“Nowadays, the aviation industry is remarkably intertwined. If you’re working for an airline, OEM, MRO, or lessor, you know how important it is to exchange data accurately and timely with your clients and partners. Before we created Aviadex.io, we saw many aviation businesses needing help with similar data exchange problems: lots of manual work in exchanging data, heavy point-topoint integration projects with a high maintenance cost, lack of standardization, and many others. We have solved these challenges with Aviadex.io, which makes data exchange within aviation effortless, efficient, and secure.” stated Ilari

Neitola, CEO and Founder of QOCO.

Introducing OASES Knowledge Base

In early December 2022, OASES was pleased to announce the launch of OASES Knowledge Base, the ultimate resource for all things OASES related. Initially the new platform will offer articles, product information, instructional videos, updates, webinars and FAQs with added customer interaction and networking in a community environment including:

• Training content accessible 24/7/365;

• Access to Live Streaming sessions;

• Archive of all webinars and OASES online events;

• A safe environment for content related questions and feedback. OASES will continue to upload and create insightful content in collaboration with their customers and will offer:

OASES Knowledge Base will be accessible for free but will also offer ‘advanced content’ with a pay-as-yougo or subscription model offered to customers.

“We’re looking at diversifying our training offer at OASES to embrace more flexible solutions that allow customers, wherever they are, access to a world-class suite of training content based on their needs.” Explained OASES Operations Director, Alessandra Palmer-Tilley, “In addition we believe that by presenting this information in a collaborative, community-based environment we can achieve a much better understanding of our customers’ requirements and, as such, better improve and evolve our product portfolio.”

OASES Customers that haven’t

Wamos Air selects Conduce eTechLog8

Conduce and Wamos Air were delighted to announce that on 18 November 2022 Wamos Air selected the Conduce eTechLog8 ELB solution to digitalise their aircraft technical logbooks eTechLog8 will completely replace the current paper-based aircraft technical logbooks including the deferred defect and cabin logs. The project scope also includes full integration with the CAMO/ Maintenance System in use at Wamos Air.

The project commenced immediately, with both teams committed to removing the paper and achieving full ELB approval from EASA by Summer 2023.

Wamos Air has 20 years of experience and is one of the leading airlines in Charter and Wet Lease flights throughout the world. The airline operates ten Airbus A330 aircraft from its operations hub in Madrid.

Hayley Russell, Marketing Manager at Conduce,

MRO IT SYSTEM

said, “Conduce are excited to be supporting Wamos Air along their paperless journey, making them Conduce’s third customer in Spain.”

added, “We consider the adoption of an electronic technical logbook as an essential investment in line engineering management. Using the eTechLog8 ELB

20 years of experience and headquartered in Madrid. The airline mostly operates charter flights to worldwide destinations, with its main base located at Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport.

Rusada expands North American

software specialist Rusada has announced the opening of a new office in Toronto, Canada to support customers and business development in the region.

Their new location will provide easy access to customers in Canada and the Northeast of the U.S., with Montreal, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. all only a short flight away.

Having commenced business in 1987, Rusada has since expanded to eight locations around the globe from which it develops, supports, and sells its airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations software ENVISION. The new Canadian office adds to their presence in North America, which began with their Colorado office, opened in 2017. Since then, the company has added numerous North American clients to its customer base,

industry integrators. With the new office, Rusada aims to continue this recent run of success and further tap into the region’s market potential.

“We are seeing a great demand for our services in the North American market.” Said Julian Stourton, CEO at Rusada. “Already in our five years here we have signed some of the largest contracts in our history from both the fixed and rotary wing markets, as well as a number of maintenance providers. We have formed numerous partnerships with some of the leading players over here, which is helping us reach new types of customers, and positively affecting the development of ENVISION. This new office adds to the foundations we established in 2017 and sets us up to continue our growth in the years to come.”

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Challenge Group takes off with AMOS

The international air cargo consortium Challenge Group announced in early January 2023 that it had selected AMOS for Challenge Airlines and Challenge Technic. The airline group’s decision to adopt AMOS is further proof of Swiss-AS’s position as an ideal technology partner.

AMOSmobile/EXEC and cloud hosting bringing optimal value

The AMOS Airline Edition will enable the airlines to streamline operations, increase efficiency, and reduce overall maintenance costs by improving and digitizing internal aircraft maintenance procedures. As part of the paperless maintenance process, the use of AMOSmobile/EXEC, a touch-optimized add-on to AMOS, will enable the paperless execution of all line and base maintenance activities. To complete the service package, Challenge Group has chosen Swiss-AS Cloud Hosting, which includes the proven AMOS Operation Services. With the use of

secured VPN connections, their AMOS environment will be easily accessible from all their international operational bases. The hosting services are an effective method of eliminating the need for the group to maintain a technical infrastructure on site and enabling it to operate in compliance with the latest security and IT standards.

AMOS to support group harmonization

In order to address the complex implementation project that has already begun, AMOS will be implemented in phases, due to the number of AOCs that will be migrating from different legacy systems to AMOS. Challenge Group is aiming to unify all its different entities on a single AMOS environment which will enable the different entities to maximize the synergies and ensure a complete harmonization of all the processes and data between them. The first phase of the project will focus on the Part 145 organization, and the second phase will include the

different CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organization) organizations going live one by one.

“Challenge Group has defined an ambitious holistic digital innovation strategy for the coming years. The choice of AMOS to accompany our digital transformation in this specific area of our activity is a new step and we are happy to be able to count on a reliable partner who understands our needs and shares our vision,” said Yossi Shoukroun, Chief Executive Officer of Challenge Group

Challenge Group: Challenge Group is a unique, international air cargo conglomeration offering tailored air freight industry solutions from handling, air and ground logistics, to aviation services, for a wide range of industries and commodities. The company has trebled its capacity over the past four years and now handles more than 300,000 tonnes of cargo per year.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Ramco Aviation signs deal with Nova Systems

In early February 2023, Enterprise aviation software provider Ramco Systems announced that its Aviation M&E MRO Suite V5.9 has been selected by Nova Systems, a global engineering services and technology solutions company. Ramco’s Aviation Software will provide Nova Systems modules covering Aviation Manufacturing, Maintenance, Supply Chain Management and Compliance Management. The solution’s robust workflow and reporting capabilities will enable Nova Systems to streamline their Part 21J, Part 21G and Part 145 operations, meet their industry-specific requirements for material management and provide them with actionable insights.

Nova Systems General Manager Aerospace Capability, Cher Min Teo said: “We were looking for an aviation specific MRP that would provide the platform for us to build and scale our aviation solution and services business. We selected Ramco’s suite after a comprehensive evaluation of various

suppliers and systems.”

Manoj Kumar Singh, President – Ramco Systems Corporation, USA and Chief Customer Officer –Aviation, Aerospace & Defense, Ramco Systems, said, “We are delighted to partner with Nova Systems on their transformation journey. Equipped with the latest artificial intelligence, machine learning stacks, and with intelligent voice interface user experience, Ramco’s Aviation solution tailored from the ground up for the aviation industry has secured the trust of trendsetters in the business. We look forward to enabling Nova Systems to optimize their operations and continue making our world safe and secure.”

Ramco Aviation: Ramco Aviation, Aerospace & Defense (AAD) Software is trusted by 24,000+ users to manage 4,000+ aircraft globally in more than 90 Aviation organizations around the world. Available on cloud and mobile, Ramco AAD Software provides accessibility with ‘Anywhere Apps’, significantly reducing transaction time in AOG conditions and

critical aircraft turnarounds. Ramco is changing the paradigm of enterprise software with AI based solutions, intelligent voice enabled user experience, and cool new features such as digital task cards, offline capability, chatbots, mail bots, HUBs and cognitive solutions.

Nova Systems: Nova Systems is a leading global engineering services and technology solutions company with more than 850 employees working from strategically located offices around the world including the United Kingdom, Norway, Ireland, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. The business is a trusted partner to solve complex challenges for clients across defense, parapublic, government, special missions and commercial aerospace. The company brings two decades of aviation experience built on a foundation of operational and technical expertise to deliver bespoke, low-risk aerospace technology solutions.

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Nok Air goes live on Rusada’s ENVISION

In mid-February 2023, hybrid premium airline Nok Air announced that it had gone live with Rusada’s maintenance management software, ENVISION

From its base in Bangkok, Nok Air operates flights to numerous destinations across Thailand, as well as China, Japan, and India. Since it began in 2004 the airline’s fleet has grown to 17 aircraft, comprising of Boeing 737’s and De Havilland Canada Q400’s.

Nok Air initially signed up for Rusada’s solution prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was subsequently delayed by the slowdown in global travel but reinitiated following the resumption of flights. The implementation was conducted in a staged, module-by-module approach to minimize disruption to the airline and utilization of resources. Nok Air is now live with five of ENVISION’s modules, including Fleet Management, Base & Line MRO, and Human Resources. Rusada’s teams conducted the deployment both remotely and in-person as restrictions allowed, to ensure a successful implementation.

Wutthiphum Jurangkool, CEO at Nok Air had the following to say, “As our route network and fleet size have continued to expand, we wanted to ensure that the efficiency of our operations didn’t suffer as a result. ENVISION has enabled us to consolidate our previous solutions and third-party services into a single, end-to-end platform, greatly improving our oversight and productivity.”

And Julian Stourton, CEO at Rusada added, “As a hybrid premium carrier Nok airline.”

Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Photo: Igor Paskalov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) Partners with Ramco Aviation

In mid-February 2023, the Philippines’ national flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL), announced that it has signed an agreement with the global aviation software provider Ramco Systems, to deploy Ramco’s state-of-the-art Aviation Suite V5.9. The solution will replace standalone legacy systems thereby integrating, automating, and enhancing business performances across PAL and its affiliate PAL Express.

Aligned with PAL’s Accelerated Initiatives for Recoveries and Full Optimization through Innovation and Leadership (AIRFOIL) program, Ramco’s on-cloud, next-gen platform will offer PAL end-toend optimization of maintenance and engineering business processes that will support regulatory compliance and enable sustainable digital transformation through paperless operations.

During the contract signing ceremony in Philippines, Capt. Stanley Ng, President & Chief Operating Officer, Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL), said,

best-in-class functionality and user-friendly features, Ramco Aviation Software has gained the trust of many leading operators in the industry. As PAL’s tech partners, Ramco will support PAL organization’s mission of service and propel its global expansion plans.”

Philippine Airlines is engaged in fortifying its network as the recovery of air travel gains steam globally. PAL is the only airline offering nonstop flights linking the Philippines with the U.S. Mainland, Canada and Hawaii, along with the largest network of flights on multiple routes to Japan, Australia and countries in the Middle East. PAL will launch a pioneer direct flight between Manila and Perth, Australia in March 2023, while re-opening flights between the Philippines and Beijing, Shanghai and Macau in addition to other mainland Chinese destinations.

Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL): Philippine Airlines (PAL) is the Philippines’ flag carrier and only fullservice network airline. As the first commercial airline in Asia, PAL will celebrate its 82nd anniversary in March 2023. The airline’s fleet of Boeing 777, Airbus

Wheels Up Selects Comply365 for operational document and compliance management

In mid-February 2023, Aviation software leader Comply365 was pleased to announce its newest implemented customer, Wheels Up Experience Inc., who is relying on Comply365’s cloud-based document and compliance management system and electronic forms to transform their digital operations. Employees across nearly every department are using Comply365’s mobile platform to view and personalize their latest operational documents, record compliance and send information back to the operation.

Wheels Up is one of the largest private aviation companies in the world — with the membershipbased, on-demand charter business headquartered in New York City. In 2021, Wheels Up became the first private aviation company to be traded on the NYSE, and last year, it expanded its global reach when it acquired the UK-based global aviation

services group Air Partner PLC.

“As we’ve expanded our global operations and grown our fleet and services, the need for a unified system that easily tracks and manages compliance and operational content across our group became vital,” said Michael Vargo, senior vice president of Operations at Wheels Up. “We needed a simple way to distribute documents to our flight and operations crews, gather data from them, and capture and report on compliance across our enterprise. Comply365’s mobile solutions will simplify and unify these processes, providing greater efficiencies for us as we keep growing.”

Wheels Up reported its active members grew by 12 percent year-over-year, and it increased its revenue by 39 percent year-over-year, according to its 2022 third-quarter financial report.

Using Comply365’s mobile app, pilots, flight

attendants and other operational crew members will always have the most up-to-date content with revision control and automated syncing. Within the app, they can search across all their manuals at once, use tags to filter documents, and add personal annotations, bookmarks, and highlights that will be retained whenever a document is updated.

“Working with the knowledgeable team at Comply365 implementing the solution made for a smooth process, especially considering we rolled it out across all five of our AOCs (air operator certificates) at once,” Vargo said. “We are pleased to hear our flight crews found the app intuitive, and they are enjoying all the benefits of having what they need at their fingertips.”

Wheels Up is now able to distribute all document types (PDF, XLS, MP4, etc.) based on a

user’s role. Users can easily see what’s changed in an updated document and read and sign in the same place. Automated compliance tracking and reporting will provide increased visibility and insights for Wheels Up.

“It’s my pleasure to welcome Wheels Up into our Comply365 community and congratulate them on a successful implementation. It’s an exciting time at Wheels Up, and we are proud to provide them with a solution to their challenges that will enhance the efficiency and safety of their operations,” said Tom Samuel, CEO of Comply365. “We look forward to our continued partnership in helping them streamline their operational content and compliance management

Comply365: Comply365 is the 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.

Wheels Up: Wheels Up is a leading provider of on-demand private aviation in the U.S. and one of the largest private aviation companies in the world. Wheels Up offers a complete global aviation solution with a large, modern and diverse fleet, backed by an uncompromising commitment to safety and service. Customers can access membership programs, charter, aircraft management services and whole aircraft sales — as well as unique commercial travel benefits through a strategic partnership with Delta Air Lines. The Wheels Up Services brands also offer freight, safety & security solutions and managed services to individuals, industry, government and civil organizations. Wheels Up is guided by the mission to connect flyers to private aircraft — and one another — and deliver exceptional, personalized experiences. Powered by a global private aviation marketplace connecting its growing base of more than 13,000 members and customers to a network of more than 1,500 safety-vetted and verified private aircraft, Wheels Up is widening the aperture of private travel for millions of consumers globally. With the Wheels Up mobile app, members and customers have the digital convenience to search, book and fly. Read the full story on Aircraft IT

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Texel Air opts for Rusada’s ENVISION

In late December 2022, Texel Air, a Bahraini cargo operator and MRO, announced that it had selected Rusada’s ENVISION software solution to manage airworthiness and maintenance operations.

Texel Air uses a fleet of Boeing 737 freighters to provide cargo charter and ACMI services across the globe. They also offer base and line maintenance services from their 3,200 square metre hangar located at Bahrain International Airport. The airline utilised a thirdparty specialist to help manage their fleet, but after recent growth and with planned expansion on the horizon, they are seeking greater control over their operational data and processes.

“With its depth in functionality and easily accessible interfaces, we see ENVISION as the backbone of our future digital journey” said Andres Kjerulf, Director of Airworthiness at Texel Air. “We are very pleased to be partnering with Rusada, and are looking forward to working closely alongside them towards a successful implementation project”

Texel Air will be adopting eight of ENVISION’s modules including Fleet Management, Base & Line MRO, and Inventory Management, plus three of their mobile apps for cross-device access, and paperless operations. The web-based solution will be deployed by Rusada’s in-house team of implementation specialists.

“A key factor behind ENVISION’s

selection was our ability take their existing operational data and easily migrate it into our solution. The challenges presented by implementation, particularly migration of data, can often be a barrier to upgrading software solutions, but with the experience our teams possess, we are finding more and more ways to streamline this process. We look forward to a swift deployment, and to playing a key part in Texel Air’s continued growth.” said Julian Stourton, CEO at Rusada.

Rusada: Rusada is a leading provider of aviation software with over 35 years of experience in the industry. Its ENVISION software manages over 2,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft for 150 operators, maintainers, and manufacturers in more than 45 countries. With its headquarters in Switzerland, and offices in the USA, UK, UAE, India, Singapore and Australia, Rusada provides global support for a global industry. Specialising in the management of airworthiness, maintenance, and flight operations, ENVISION is developed solely for aviation. Its modern, web-based platform features a suite of integrated modules, enhanced by a series of native mobile apps. ENVISION’s easy-to-use interface provides users with clear, actionable information, enabling processes to be carried out quickly and efficiently, and all without the need for paper or spreadsheets.

RecoSense AI System for Optimal Auto Resolution with Adaptive Learning

Data is at the center of all modern business. Having a synchronized environment where the data from all the touch points gets updated and lets all parts of the business get an optimal result is what the future business demands. The aviation industry handles lots of data/ documents, both on the ground and in the air. Especially in aircraft maintenance, hundreds and thousands of technical data will be scattered, and each engineer will have a fragment of information and knowledge about it. Maintaining all the records error-free, ensuring safety, and making the data accessible for all the teams is a

stupendous task for companies in the aviation industry, and the expenses are also on the higher end of the spectrum. An AI-powered content intelligence platform lets aviation firms easily categorize scanned data, upload it to the corresponding system, create an intuitive knowledge graph, and help the different teams generate models and reports as per their requirements.

Challenges in the traditional data management

The biggest challenge in aircraft maintenance starts from the documents themselves. Each

document will be in different formats like handwritten copies, images, scanned copies, unstructured information, etc. What’s more complicated than maintaining the records is retrieving information from the records. It takes several hours of time and human resources to retrieve a piece of information based on the date, particular incident, chapters, etc. Generating maintenance requirements and allocating human resources to ensure timely delivery will also take time.

RecoSense — Aerobot is an AI-powered content intelligence solution that collects information from all unstructured data and processes them in a meaningful way so that the complex information is distilled into easy-to-understand format from various perspectives. As a result, the user can have a deeper understanding of the data and quickly perform the desired task.

AI-Powered Technical Knowledge Database

Knowledge is typically an indexed encyclopedia. An AI-powered knowledge graph is an interactive medium coupled with an encyclopedia, where the user can easily find what they want. The Aerobot adopts a systematic way to start and keep the data clean in its central data platform. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and a machine learning system automatically extract key information (including images) from the documents and map them to the

desired data fields in the centralized system. Hence record maintenance and retrieving become simpler. The Aerobot AI uses machine learning to identify patterns and NLP to extract the meaning. For instance, if a technical document has a task card number, images, stamps, handwritten information, and signatures, the AI bot identifies and extracts the data. Later this information will be automatically tagged and mapped to the corresponding fields in the centralized system.

The Aerobot has effective knowledge graph features that can make the aircraft maintenance process simpler and faster. Here are a few important features:

Semantic search: Since Aerobot extracts information using the NLP, relevant documents like OEM documents, internal documents, records of troubleshooting steps, etc., are properly linked. Hence one can easily search for data based on keywords, ATA chapters, incident descriptions, etc., and retrieve data quickly.

Knowledge graph: Creates associative relationships with key entities of documents and processed content. Therefore, the AI can provide recommended actions and generate reports for the corresponding teams.

Compliance management: Auto-audit documents and data to cross-check with Reference documents and compliance standards.

With all these features, Aeorbot can be used for various applications in the aviation industry. The following are

the two primary use cases related to the aircraft maintenance sector.

Virtual Technical Services Engineer (TSE)

Aerobot’s intuitive knowledge base and recommendation engine make it the best companion for technical service engineers. The AI bot automatically identifies the type of defects, keeps an historical record of defects or events, keeps records of troubleshooting steps taken to resolve a defect, and correlates the key entities in the knowledge graph. Therefore, AI can:

• Enable advanced search based on different ATA chapters or keywords or incident descriptions and also provide relevant interlinking to internal documents. This makes the technical follow-ups and retrieval of

data more accessible for the service engineers.

• Provide recommended actions to the technical service teams based on past knowledge and experience.

Optimal Auto-Resolution with adaptive learning

Aerobot’s advanced machine-learning capability and intelligent deeplearning methodology can automatically identify events, faults, and defects, correlate EngineProduct-Part, produce reports of the troubleshooting actions taken to resolve a defect, and provide an optimal solution. With the scalable interface, the Aerobot can be used for:

• Creating necessary reports and solutions based on different user roles and requirements in the

Engineering Division like Line Maintenance, Maintenance Control Centre, and Fleet Technical Management.

• Visualize data in an easy-tounderstand format to have better insights and assist the engineering team in allocating the resources better and completing the maintenance task on time.

Impacts of deploying AIpowered data intelligence

• Helps the Operations Team troubleshoot aircraft defects, component failures, or reliability issues.

• Effortlessly keep track of Fleet Technical Digests and Technical Follow-ups with the knowledge graph.

• Automatic error-free data

extraction from the record with less human intervention.

• Proper management of resources and ensuring timely delivery.

• Improved customer satisfaction, which in turn results in customer retention & higher lifetime value.

• Systematic and timely approach boosts productivity.

• Early detection of anomalies reduces the operation cost. Aerobot is based on RecoSense’s tried and tested Docusense and Knowledge graph platform, which is being trusted by leading industry players. Enterprise-grade central data platform makes deployment on a large scale easier and keeps the data secured. The flexible infrastructure lets Aerobot adopt the custom requirements and be production-ready right out of the box.

gained over the past years. Therefore, to enhance its efficiency and performance even more, the airline announced in late February 2023 that it is now live with AMOSmobile/EXEC. This is the first stage, for a later implementation of e-signature, after compliance with the authorities.The scope of use for this module for line maintenance engineers ranges from actioning and closing a work order, releasing a work package, issuing a defect, issuing a pick order, adding

35 years ago, Air Transat is a leading leisure travel brand. Voted North America’s Best Leisure Airline by passengers at the 2022 Skytrax World Airline Awards, it flies to international, transborder and Canadian destinations. It is renewing its fleet with the greenest aircraft in their category as part of a commitment to a healthier environment, knowing that this is essential to its operations and the magnificent destinations it offers. Read the full story on Aircraft IT Website

Challenge Group initiates partnership with EXSYN

In early February 2023, Challenge Group announced that it has chosen to partner with EXSYN with a focus on aircraft data migration.

EXSYN’s aircraft data management solution, NEXUS, will play a vital role in managing the complex aircraft data flows as Challenge Airlines and Challenge Technic migrate to the recently selected MRO/M&E system (AMOS) over the coming weeks. Challenge Airline BE will be the first of the Group’s companies to migrate to the new system and will also benefit from the technical expertise of EXSYN’s team of Aircraft Data Consultants. This is augmented with technical expertise provided by EXSYN’s team of Aircraft Data Consultants.

“EXSYN’s global expertise on the migration of aircraft data through their tested method and tools will enable us to efficiently manage the complex data migration process. This partnership will help us to reduce the time required to integrate our fleet and reap the benefits of our new MRO/M&E system, Challenge Group directly made sense to us in order to EXSYN Aviation Solutions

iQSMS – Empowering EASA Part-145 & Part-21 Organizations

As of January 2023, safety management systems (SMS) are mandatory for all EASA Part-145 and Part-21 organizations. The key requirement introduced by EASA Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 is the mandatory implementation and the regular monitoring and review of a safety management system. As this change represents a significant shift in the way Part-145 and Part-21 organizations must address safety risks and manage safety across the organization, Günther Schindl, CEO of ASQS Group, stresses the benefits of using software to comply with these new requirements.

“Without question, the mandatory introduction of an SMS for Part-145 and Part-21 organizations is an important

step towards increased safety and quality assurance in the aviation industry. The benefits are evident. Yet,

it is also important to understand that these new requirements represent a huge challenge for many organizations,

as the implementation of an SMS can be complex and time-consuming. Without a supporting software this is hardly manageable”, he explained.

ASQS specializes in the development and delivery of an integrated and intuitive quality and safety management solution that assists aviation organizations of all sizes in their hazard and occurrence reporting, audit and risk management as well as their safety performance monitoring and measurement among others. An intuitive solution like iQSMS greatly simplifies compliance with the new requirements and provides long-term support for Part-145 and Part-21 organizations in meeting regulatory requirements and safety standards.

OASES announces that it has secured three major customer wins

OASES, a leading provider of aviation maintenance software, announced at the start of March 2023 that it has secured three major customer wins during the first quarter of 2023: Alis Cargo, Trans Nusa, and European Air Charter have chosen OASES software for their maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations.

AlisCargo, a cargo airline based in Italy will use OASES to manage maintenance and engineering activities across their fleet of aircraft that include Boeing 767 and 777 freighters.

TransNusa Aviation, a regional airline based in Indonesia, will implement OASES to manage maintenance operations for its’ fleet of Airbus 320 and COMAC ARJ21 aircraft. OASES will be the first maintenance software provider to implement COMAC ARJ21 aircraft.

European Air Charter, a Bulgarian-based private charter operates ten Airbus 320 and seven McDonnell Douglas MD82 aircraft and will use

OASES to manage maintenance activities.

OASES was selected due to its’ comprehensive features, ability to provide real-time visibility into maintenance operations, as well as being able to support multiple aircraft types and configurations.

“We are delighted to welcome AlisCargo, TransNusa Aviation, and European Air Charter to the OASES family,” said Paul Lynch, Managing Director of

OASES. “Our software is designed to support the complex MRO needs of airlines of all sizes and types, and we are confident that our solutions will help these airlines improve their operational efficiency and enhance their overall performance.”

OASES software is a fully integrated MRO system that includes a wide range of features and capabilities, including maintenance planning, engineering, materials management, production, and quality control. The system is designed to support all aspects of aircraft maintenance, from routine checks and inspections to major overhauls and repairs.

OASES: OASES is a leading provider of aviation maintenance software solutions, serving airlines, MRO providers, and aircraft operators worldwide. With a team of experienced aviation professionals and a customer-centric approach, OASES offers a comprehensive suite of software products and services designed to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance safety and compliance.

IQSMS is a well-proven web-based software suite for integrated and intuitive safety, quality and risk management based on and in compliance with ICAO, EASA, FAA, TC, and IOSA requirements used by over 250 aviation companies worldwide.

MANAGEMENT

INSIGHT ACCELERATOR

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Etihad Airways Engineering partners with Ramco Systems

Improve Operational Efficiencies

At the beginning of March 2023, Etihad Airways Engineering, one of the world’s leading aircraft maintenance and engineering solutions providers, announced that it has partnered with global enterprise aviation software provider Ramco Systems to implement its Aviation Suite V5.9. The project was officially announced at the 2023 edition of MRO Middle East, held at Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai. With modules covering Contract & Quote Management, Maintenance Planning, Hangar Maintenance, Component Maintenance, Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Quality, Digital Task Cards, ePublications, and Customer Billing, Ramco’s integrated Aviation Suite will streamline multiple operations across Etihad Airways Engineering, offering the organization a single source of information with real-time visibility. In addition, Ramco’s digital tools such as Ramco Anywhere mobile apps,

dashboards, and integrated customer portals, will seamlessly digitize Etihad Airways Engineering’s operations, enhance process efficiencies, and help them go paperless.

Abdul Khaliq Saeed, CEO, Etihad Airways Engineering, said, “At Etihad Airways Engineering, we are passionate about integrating next generation technologies in today’s emerging aerospace trends in readiness for the future. By deploying Ramco’s state-of-the-art Aviation Suite, Etihad Airways Engineering will be able to deliver innovative solutions and services that will not only provide outstanding customer experience but will also optimize our cost and turnaround time by efficient resource utilization. We are all set to leverage the power of automation with Ramco.”

Etihad Airways Engineering is a part of ADQ, offering industry leading aircraft maintenance and engineering solutions including airframe maintenance, component repair,

No matter where you operate or your fleet size, reducing AOG’s is one of your top priorities. With Boeing Insight Accelerator, turn unscheduled maintenance events into scheduled ones by anticipating component failure before it happens.

overhaul services and technical training, with a team of around 2,000 professionals from around the world. The organization takes pride in the reliability and on-time delivery of its services and is driven by a dynamic culture of excellence in everything they do. The company has vast experience in providing total maintenance solutions for Airbus and Boeing aircraft including advanced composite repair, cabin refurbishment and component services around the clock from its facility adjacent to Abu Dhabi International Airport. Cutting edge processes and solutions are used at the facility from a dedicated centralized planning and control (CPAC) facility for heavy maintenance to automated tool management and live dashboards across the business to monitor the progress of every project in real time.

Etihad Airways Engineering is the first organization in the Middle East to be granted an extended Part 21J Design Organization Approval by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to undertake major cabin design and modification.

P.R. Venketrama Raja, Chairman, Ramco

Systems, said, “It is remarkable to witness the trust that Ramco Aviation has been winning from renowned aircraft service providers such as Etihad Airways Engineering. Situated in the heart of one of the world’s most prolific aviation growth markets, Ramco’s association with Etihad Airways Engineering will play a key role in driving

digitization and increasing overall operational efficiency at Etihad Airways Engineering. With Ramco’s next-gen Aviation Suite infused with artificial intelligence and machine learning, we look forward to building a digital MRO journey at Etihad Airways Engineering.”

Etihad Airways Engineering: Etihad Airways Engineering is the largest commercial aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services provider in the Middle East, and a part of ADQ. The company offers maintenance services around the clock, including design, advanced composite repair, cabin refurbishment and component services, from its state-of-the-art 500,000 sqm facility located in Abu Dhabi, adjacent to Abu Dhabi International Airport, with 140,000 sqm of aircraft parking area, aircraft hangars covering 66,000 sqm, and a custom-designed hangar that can accommodate up to three Airbus A380 aircraft simultaneously. The company has successfully completed maintenance projects over the years for airlines from all over the world.

(L-R) P.R. Venketrama Raja, Chairman, Ramco Systems with Abdul Khaliq Saeed, CEO, Etihad Airways Engineering, during the signing ceremony at the 2023 MRO Middle East, Dubai

Soar above paper

IDMR, the leader in aviation document management software, presents a true web-based end-to-end paperless task cards

InForm

InForm combines document & content management with process improvement in our tightly regulated industry. InForm seamlessly integrates with OEMs and M&E Systems to reduce any redundant work.

Task Cards

A completely paperless solution, making task card authoring & management highly efficient and requiring minimal technical expertise. InForm takes advantage of the latest OEM digital Maintenance Planning Document (MPD) and Task Card data (AMM). Support for iSpec2200 & S1000D import is built-in to the Task Card template, allowing imports of the entire deck without hassle.

Swiss AviationSoftware joins unprecedented Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem

eSign

IDMR offers unified Web-based applications with a centralized platform with no installations required.

Our secure web application integrates with federated ADFS access and offers fast performance operating across OS, platforms, devices, and terminals.

Our advanced accessibility functionalities allow our applications to be mobile and work anytime, anywhere; key features for inspectors, technicians, and personnel working in hangars.

Management enjoys real-time access to dashboards to track the progress of checks, run reliability reports, and optimize turn-around time.

Lufthansa Technik creates a Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem by incorporating Swiss AviationSoftware Ltd. (SwissAS) to lead the digital transformation of the aviation industry in technical asset operation.

In mid-January 2023, Swiss-AS, the developer of the world-leading M&E/ MRO software AMOS, announced that it is joining Lufthansa Technik Group. By bringing together AMOS with AVIATAR, the independent platform for Data & Analytics Solutions, and flydocs, the provider of Digital Records and Asset Solutions, under one roof, Lufthansa Technik can now offer an

unprecedented digital coverage of the tech-ops value stream: These three solutions are the pillars of the Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem that will create additional value for customers using a customer-centric and collaborative approach.

The three entities remain independent but will enhance collaboration and join forces by connecting the dots between the modularly designed solutions. For the first time there will be comprehensive data coverage along the entire value stream in technical operations. This data, combined with the digital

know-how in all three independent solution providers as well as Lufthansa Technik’s engineering expertise will result in completely new offerings, accelerated digitalization, and added value for customers. As a result, the Ecosystem will reduce MRO costs, enhance process efficiency, increase operational stability and aircraft availability, and also optimize asset values.

End-to-end digitalization with Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem

The Ecosystem has five principles that will benefit the customers: it is open to collaborate and link with customers or external digital solutions, modular to make individual use of parts feasible and it is neutral, meaning, that a customer stays independent of OEMs and MROs. It is also secure, granting customers full control and ownership of their data. Last but not least, the Ecosystem will be seamless to ensure a consistent workflow and data access across solutions.

“We are happy to welcome our experienced and successful colleagues at Swiss-AS to the Lufthansa Technik Group. It makes us proud that the world’s leading M&E/MRO software AMOS becomes a core part of our strategic focus on digital solutions. From now on, AMOS together with AVIATAR and flydocs form the new Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem. By joining forces, we are sending a clear signal that we are dedicated to driving digitalization along the entire tech ops value stream for the benefit of and together with our customers,” said Dr. William Willms, CFO of Lufthansa Technik.

“We are convinced that AMOS, as a centerpiece of the neutral and independent Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem, can expand its strengths even better together with Lufthansa Technik and its digital Tech Ops solutions. There is great potential for AMOS on its own, but even more so in combination with AVIATAR and flydocs,“ added Dr. Claus Bauer, VP Technical Fleet Management of SWISS, the current shareholder of Swiss-AS.

“While AMOS is the core system in a technical operation’s IT solutions landscape, its unparalleled integration capability is the key to ensure true end-to-end digitalization across the full value chain. Although AMOS is capable of integrating with any other market player, we believe that a tight alignment with the other Tech Ops Ecosystem solutions enables us to digitalize our customers faster using industry data exchange standards,” concluded Fabiano Faccoli, CEO of Swiss-AS.

In order to push the Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem, Lufthansa Group has decided to bundle all related activities under one organizational roof. For this purpose, Lufthansa Technik has purchased 100% of Swiss-AS shares from Swiss International Air Lines. Flydocs and AVIATAR are already part of Lufthansa Technik Group.

Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) is Switzerland’s largest air carrier. With one of Europe’s most advanced and carbon-efficient aircraft fleets, SWISS is a premium airline that provides direct flights from Zurich and Geneva to keep Switzerland connected with Europe and the world. Its Swiss WorldCargo division offers an extensive range of airport-to-airport airfreight services for high-value, time-critical and care-intensive consignments. As The Airline of Switzerland, SWISS embodies its home country’s traditional values and is dedicated to delivering the highest product and service quality. The company has also committed to the ambitious climate goals of halving its 2019 net carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and making its operations entirely carbon-neutral by 2050, particularly by promoting the use of sustainable aviation fuels. SWISS is part of the Lufthansa Group, and is also a member of Star Alliance, the world’s biggest airline network.

AVIATAR: Launched in 2017, AVIATAR is the independent platform for digital products and services developed by Lufthansa Technik. The platform offers its users digital products ranging from predictive maintenance to fulfilment and

automated solutions. AVIATAR combines fleet management solutions, data science and engineering expertise to provide a comprehensive range of integrated digital services and products for airlines, MRO companies, OEMs and lessors that seamlessly integrate with physical fulfilment in TechOps and beyond.

flydocs: flydocs is an asset management solution provider with the aviation industry’s most comprehensive solution for creating value out of aircraft maintenance data. The company offers 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.

Lufthansa Technik: With some 35 subsidiaries and affiliates, the Lufthansa Technik Group is one of the leading providers of technical aircraft services in the world. Certified internationally as maintenance, production and design organization, the company has a workforce of more than 20,000 employees. Lufthansa Technik’s portfolio covers the entire range of services for commercial and VIP/special mission aircraft, engines, components and landing gear in the areas of digital fleet support, maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification, completion and conversion as well as the manufacture of innovative cabin products.

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MRX Systems proudly presents its latest feature: the MRO Request Generation

MRX Systems unveiled Blue MRO with the ambition to complete the Blue EYE suite by offering a fully integrated platform that would allow CAMO and MRO to share a live environment where all data would be linked in a seamless . However, as some clients only provide CAMO or MRO services, they may only have the need for one module of the suite. The solution provider understood this challenge and saw it as an opportunity to create an ecosystem of users. In line with this, in late February 2023, MRX Systems proudly presented its latest feature: MRO request generation on a third-party database.

This feature enables users to generate a quotation on the MRO center’s database with one click based on the purchase order created from the CAMO’s database. This time-saving novelty is beneficial for both airworthiness managers and MRO centers. The MRO can turn the automatically generated quotation into a work order. And the CAMOs will see the up-to-date work progress and receive the full work report as soon as it is generated.

As an MRO center, you will be more likely to be chosen by a CAMO using Blue EYE. This creates opportunities to acquire more customers. MRX Systems proposes an address book of MRO centers to the CAMO companies with whom they work, to match their needs and put them in contact.

How does it work? You only need to contact the Support Team to create a link between the two databases. Then, the procedure is as simple as it has ever been. The CAMO creates the purchase order and selects the address book entity associated with the third-party database when they pick the addressee. Once the purchase order is ready, they click on ‘Generate MRO Request’. The MRO center refreshes the data in the ‘Quotations’ module and the quotation appears with all the job cards, parts, and tools required. As soon as a task is set as performed on the MRO side, this information will be available on the CAMO side. The work status is perpetually updated and once the work report is generated, it is forwarded to the related files section of the CAMO purchase order.

EXSYN are delighted to announce a collaboration with Lufthansa Technik

As part of the collaboration announced in late February 2023, EXSYN’s #aircraft #datamanagement the solution, #NEXUS, will play a vital role in providing the required technology and expertise to manage complex aircraft data flows as part of migrating aircraft fleets from the manage/m systems to AMOS. In addition, this is augmented with technical expertise provided by EXSYN’s team of Aircraft Data Consultants to make sure that aircraft are migrated between systems and at the same time minimize any risk of corruption of critical aircraft #airworthiness #data.

“EXSYN is well known for its capabilities in the field of aircraft data migration. After a thorough selection process, we decided that EXSYN would the best fit to support Lufthansa Technik in migrating our managed fleets from manage/m to AMOS.” stated Uwe Till, Head of Professional Business Services Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering at Lufthansa Techniik.

“Having a leading aircraft maintenance provider such as Lufthansa Technik select EXSYN as a partner for critical activities such as aircraft data migration is a true honor and underpins our place in the aviation industry as a true independent industry partner for aircraft data management solutions.” added Sander de Bree, CEO of EXSYN Aviation Solutions

AIRCRAFT FLEET VIEW

New version with new feature:

CAMO Release

■ developed for airlines

■ always up-to-date view on your fleet‘s status

■ easy-to-grasp view on events like current delays, cancellations and AOGs

■ specific views for flight operations and maintenance

■ customizable for airlines and users

In mid-March 2023, ASL Airlines France became the latest of ASL’s European airlines to be merged into ASL Aviation Holdings AMOS and to manage its own AMOS entity within the existing productive environment In October 2022, ASL Airline France were migrated fully. In 2021, ASL Airlines Belgium had followed the same path. The ‘Multi-Entity’ functions in AMOS allow multiple, financially independent entities to work in one common AMOS environment.

knowledge gained from their own AMOS implementation, and the daily support of the system, members from the ASL Group AMOS Competence Center, led by Stephen Prescott, supported the implementation project in large parts, whereas Swiss-AS provided its professional expertise for the training of the 40 new AMOS users in Belgium and 90 new AMOS users in CrossConsense.com

marketing@crossconsense.de

The project to transfer ASLB’s fleet into the existing ASL Group environment was underway when COVID-19 struck. Due to the new challenges brought about by COVID-19, the project could understandably have been impacted, but it remained on track due to the

fleet of 80 aircraft in AMOS.

“To have taken the bold decision to continue such a multi-faceted project, which involved parties from multiple countries and companies, whilst bringing new aircraft online and in such extraordinary circumstances that left no part of our industry untouched, was no mean feat. Adding both ASL France and ASL Belgium to an existing environment is also once more evidence of the scalability of AMOS, which is capable of managing a single aircraft or a fleet of hundreds,” stated Fabiano Faccoli, CEO of Swiss-AS.

“AMOS is a key project for ASL and the ASL and Swiss-AS teams demonstrated their commitment and innovative attitude in integrating both ASL France and ASL Belgium into our Group AMOS environment despite the background of the pandemic. As a result, we have made a significant step forward as we develop European centres of excellence and introduce group-wide systems that increase our efficiency and allow us to offer the best possible quality of service to our customers,” said Dave Andrew, Chief Executive, ASL Aviation Holdings.

ASL: ASL Aviation Holdings, a global aviation services company with

airlines based in Europe, South Africa and Asia, is a world leader in ACMI airline operations serving major cargo and passenger airlines. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ASL’s six airlines include ASL Airlines Ireland, ASL Airlines Belgium, ASL Airlines France and ASL Airlines United Kingdom in Europe. ASL also have joint venture and associate airlines FlySafair in South Africa and K-Mile Asia in Thailand. The group also includes several leasing entities. ASL Aviation Holdings operates cargo services for the world’s leading express parcel integrators and online retailers. Group airlines also operate scheduled and charter passenger services under its own airline brands on domestic, international, and intercontinental routes in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, North America and Africa.

Swiss AviationSoftware and AMOS: Swiss-AS is an industry leading M&E/ MRO software provider that offers an end-to-end integrated, highly intelligent software suite, designed to cover 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 airlines, flag carriers, and large airline groups to MRO providers — to digitalize and automate their maintenance processes and connect with other industry solutions via the connectivity platform AMOScentral. For more information, please contact marketing@swiss-as.com.

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Embracing MRO digital transformation

Adnan Mansur, Head of Digital and Innovation Services, Asia Digital Engineering shares ADE’s journey to a digital business

At Asia Digital Engineering (ADE), we have recently undertaken a journey to digital transformation and it is that journey that I’ll be sharing with readers in this article. What is meant by the term digital transformation and why has an MRO business called itself Asia Digital Engineering with no direct reference to aviation or MRO/M&E in the name? And, what is meant by digital transformation? My responsibilities, Digital and Innovation Services, include two core functions which are Software as a Service (SaaS) and Digital as a Service (DaaS). We have found that, while there are plenty of digital solutions on the market, the majority of them do not match the very complex operations in an MRO environment.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Salesforce defines digital transformation as, “… the process of using digital technologies to create new or modify existing business processes and customer experiences to meet challenging business and market requirements.”

Digital Transformation Why Now?

The first reason was to achieve an optimized operation. To reduce or remove silos has become a major objective in many aviation businesses today with the goal to increase efficiencies and productivity as well as use technology to reduce costs. Overall, the plan is to improve safety and enhance quality. These are, of course, internal objectives for ADE, the MRO, and they are why it was decided that digital transformation was the way forward. That said, there is another major reason for digital transformation and that is, how could we use technology to provide a better customer experience?

Now that ADE is no longer part of an airline, as you’ll see later, our market is

not limited to what were previously internal customers. We now also work for third-party customers. With that, we have to have a way to manage customers including, how do we use technology to ensure that they return with further business? When this project started, our current systems were not optimized for either expansion or for complex operations to improve customer retention. This is a new mindset for ADE, and we need to educate ourselves to keep in mind that a happy customer makes for a happy business. Technology and data will be harnessed for that purpose.

The third reason is to be able to use what we have and double up reasons one and two to help others to optimize their operations and to help them to better serve their own customers in the future, including providing our own software solutions.

“To reduce or remove silos has become a major objective in many aviation businesses today with the goal to increase efficiencies and productivity as well as use technology to reduce costs.”

There are some guiding principles for digital transformation which we stand by in ADE. There are a lot of technologies available such as blockchain and artificial intelligence but our principle is that we don’t simply implement technology for the sake of technology, there has to be an appropriate and relevant use-case, otherwise the technology will become a white elephant. We innovate to simplify and solve problems with a practical application of technology: not just because we can.

INTRODUCTION TO ADE

Asia Digital Engineering is an offshoot MRO company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital A Berhad (figure 2).

Most of ADE was previously the engineering department in AirAsia, Malaysia. In September 2020, that engineering department was taken out of the AirAsia airline and was constituted as a new entity called Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) as the engineering arm for the group. It was all done in the middle of the pandemic but that probably accelerated our decision to make the change. ADE is based in Kuala Lumpur, from where we offer the full range of maintenance services, primarily in Malaysia today with multiple presences (figure 3).

In the future, ADE will be expanding operations to neighboring countries including Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines — all places where we already have engineering capacity.

Figure 3

“…as an MRO, we provide an almost end-to-end solution with digital to glue everything together, to keep our customers flying. We are working towards digitizing MRO operations to optimize resources and deliver efficiency.”

MRO Services & Digital Solutions

We offer Base maintenance, Line Maintenance and Workshop support and will be adding further capabilities. ADE also offers services on CAMO functions and on asset management, redeliveries and the like; plus we have a component warehouse that manages all the assets. So, in the case of any AOGs (Aircraft on Ground), as an MRO, we provide an almost end-to-end solution with digital to glue everything together and to keep our customers flying. We are working towards digitizing MRO operations to optimize resources and deliver efficiency. Before we look at what ADE has done in the past few months, it will be useful to see the context of what we have been through as an airline engineering department and now as an MRO.

ADE IN THE PAST

The processes in figure 5 will be quite familiar to readers: they are the common processes that MROs deal with every day as part of being an MRO or an airline engineering and maintenance operation.

Figure 4

Often, these processes are not connected to each other because, perhaps, of the system that’s being used or, maybe, the data that is available doesn’t allow co-sharing or linking. These are the sort of legacy issues that we had before and that was one of the drivers that we used to re-invent our business. You can see, at the center, ‘Process, Data and People’ which are three key factors in making sure that your processes or your business are working efficiently and close together.

Let’s break down some of those factors in terms of issues that we had before, which will help readers to understand why they drove us to change. Some of the challenges that we had with data included:

• Data incompleteness because the engineering department in AirAsia still had a lot of paperwork that needed to be managed so, if the data are not all in the system, or even for those that are in the system but don’t flow in real time,

that makes decision making quite difficult and, if you want to make any decision, you often find that you’re being reactive rather than proactive.

• As I mentioned, there was a lot of data on paper just flying around in an unstructured form. Today, we all have Cloud storage systems but it means nothing if your data is on paper. So. we’re trying to change that.

• Finally, of course, with data being unstructured and not available in real time, the speed of decision making is also really impacted.

With processes, the challenges included:

• That we relied too much on manual processes. Even though the ERP system was there, sometimes, because of the complexity of the process, the users tended to find their own ways to get the job done, even inventing their own processes. That might also affect data collection on the systems side.

• Also, because of those manual processes, that might hinder collaboration with miscommunication raising communication barriers as part of manual processes.

Last in this list but by no means the least important, people experienced the

greatest challenges including:

• Because of those issues that we had before, there was low motivation for people who had to come to work every day and had to deal with the earlier issues; plus, with that low motivation, productivity was also adversely affected.

• Equally, when people are not provided with the correct tools to collaborate, again, the quality and speed of decision making can be impacted.

• Then, with a lack of technical expertise in-house, too many jobs had to be outsourced or dependent on off-the-shelf solutions. So, at ADE, we aim to not be so reliant on off-the-shelf solutions.

ADE OF TODAY AND TOMORROW

What are we going to do in the next five to 10 years? Most important is to ADE

Our plan in the next five to 10 years is to create one connected process rather than siloed separate processes as in figure 5. Technology is the enabler; it’s not the priority, it’s more the glue to keep all of these processes together and to glue process, data and people together. The technologies are shown on the outsides of the areas to emphasize that technology is not the priority and never has been for ADE: it’s more about how to enable the people, the data and the process to work closely together.

Data strategy

Our data strategy follows some lines that will be familiar to readers. First, to improve data completeness. Data completeness is key to being able to make decisions based on full data. Our industry has safety at its heart so having the full data is really important to ensure the best-informed approach and the best

“Technology is the enabler; it’s not the priority, it’s more the glue to keep all of these processes together and to glue process, data and people together.”

safety. We are also aiming to make ADE into a fully paperless operation by either using commercial off-the-shelf solutions or to completely develop in-house. Only by going fully paperless, can we complete our data collection processes. Also, as alluded to above, we aim to improve quality and safety. By having good clean data we’ll be able to ultimately improve quality and safety because, otherwise, there’s always an element of guesswork when the data is all over the place. Again, readers will be able to relate to this issue because the aviation industry can sometimes be quite slow in the adoption of technology and, at ADE, we’ve also been there.

Another part of what we plan to achieve with ADE’s data strategy is to increase operational performance. Once there is good data combined with good technology, the operational performance will improve and, from all of these new processes will come better decision making.

Once the right tools and improved data are in place it will be possible to minimize redundancies that are often introduced by manual processes and silos. Using technology, can provide more visibility through all departments and processes to avoid having to repeat what others have already done. Redundancies might also affect health and safety, another good reason for good data and good processes as well as reduced redundancies. When improving health and safety in terms of the manpower, there are a lot of use cases in the sector about using robotics and this could eventually help ADE’s workforce to better take care of themselves: for example, avoid lifting heavy weights where that might be better done by robots. That is a use case that would really benefit. Our mantra is not using technology to change but using technology to really help our people. In safety as well, using data and technology can provide alerts such as for an impending lightning strike. If there is technology that can predict that in advance the maintenance team can find shelter before that strike. In most cases, the impending lightning is realized a little too late and it is imperative for us, in the technology sector to reduce these incidents. Minimized redundancies and having good data as well as improving the speed of the data are important results from improved processes.

People

Once we have good processes and good data, people are better motivated which is good because, these days, we need to find ways to retain talent: with the industry booming again, the talent pool is becoming smaller while demand is growing. We need to use data to measure how we can make our people happier. You can measure workload and fatigue using data so that people have the ability to work with us longer and in greater safety. Plus, of course, we also need to use data and technology to grow people, not just to be in the same roles or processes for the next ten years. We want them to know what they can do efficiently compared to others and, of course, we want them to be using data. We also want to reward them for their achievements and, in the future, when we have IoT and other technologies we will want to reward our people more fairly.

“Once the right tools and improved data are in place it will be possible to minimize redundancies that are often introduced by manual processes and silos. Using technology, can provide more visibility…”

SUCCESS STORIES

Here are a few success stories that we have already achieved and to show how we are practicing what we preach with some use cases that we can share with readers: there’s more in the pipeline but this is what has already happened.

AEROTRADE™

This one grew from experience and the pain points experienced managing our procurement activities. In early 2021, ADE stared developing its own marketplace: initially just for ourselves to better manage our inventory. However, later we realized, based on the feedback from our partners and customers, that this could be useful for the wider industry (figure 7), so, we have started to invite partners from airlines and MROs, distributors, OEMs and the like, to be part of AEROTRADE™

we invite everyone to join and be part of this evolution. At the time of writing, there were more than 23 international companies who have joined to be part of the AEROTRADE™ ecosystem as well as to better manage their inventories.

CASCADE™

The second use case I would like to share with readers is our in-house developed productivity application, CASCADE™ (figure 8).

As an in-house parts and materials marketplace, we used our experience from working as part of an airline to develop what we think is a better way to do it and

The pain points that inspired this application were managing our people because, as you saw in the map, figure 3, our maintenance people are all over Malaysia at all the major airports, plus, in MRO, the people are the highest cost to manage. Having a Bird’s Eye view of the people and their productivity is very important, so we developed for ourselves a mobile application that people can take on their own device, with which they will be familiar, wherever they are, and start tracking their tasks in order to start measuring everybody’s productivity and reward. This ties back to the previous reference to how we plan to reward people using technology.

Figure 7

Figure 8

“As an in-house parts and materials marketplace, we used our experience from working as part of an airline to develop what we think is a better way to do it and we invite everyone to join and be part of this evolution.”

You can see now why we have included the ‘Digital’ in ‘Asia Digital Engineering’; it’s because we see ourselves to be not just an MRO and maintenance provider; we also see ourselves to be one of the software providers for the aviation MRO industry.

E-Learning

A final use case that I’d like to share with you, is in terms of training. Because of limitations on movement during Covid, there were a lot of classes that needed to be done using virtual means such as Zoom and Teams which led us to realize that that presented an opportunity for us to further cut costs by building our own recurrent training platform internally, which has been approved by our own executive and is now running completely virtually in ADE (figure 9).

We are also doing a lot more process developments; this is more for internal systems at the moment but there will be more to come. That’s a brief introduction to ADE’s digital transformation program which, I hope, will inspire some readers to embark on their own program and others to join us as partners on our journey.

ADNAN MANSUR

Adnan earned his Bachelor’s in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona and was involved in managing the aircraft and component diagnostic and analytics as a Warranty & Reliability Manager in AirAsia before being appointed as Digital Project Manager in AirAsia Digital, where today he is pioneering the digital transformation in Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) as Head of the Digital & Innovation Service by adopting new technologies to solve problems in the MRO industry.

ASIA DIGITAL ENGINEERING (ADE)

Seven engineering recurrent courses have been re-developed as On-Demand Learning (ODL) programs and we’ve also managed to develop a proof of concept for VR (Virtual Reality) training. We think there is a lot of potential for VR, again because of Covid and because, in this very large industry, a lot of people who need to train might not always have access to an aircraft: hence our belief that VR has a bright future in aviation. In MRO, while the majority come from a maintenance background and will have access to aircraft every day, with the business growing so much, there will be people in the company who might not have such ready access to aircraft, people such as software engineers, administrators and more. This VR-based e-Learning will offer them an opportunity to become familiar with the aircraft’s technology and be able to contribute to the work and see themselves as part of the aviation industry.

Leveraging the AirAsia’s Engineering Department’s best practices and experience, ADE offers 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 our customers at all times.

Figure 9

VENDOR JOB CARD: ASIA DIGITAL ENGINEERING (ADE)

Adnan Mansur shares ADE’s journey to a stand alone MRO and how technology has informed the business’s success

After graduating with in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona, Adnan’s aviation industry career began at AirAsia, where he was responsible for overseeing aircraft and component diagnostics and analytics. He later became Digital Project Manager and, today is Head of Digital & Innovation Services at Asia Digital Engineering (ADE). Adnan’s work has helped pave the way for ADE to undergo a much-needed technological revolution and he remains passionate about solving complex problems with technology.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title, and the name of the business?

Adnan Mansur: Adnan Mansur, Head of Digital & Innovation Services, Asia Digital Engineering (ADE).

Aircraft IT: How did Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) get started?

AM: ADE’s journey began amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic, which had brought the aviation industry to its knees. During these challenging times, the leadership of Capital A Berhad realised the need to leverage its expertise to support the industry. It recognised the potential to build on the established excellence of AirAsia’s Engineering Department to create a dedicated MRO player. With over 20 years of experience serving the region’s largest low-cost airline, ADE was established to provide a muchneeded service to the aviation industry.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives ADE?

AM: ADE was built on the principle of delivering exceptional end-to-end aircraft maintenance services to our clients. We aim to set new standards of quality and innovation in the industry by leveraging the expertise of a highly skilled professional team and cutting-edge technologies.

Aircraft IT: What has ADE’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why?

AM: Regarding ADE’s achievements, there have been notable milestones across various business areas, especially on the digital side. For instance, AEROTRADE, our B2B aviation marketplace, has accomplished impressive customer growth. To date, we have successfully onboarded 50 partners from

“ADE has successfully acquired AR and VR capability, and demonstrated a proof of concept in aircraft maintenance training that can be easily adopted in training schools”

across the globe and have uploaded $96 million worth of inventories in our marketplace, with frequent transactions happening daily. Our condition monitoring app, ELEVADE, has achieved a significant feat by launching with AirAsia and AirAsia X, allowing them to track the performance of critical components in their aircraft fleet. Meanwhile, our productivity management app, CASCADE, has achieved a noteworthy internal rollout and integration with AMOS, Workday and JIRA, as well as introducing a barcode scanner capability for task cards and work orders, along with features for shift and roster management. Additionally, ADE has successfully acquired AR and VR capability, and demonstrated a proof of concept in aircraft maintenance training that can be easily adopted in training schools and educational institutions.

Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments, and what have you learned from them?

AM: Slow user adoption can be a challenge for businesses implementing new technology solutions. To improve user adoption, ADE has taken several steps, including:

Encouraging feedback and participation: we observed that users are more likely to adopt new technology if they have a say in the process. When we encourage feedback and participation, users feel more invested in the technology and more likely to use it.

Providing training and support: we realised that users might be hesitant to adopt new technology if they do not feel confident using it; hence, by providing training and ongoing support, users feel more comfortable and confident, which can increase adoption rates.

Communicating the benefits: users may be more likely to adopt new technology if they understand its benefits, such as increased efficiency or improved accuracy. We noticed that communicating these benefits clearly can motivate users to adopt the new technology.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarise what ADE does for aircraft maintenance customers?

AM: ADE provides exceptional aircraft maintenance services with a strong focus on leveraging advanced digital technology to optimise operational efficiency, reduce costs and enhance customer experience.

Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT?

AM: There are a few emerging trends that have the potential to revolutionize the aircraft maintenance industry in the near future. One of these is the increased use of big data analytics and predictive maintenance to anticipate and prevent maintenance issues before they occur. Additionally, augmented and virtual reality technologies could streamline maintenance operations, reduce costs, and enhance worker safety. Another trend is the growing adoption of additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, to produce parts and components on-site, reducing lead times and increasing efficiency. Finally, the use of drones and robotics for inspections and

maintenance tasks in difficult-to-reach areas is another area with tremendous potential. Overall, the increasing integration of advanced digital technologies into maintenance operations is likely a key driver of innovation and transformation in the industry in the years to come.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about ADE?

AM: ADE’s ultimate goal is to provide exceptional aircraft maintenance services that exceed customer expectations. Ideally, we want our customers to say that working with ADE is a seamless, stress-free experience and that they can rely on us to deliver high-quality customized services to meet their specific needs. We want our customers to feel confident that they are receiving the most advanced and innovative solutions available and that they can trust us always to put their needs first. In short, we want our customers to view ADE as a reliable and trusted partner for all their aircraft maintenance needs.

Aircraft IT: Adnan Mansur, thank you for your time.

“Overall, the increasing integration of advanced digital technologies into maintenance operations is likely a key driver of innovation and transformation in the industry in the years to come.”

“…we want our customers to say that working with ADE is a seamless, stress-free experience and that they can rely on us to deliver high-quality customized services to meet their specific needs.”

The secret of a successful MRO IT System upgrade project

James Cornelius, President of ROTA

Technology walks readers through the journey of an MRO IT system upgrade project

All too many people view a software upgrade project as a trial of endurance with many hidden bear traps along the journey: but it needn’t be like that. With the right processes and organization plus the input of an expert guide, a project can be not only successfully completed but also a positive career experience for all the people involved. This article is about how to organize an upgrade project for a successful outcome with satisfied users. But before that, an introduction to ROTA technology.

ROTA TECHNOLOGY

ROTA was formed in 2015 by some already experienced project leaders from larger companies. The company’s first contract was for a defense startup implementation located in a very austere environment. What evolved from that was a better way to come at MRO IT by focusing on project management discipline and common-sense customer engagement. Experience, since that start, has included ten implementations, 25 upgrades and 18 system evaluations with many ad hoc maintenance technology projects.

WHAT PROJECTS ENTAIL

For ROTA, a key factor is that we need to build strong relationships with key personnel. Whether it’s a new client or a business with which we’ve worked in the past, it’s important to get access to key stakeholders and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) from the IT and the Business sides of the airline to assemble a single team for the project.

First, our team will map out the task deliverables as well as both resources and hazards: this builds a good rapport early on between the SMEs in the client business and the ROTA team who will then build a project plan for approval and adoption by the client’s team. In this, the combined teams get through what can usually be very tough sessions such as cataloging the processes that the client already has plus the processes that ROTA has, and identifying any gaps. Pairing the right ROTA SME with their appropriate counterpart in the client’s business ensures that the process is extremely efficient and ROTA is able to guide the process and close any gaps.

As this phase draws to its end, ROTA partners with the client’s internal team, responsible for the software to be upgraded, to start indexing results around UAT (User Acceptance Testing), managing bugs and making decisions around functionality. This is also where the project inertia starts to have to be managed to keep things moving forward at all times. Finally, ROTA delivers post-upgrade support which is usually stand-alone but can be delivered in partnership with the client’s internal team.

So, why do airlines and MROs decide to upgrade their software?

THE DECISION TO UPGRADE AN MRO IT SYSTEM

What is often overlooked with software upgrades or gets lost at the start of a project is the original reasons to make the upgrade. As a consultant, ROTA believes that it is valuable to dig into these original reasons to upgrade as deep as the customer will allow because, ultimately, those reasons will affect project

“Pairing the right ROTA SME with their appropriate counterpart in the client’s business ensures that the process is extremely efficient and ROTA is able to guide the process and close any gaps.”

nuances and tempo once underway. One example could be that, if the upgrade is necessary for a sympathetic system to work correctly, it’s important to make sure that the modules and departments are all focused on that. This is not to say that all aspects of an upgrade are not important but that special attention needs to be paid to those particular areas. Anything suspect has to be escalated with a higher priority.

Many upgrade decisions are based on a lot of the same reasons; either needing an upgrade or contemplating one. Sometimes, the approaching end of support for current versions of software, which might include a lot of backlogs of fixes and modifications, means that a growing number of software obsolescences can become a restricting factor for the airline or MRO’s ability to continue efficient operations. For all of these reasons, upgrading to the latest version of the system or to a new system can be a priority as well as to facilitate additional projects within the technology roadmap. The technology roadmap is dependent on a series of upgrades to move forward.

PROJECT PLANNING

Notwithstanding all of that, it’s a big deal making the decision to upgrade. It can be emotional and there is always an element of risk with significant

Pr ocess

The start of the process is with discovery, initial meetings with users, management and stakeholders. This time is very important to the project: although it has to happen quickly. Based on experience, ROTA has a

methodology that helps to understand the customer, their capabilities, shortcomings and, conversely, their strengths. Taking the time to properly understand stakeholders and SMEs’ perspectives helps mitigate any risks once the project is underway. It also establishes the background to ensure that the project is always putting the customer’s needs first.

These meetings help to understand the culture of a company, how rigid is their Project Management (PM) methodology and how end users interact with the management groups that run the business’s systems. It’s the first opportunity for ROTA to start working in its own PM Methodology which is to start levelsetting expectations based around a strict timeline adherence. This is also the time to start to plan for any data that might be affected along with configuration changes. Sometimes, the customers making the upgrade are on a tight schedule to, for instance, induct new aircraft; and some things cannot be put on hold while the upgrade is being accomplished. At other times there could be certain sympathetic applications that the new configuration might affect. It all has to be taken into account during the planning phase.

In many cases, the next step is to consider what levels of training will be required and whether the airline or MRO requires a niche modification that would completely change an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Also, it had to be established whether there might be changes to the UI (User Interface) and/ or UX (User eXperience) that front-line users could struggle with; it might be just a different look and feel but its impact has to be considered.

At this stage in any project, ROTA starts to baseline the user acceptance testing, meaning, how good are the client’s processes; will they just need to be complimented or will a complete re-write be necessary? All of this helps to work out when the project can plan for the cutover and how that will look. Each one of these planning sessions should give the upgrade project team an idea as to how long and to what depth post-upgrade support would need to be organized. After this round of due diligence is complete, with a project plan developed and approved by the client, there is no time to waste.

“…upgrading to the latest version of the system or to a new system can be a priority as well as to facilitate additional projects within the technology roadmap. The technology roadmap is dependent on a series of upgrades to move forward.”

ROTA will send a team into the main workspace either in person, or in a virtual or hybrid manner. ROTA SMEs are paired with Client SMEs based on knowledge and experience — ROTA SMEs have often spent years working in the same jobs as the people they are paired with plus they have a deep understanding of information technology.

CORE PROJECT TENETS

Once the planning process is complete, ROTA executes the plan to some core

The first key tenet is project plan and project management. This is a collective road map that ties together multiple departments within the client’s business, multiple companies outside and countless people inherent to them all. As mentioned above, ROTA develops this road map by spending time with all stakeholders, learning the ins and outs of the organization, nuances, etc., but what is most important is that, once the kick-off is held, a strict project management discipline is put in place from day one. If tasks slide, it’s important to know why, if team members have road blocks, ROTA will clear them immediately: every plan has a different level of discipline based on company culture, biases and/or team members.

We’ve all heard things like, ‘this was how it was done in the past’ or have known places where the client company lacks inter-departmental collaboration. ROTA takes all that on and quickly institutes its own discipline to the project which is supported with regular meetings that hold people and, sometimes, processes accountable, every time, without exception. Remember that this was started in the planning phase but the pressure will be increasing incrementally each day, if not each hour. Everyone knows that you manage to the plan which also helps to drive change, whether subtle or dynamic, and proper engagement helps to drive both. By setting PM expectations early on, projects normally end on a high note instead of pushing and dragging people across the finish line.

Lastly, business process management: when a complete set of processes exists, testing becomes very easy to manage and document. This is not usually the case anywhere you go. ROTA uses a BPM (Business Process Management)

2.0 system to house, organize and then map to a clients’ unique business needs. This is typically where ROTA takes the customer partnership and engagement to a new level. For instance; usually the first task is to level set existing processes from both companies, airlines and software vendor, and identify new or missing processes. ROTA will work with the corresponding SMEs from the client, developing synergy and, again in short order, producing processes that could be used as test scripts. Throughout this process we also test application

PROJECT PLAN / PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• Pre-meetings with client team to assess and agree on resources, timeline, etc.

• Project plan developed by ROTA and approved by client

• Project kick-off meeting

BPMN 2.0 / CLIENT ENVIRONMENT SET-UP

• Processes designed and taught to client engineering department

• Processes developed by client’s ‘Software Admin’ department

• Merged and aligned client process with ROTA processes for test scripts

CUSTOMER PARTNERSHIP & ENGAGEMENT

• Super user engagement for alignment

• Department walkthroughs with ROTA SMEs

• New processes and editing of base processes

MAINTAINING PROJECT INERTIA

• Client engagement through respect of each other’s knowledge

• Persistency through a shared timeline/vision

• Engagement with customer members, management to endusers, during testing

“The first key tenet is project plan and project management. This is a collective road map that ties together multiple departments within the client’s business, multiple companies outside and countless people inherent to them all.”

“Project management discipline and common-sense customer engagement allow the teams to very quickly work through any vendor-consultant biases to a place of mutual respect. All of this while keeping the project on point.”

configurations, new or enhanced functionality and APIs with lots of sympathetic SWIM (System Wide Information Management) wins happening at the same time. Once the processes or set of processes are level-set, ROTA runs through an initial test and signs that off: the client SMEs follow up with their test and sign that off. This ensures that testing is only complete after a very robust and complete process in which both the client and ROTA have been closely involved. We all know that some processes are more complex than others so, where necessary, ROTA will continue to work with their counterparts in the client organization on the level-setting process. As this process continues and more test scripts are signed off, the more challenging the remaining ones become: this is where time lines usually start to stretch when the challenge is complexity or user issues such as having day jobs; ROTA relies on a disciplined project management approach, starting on day one, while managing project inertia. This is also where we start to blend the human factor with the software factor. Project management discipline and common-sense customer engagement allow the teams to very quickly work through any vendor-consultant biases to a place of mutual respect. All of this while keeping the project on point. Finally, managing project inertia. For some, this is possibly the hardest tenet to see through. It’s only possible if you are involved in every daily meeting or have seen every single SWIM win or discipline in the process of the level-setting phase of the project. One day, it could just be getting SMEs off the starting block, another day helping to influence a decision in a way that doesn’t cascade through the whole project and affect the timeline. It is constant and mostly comes from vast experience coupled with human and software factors meticulously blended. A couple of examples.

As we start to close out the testing, we’re holding initial meetings on the actual cutover, again managing inertia. Because one phase rolls into or overlaps with the next, there is no idle time. This also helps to push the closing out of testing. Pressure has been continuous and continues to increase incrementally. Another example is cutover. Cutover can be a very long night, entering data with complexities that, in most cases, require split second decisions: it’s the culmination of a lot of hard work coupled with very high stress. Whether doing it themselves or whether they’re doing it with a talented internal team, ROTA is there to help steady nerves and provide feedback on those decisions. Again, inertia; gently nudging one way or the other to make sure of the success. We’ve all seen what the effects of getting cold feet the night of cutover can cost; this is especially true in the loss of inertia, once it is lost on a sixty-day upgrade, it is almost impossible to get back.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

First and foremost, the consultant and customer partnership is critical. The consultant has to understand the decision at all levels, the reasons to upgrade.

Customer engagement has to be developed throughout the whole process, planning the project, executing the project, utilizing core tenets. Finally, supporting the project when it’s complete to close it out successfully. Everyone should walk away, head held high after a successful project. No one upgrade is like any other, they are unique and should be treated as such. ROTA always takes a long hard look at every project to ensure that the next project is done even more completely and better.

I hope that readers have gained some value from this article to inform their own next upgrade or implementation project.

JAMES CORNELIUS

James is an experienced MRO IT Program Manager with deep experience in both commercial and defense aviation software. Prior to starting ROTA, he spent nearly three decades working in aviation. Starting with Boeing and transitioning to FAR 121 carriers, James worked through the ranks to leadership roles across multiple departments in maintenance and engineering, and the IT world. He is a Veteran of the United States Marine Corps.

ROTA TECHNOLOGY INC.

With MRO systems projects and support spanning both the military and commercial markets ROTA brings proven experience to all sides of aviation. Specializing in system implementations and upgrades, ROTA brings deep knowledge of aviation business processes, integrated into custom built software. Aside from upgrades ROTA has completed a number of data projects from cleaning up aircraft configuration to system security overhauls plus training and ongoing admin support for any MRO IT needs.

“Everyone should walk away, head held high after a successful project. No one upgrade is like any other, they are unique and should be treated as such”

Maintenance planning at

FedEx Express: Today and in the future

Roger L. Hutchinson II, Manager TechOps Strategic Mx. Planning and Elliot Margul, CEO Aerostrat share FedEx Express’s journey to a new and integrated maintenance planning solution

Like many airlines, six years ago, FedEx Express’s IT capability was based on old mainframe systems. However, with a large and growing modern fleet, the airline was looking for ways to streamline maintenance processes, including maintenance planning. Roger had always been of the view that maintenance planning should not be difficult and that there should be ways to automate it as well as the software to make that happen. That said, FedEx Express had never previously had access to the systems or the sort of software solutions available today. This case study is about how FedEx Express started to change that and how it found the right partner with which to achieve the necessary modernization of maintenance planning as well as the integration of that modernized solution with the rest f the business.

FEDEX EXPRESS MAINTENANCE PLANNING GOALS

Let’s start with why FedEx Express needed a new software solution. Throughout its history, FedEx had implemented data systems both purchased from other carriers and developed in-house, and was looking for a better way to do things, such as having the ability to track defined tasks and to add their own data into a system. This was reflected in two sets of planning goals with the overall objective to modernize and streamline the business but which also identified several individual goals within those overall objectives. First, to modernize, FedEx Express needed:

• Improved speed of planning;

• A greater amount of detail;

• Better collaboration across planning and department;

• To provide a modern UI for legacy systems;

• To provide a platform to enable planners to make strategic planning decisions rather than ‘plan what’s next’.

The second set of objectives could be summarized as ‘streamline the business’ expressed as… streamline the planning process from plan to induction; hasten the process of understanding changes and variables via scenarios; automate as much as possible and ensure the team focuses on value-added tasks.

THE SOLUTION SELECTED AND IMPLEMENTED BY FEDEX EXPRESS

Aerostrat started six and a half years ago and was exhibiting for the first time at MRO Americas with what might best be described as the shell of a product compared with today. Notwithstanding that, two people from FedEx went to the booth and started a long conversation that turned into a longer and ongoing project which is the subject of this case study. Following that first meeting, Aerostrat and FedEx Express worked on the airline’s needs and pushed the software product in ways that had not been anticipated by its creators when they first built it, stretching the team and the product with different levels of

innovation. Because of that, Aerostrat and FedEx Express commenced a multi-year project. Rather than just focusing the Aerostrat product on creating a modern maintenance planning solution for FedEx Express, it was instead used as interface for multiple legacy systems as well as, in the long run, being able to drive a large range of business simulation software.

The Aerostrat product, Aerros, is a heavy maintenance planning solution creating a platform for users to add whatever tasks they want to track, with all the necessary fleet data to a high level of detail. For either or both aircraft and aircraft models, users can create a utilization model that is static or set for an absolute date range. That information, with tasks, can be used to actually forecast every time that each requirement will have to be met, right up to end-of-life for each aircraft.

The solution then takes the constraints that are required to complete heavy maintenance with a range not limited to maintenance allocations or track allocations. Additionally, the system understands the compatibilities between tracks and requirements, and requirements and requirements. The solution also monitors and optimizes the yield goals for every single task: what is the minimum and maximum yield that’s allowed for each task and what is the target yield for each task. Furthermore, Aerros takes in capacity information down to the shift on a specific day and what is the amount of labor required to get the maintenance visit accomplished.

The system incorporates all these various data inputs and uses an auto scheduling tool to create an optimized plan that spans multiple years: almost all of Aerostrat’s customers maintain a five-year schedule with that information. The solution also offers users the ability to quickly edit the information, push the data out to stakeholders, edit any variable down to a day or a shift, re-flow the schedule and understand the implications of that change. From there, Aerros gives users the tools to analyze those outcomes so that they can understand what that variable will do if it did change or create a new maintenance plan as a result of that change.

“Throughout its history, FedEx had implemented data systems both purchased from other carriers and developed in-house, and was looking for a better way to do things…”

Why Aerostrat was chosen

Early on, when FedEx Express and Aerostrat first started to meet, one of the things that attracted the airline to the software business was that, speaking with Aerostrat, it seemed that their goals lined up with those of FedEx Express. Also, being a small business at the time, they were very customer focused (figure 1).

Why Aerostrat was Chosen

“…when FedEx Express and Aerostrat first started to meet, one of the things that attracted the airline to the software business was that, speaking with Aerostrat, it seemed that their goals lined up with those of FedEx Express.”

FedEx Express had been looking around the market already and had looked at other products. However, when they met the team at Aerostrat, it seemed to be a better fit with the ability to take on some challenging tasks and FedEx was a significant challenge.

IMPLEMENTING THE NEW SOLUTION

The conversations about maintenance planning and scheduling, allocation management and the future state of what planning would look like, revealed an instant connection between the two businesses with a lot of commonalities in thought. While the lengthy contracting process was underway, the joke was that FedEx serves 230 markets around the world, almost 90% of the GDP companies of the world, and can be just as big and bureaucratic as the anyone, including when it comes to getting a new software solution approved. But, during that process, the parties were able to work together over several meetings, some very in-depth discussions, testing the software, and a lot of questions back and forth. It gave Aerostrat a great chance to understand what FedEx Express was doing and it gave the airline a great chance to learn about better ways of doing things.

Also, FedEx Express found Aerostrat very responsive and adaptable looking at the legacy systems that the airline had and, to some extent, still has. At FedEx Express, Air Operations was the first division to completely migrate away from the green screen main frame systems to internally cloud based systems and the team at Aerostrat were a big part of that. Also, from a security standpoint, Aerostrat has met and exceeded all of the FedEx Information Security requirements, in fact feedback from FedEx’s information security people was that, for an at the time small company, it was surprising how well Aerostrat could handle security matters.

FedEx Express is currently going through four processes (figure 2) in which they’re currently at the enabling output and decision-making stage between ‘Streamlining data flows’ and ‘Enabling Output and decision making’.

The Plan

Aerostrat and FedEx Express were aligned Aerostrat’s security practices Aerostrat is agile and flexible

Other solutions were:

Figure 1

Streamline data flows Enabling output and decision making Bridging the gap

Figure 2

Stages of the implementation

The first stage was ‘Foundational’ (figure 3), bringing the software into FedEx Express, getting it white listed and getting all the communications going.

Foundational

Make sure Planners can continue job and expand functionality

§ Environment setup

§ Data migration

§ Loading data

§ Training Planners

§ Moving core workflows to Aerros

§ Planning one-way integrations from FedEx Express systems to Aerros

Figure 3

‘Streamlining data flows’ referred to legacy systems: Aerros was turned on at an early stage and some legacy software was turned off. Everybody involved was told about the new software and the go-live date but when the legacy software was turned

Performance Starts With A Plan

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

data migration had to be done, loading a lot of data, and there had to be a training program. At the start, it was all Aerros data going into FedEx Express system with no flow the other way.

With the legacy system a simplistic method of maintenance event planning was employed. When there was a maintenance event that was

Learn how Aerros can dramatically improve your planning results today.

aerostratsoftware.com

info@aerostratsoftware.com

“Everybody involved was told about the new software and the go-live date but when the legacy software was turned off there were unexpected issues with some reporting that was dependent on data from the legacy system. This meant that the teams had to step back and re-group to see who was doing what with legacy data.”

about to fall due, there was also the next event that would come due of the same type, everything between those two events got pulled into that workscope. This was obviously not the best way to do it because there was a tendency to pull things into maintenance events that don’t belong there while not looking at the materials requirements or all of the other issues that go with it.

Integrations and streamlining data flows

Once the foundational steps had been completed and the planning team had been set-up so that they could at least continue doing their jobs, and while we began to really work on integrations, we also began to streamline data flows (figure 4).

Streamline Data Flows

Ensure planning is based on real-time information by implementing microservice-based interactions with legacy systems.

while Aerostrat’s Aerros was in the Cloud, the systems at FedEx were all Intranet and locally hosted on FedEx Express’s data centers. In order to talk to them, Aerostrat had to build side-to-side VPN implementations to tunnel through the firewalls and communicate with them in real-time. The other piece for Aerostrat was that they also had to implement SSO using Azure B to C to build the authentication systems both for users, so that every stakeholder at FedEx Express could log-in, but also to securely authenticate with both the VPN and the microservices that had been implemented. By doing all of this, Aerostrat set up an ability and function in conjunction with the foundational side to set up the next phases of the project.

Enabling output and decision making

Enabling Output and Decision Making

Key to realizing the objectives that FedEx Express is looking at is syncing FedEx Express’s data to the existing legacy systems (figure 5).

Extract Aerros output for analysis, decision-making, and downstream system usage

Data Insights Objectives

Implemented single sign-on (SSO)

This was a very technical, behind the scenes effort that required a large number of development hours. It began with Aerostrat looking at both systems and, as they were legacy systems, there were no APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) available plus, albeit that Aerros uses a service-based architecture and has over 700 out of the box APIs, none of them was compatible with FedEx Express’s system. Initially, Aerostrat needed to meet with FedEx IT on multiple occasions, then created a plan for both sides to build their own microservices so, that way, both systems could talk. The benefit of this and something that really sets apart the integrations at FedEx Express, is that Aerostrat created real-time integrations so that, the moment an aircraft lands that updates in the Aerros system just as it would in FedEx’s internal system. Similarly, the moment a schedule is published, and the five-year plan is available to all stakeholders, it’s possible to update all the necessary data in FedEx’s current legacy systems. So, Aerostrat created a real-time communication but the challenge here was that,

One major challenge over many years had been that it was always so hard to get data for FedEx’s data warehouse from legacy systems because there had to be someone who could write code to build a report either as an Excel spreadsheet or a printed report. Now, with the new data warehouse, FedEx Express has the ability in real time to make daily updates to the system, extract data and report migration. So, looking to the future, phase three and beyond, is not just the ability to forecast the next scheduled event but, putting in aircraft utilizations, specifications, hours and cycles — date driven things. FedEx Express will be able to project out events into the future and is looking to use that to forecast for multi-year budgeting, allocations such as landing gear forecasts. As an example, FedEx Express took delivery of its Boeing 777 fleet fairly close together with the first fifteen aircraft all arriving within a year and now, the airline is getting into landing gear changes. However, you can’t have fifteen landing gear changes in the triple seven fleet occur within fifteen months because there’s not enough gear available in the supply chain to support that and you can’t have all the

Setup modern APIs and microservices

Used those services to update all data in Aerros in real-time

Site to site VPN implementation

Real-time communication between Aerostrat’s cloud services and FedEx Express legacy systems

Figure 4

Figure 5

aircraft grounded. So, a way had to be figured out to meter those first gear changes and then going forward into the future.

The Work Scope Builder/Planner in the part of Aerros that was being worked with at the time of writing, meant taking the two basic system in which the Workscope Planners work, but within those two systems are multiple screens and tabs. FedEx Express was then in the process of pulling all that into the Aerros product so the Workscope planner is within the one software piece and then that information is sent out to the various systems including FedEx Express’s main forecasting system of record (Workbench) and the Production Control System which manages the work packages that go to the worksites. Following the completion of that build, the airline moved into training and testing so that it could all go live in Spring of 2023. There were a couple of issues that arose with the go-live including that the purchasing Material Planning organization had been independently running a Landing gear overhaul report of which the Aerros implementation team was unaware. When the old system was turned off, that also turned off their report. But Aerostrat dealt with that and the old legacy system has now been properly turned off. Now, FedEx Express has the ability to generate over-the-horizon views which is also a part of the new system that the airline really likes.

Bridging the gap

Unifying the planning process is an important objective and one of the things that has been discussed at FedEx Express is integrating the materials systems and to have the materials system talking to the planning system and forecasting

Bridging the Gap

Reduce friction for each step from plan to induction

Objectives

§ Unify “Planning Processes” across all systems

§ Workscope Builder

§ Seamlessly integrate systems so they act as one

§ Automate workscope planning decision making

Key to Success

§ Auto Build Workscopes

§ Make workscope recommendations based on compatibility and risk

§ Humans analyze workscopes, then alter and approve

§ Workscope is then generated in dependent legacy systems

The Work Skill/Scope builder, which FedEx Express finds really exciting, is taking the process that s being done now, and beginning to automate that. So, as one scheduled maintenance event ends and a new event starts, the forecast is a B Check or a C Check and the plan is for Aerros to query the old forecasting system and begin to bring things in as it builds Work Scopes in advance with the idea being that, by the time that the aircraft is ready, two weeks to 45 days prior to induction, the planner would review what Aerros has suggested, either agree or disagree, and makes changes. Along with that, FedEx Express has to make sure that the right work is scheduled at the right event. For example, you wouldn’t want a pylon removal to be done during a 24-hour check; that needs to be planned well ahead.

A group of people from the FedEx Express Maintenance Planning & Scheduling organization have been involved in this at various levels of planning. Using a Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) methodology, they developed a Technical Risk Assessment with considerations such as, ‘does the aircraft require tanks to

“… the Workscope planner is within the one software piece and then that information is sent out to the various systems including FedEx Express’s main forecasting system of record (Workbench)…”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Looking even further ahead, FedEx Express is looking at simulation software, multi-year planning windows, even life-cycle planning. Also under consideration is a capacity and demand system for the whole maintenance system and how that could be built. So far, they’ve come up with simulation software because once there’s a basic forecast for the next C Check cycle, that can be built out and requirements changed to allow for more or less aircraft, flying.

With that, let’s take a look at the Aerros system and what it will look like when the FedEx Express project is complete (figure 7).

Currently, Aerros is importing data from FedEx Express’s legacy compliance system to help the long-range planning team build their heavy maintenance plans; using this data to feed the long-range forecast, to set up their scenarios and, once those decisions have been made, publishing to all stakeholders. Further than that, the airline is also using the data to build their Work Scopes, for which purpose Aerostrat is building a customized Work Scope Building tool. The users will also take that data and feed it into other FedEx systems.

Figure 7

“There are two pieces to this. One is a variety of different legacy systems, including the compliance system. The other one is the various analytics systems, including the data warehouse as well as the simulation systems.”

There are two pieces to this. One is a variety of different legacy systems, including the compliance system. The other one is the various analytics systems, including the data warehouse as well as the simulation systems. All of that Aerros data is being taken to provide the forecasts, the information and the actual plans that FedEx Express needs and then using that to update all the dependent systems that exist in the business today.

Looking forward, FedEx Express and Aerostrat want to continue to bridge the gap between long-range planning and production planning (figure 8).

Future Goals

Continue to bridge the gap between long-range planning and production planning

Real-Time Collaboration

Aerostrat is releasing real-time collaboration to streamline multi-user and multi-department planning objectives

Maintenance Planning Suite

Entire suite of planning solutions to cover all aspects of planning

be most efficient. If there is a tool that allows you to see that over-the-horizon view, then you can see where things might go wrong because one thing that maintenance planning is pretty good at is telling people that they have a problem and even when it will manifest itself; now, everybody can see what is happening and that there will be that problem at that time.

ROGER HUTCINSON II

Roger started his career as a Helicopter Mechanic, he has worked as a Hangar Mechanic, a Logistic Support Analyst and in several managerial positions at FedEx Express, currently in Strategic Maintenance Planning. Roger holds an FAA Airframe & Powerplant qualification and Private Pilot’s license. He also has a BS in Aviation Management from Southern Illinois University and a MBA from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

ELLIOT MARGUL

Deeper, Dynamic Business Planning

Use Aerros’ multiple years of planning data, in combination with other business simulation software

Aerostrat is working on two big endeavors with FedEx Express input. The first is a real-time collaboration tool within Aerros. It will be a huge advancement, especially for larger carriers such as FedEx because of what it will enable planners to do. With real-time collaboration, planners will be able to see what the others are doing live. So, for example, on a scenario, they’ll each be able to see, regardless of individual geographical locations, which event they’re editing — as they drag and drop events, update work scopes, etc. The other thing on which Aerostrat is working with FedEx’s input is a maintenance planning suite initially focusing on Heavy maintenance but to include a power plant planning tool and a line planning tool.

Finally, FedEx Express is working towards using the data to support deeper dynamic business planning covering very important things like maintenance allocation management. The plan is also to make data available to other areas of the company such as finance because the data is in the information factory and is available for business planning, costing for the various levels and types of work scheduled for the year. Plus, the airline wants to know where are the traps, the over-the-horizon view. For instance, with the triple seven gear changes, if there was no way, other than intuitively, to know what was coming up, that wouldn’t

Elliot co-founded Aerostrat seven years ago. He began his career as a Reporting Analyst and later moved into Financial Planning & Analysis and founded Aerostrat to create modern planning and maintenance tools for Aerospace and Defense. Today, Elliot manages the business side of operations and develops Aerostrat’s product and corporate strategy. He has a BBA in Business from the University of Washington.

FEDEX EXPRESS

FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corporation, is a major American cargo airline and one of the world’s largest airlines in terms of fleet size and freight tons flown, delivering to more than 375 destinations over 220 countries across six continents each day. There are a total of 13 air hubs in the company’s worldwide network. The fleet of 285 aircraft ranges from Cessna 408 SkyCourier up to Boeing 777 and Airbus A300 types.

AEROSTRAT

Aerostrat offers one product called Aerros, a program that manages an airline’s or MRO’s aircraft maintenance schedule and enables users to optimize the maintenance program by managing various maintenance and operational constraints; maximizing event yield, driving costs down, and enabling the organization to plan proactively, not reactively. Aerros provides excellent system stability and reliability with standard IT practices. It is also integration-ready and designed to work as an extension of a user’s existing information systems.

Figure 8

VENDOR JOB CARD: RECOSENSE LABS INC

Amith Srinivas tells us how Natural language query enriches process intelligence for customers, and powers RecoSense Labs’ success in a challenging market

Amith Srinivas, the founder and CEO of RecoSense Labs Inc, has close to two decades of enterprise experience in deep tech engineering solutions, gained when working with Fortune 500 customers across the globe. Having worked as part of the teams for two successful start-up journeys, one with an IPO and another with an acquisition, he has led RecoSense Labs to be an enterprise focused AI engineering partner. His strength is in understanding enterprise AI challenges and their priorities with the efforts to address those challenges and priorities by building primary expertise on Natural Language and Data Engineering for Document Intelligence and Process Automation.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title, and the name of the business?

Amith Srinivas: Amith Srinivas, CEO, RecoSense labs Inc

Aircraft IT: How did RecoSense Labs Inc get started?

AS: RecoSense started with Content Intelligence, Text Analytics and Natural Language Processing expertise for Recommendation and Personalization engine to Media content. We have grown to provide AI solutions for enterprises across industries for transforming unstructured raw data to structured insights. The unstructured data could be documents, transactions data, emails, tickets, API, CRM Inputs,

and device data etc. Over the years, we have developed our IP of the Knowledge Graph to build meta-context enrichment and high accuracy data points extraction from the context pattern matching. Our DocuSense focuses on Process Automation and Data Intelligence for auto classification, deviation identification and automated compliance management for aviation enterprises.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives RecoSense Labs?

AS: The guiding principle for RecoSense has been to pioneer natural language context generation to enrich content intelligence. This can be leveraged to solve challenges in Human-Machine interaction as

well as in enabling AI based Digital Assistants for accelerating manual efforts and increasing accuracy in processing high volumes of data for precision natural language queries.

Aircraft IT: What has RecoSense Labs’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why?

AS: At RecoSense Labs, we pride ourselves in solving complex problems for Fortune 500 enterprises and have worked as extended AI and Data Engineering partners for accelerating innovation. We have been selected from 500 global startups to provide globally leading South East Asian airlines with AI solutions for Damage Classification and Deviation Identification

in their MRO division in order to achieve reduced Turnaround Time in Engine servicing. This has been a great honour to be recognized for our expertise and our offering in this regard. We were also evaluated by a global leading Financial Content provider to have the best accuracy in processing financial statements with evaluation against 40 vendors in more than two years. This validates our platform’s adaptability for any type and format of content from different domains.

Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them?

AS: In the deep tech sector, there are numerous technical and business challenges to solve. Sometimes the disappointment is that big companies, well-endowed with resources, can have an unfair advantage in having infrastructure and

innovative powers. We have worked around those challenges to fast pace our core value addition in business case applications to be closer to engineering and functional teams of enterprises in solving their problems with AI solutions. We strive to accelerate innovation, share the knowledge built, and work as extended AI partners for enterprises to realise the potential of AI automation and for delivering business impact without losing their focus on their core business operations.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what RecoSense Labs does for aircraft maintenance customers?

AS: RecoSense Labs’ AeroBot solution is an Intelligent Document Processor with a Virtual Technical Resolution Dashboard for service engineers to use Automated Scope of work Inputs

Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT?

AS: The next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT will be to embrace Industry 4.0 but with the constraints of the shortage of workforce, talent and increased need of artificial intelligence to meet the demand for quality, time and sophistication in tools to enable service engineering teams to deliver both efficiency in maintenance and efficiency in terms of impact results.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about RecoSense Labs?

AS: RecoSense Labs would like to be the first name of recall in our customers’ list when they look to solve automated data intelligence and compliance solutions for Aviation IT. We would like to be known as reliable innovation partners in supporting their engineering teams.

Aircraft IT: Amith Srinivas, thank you for your time.

Chrono Aviation and WAAS benefit with a modern IT solution

benefits of using a modern M&E system to overcome the challenges of growth

Dominic Cayouette, Project Manager at Chrono Aviation and Peter Mortimer, Executive VP Canada at Rusada share the

In this case study, we want to share some thoughts on the growth of a business and how a system can help with that as well as help to improve the processes in the business. But, before that, readers will no doubt wish to know something about the business that is the subject of this case study.

CHRONO AVIATION GROUP

Chrono Aviation was launched in 2011 with one Pilatus PC-12 aircraft doing charter flights. The business then continued to grow the fleet with further aircraft for its 703 (nine passengers or less) and 704 (19 passengers or less) operations. In 2014, the business was further expanded with the addition of an MRO operation, WAAS Aerospace, and, later still, the launch of Chrono Jet, as a 705 operation which is more like an airline. The business acquired a De Havilland Dash 8 to start that operation and soon followed that with a Boeing 737. In 2018, Lux Ground Service was started as a ground services supplier. Today, the Chrono Group has some 300 employees and has operated approximately 60,000 flight hours over the past ten years.

Looking at WAAS, the business was created in 2014 with three employees and with the main purpose to supply Chrono Aviation with their avionic services; so, at the start, it was an avionics shop. Some three years later, a maintenance company was purchased in order to better serve Chrono Aviation aircraft. Late in 2018, a new facility was opened in order to support the newly arrived Boeing 737. With the support of staff, WAAS passed through COVID to now be stronger than ever but the business faces the same challenge as others in the MRO sector, which is to find people. WAAS has tried to be creative in dealing with this, working closely with technical schools and the immigration program. They recently partnered with several other companies, including Transport Canada and De Havilland, to work on the development of a hybrid engine.

Time to upgrade

ENVISION and its mobile apps combine intuitive user-interfaces with streamlined workflows to help your teams work faster and more effectively.

The time saved on day-to-day tasks coupled with efficiencies gained from intelligent planning and analytics, allow you to increase profitability across your operations.

So if you’re ready for an upgrade, why not discover what ENVISION could do for you

Does your current software drive efficiency, or obstruct it?

RUSADA

The software business in this case study, Rusada, was founded in 1987 as Russell Adams Ltd. then re-branded to Rusada. The company has offices around the globe with a US office in Colorado, a recently opened office in Toronto, and development centers in the UK as well as India and Sri Lanka. There are client services operations strategically placed in Australia, U.A.E, Singapore, USA and the UK to cover all locations. Rusada offers one main solution which is ENVISION, a modular system with ten main modules covering everything from fleet management and airworthiness through to base maintenance, line and component maintenance, inventory management, Flight Ops, and crew management, as well as support modules such as quality, auditing, safety occurrence reporting, human resources and finance.

As ENVISION is a modular system, customers can opt to take all modules to support their business or they can opt to take individual modules and they all integrate with one another. The options are available to be selected in accordance with what the user wants to do with the system.

GROWTH CHALLENGES

One of the main reasons for Chrono and WAAS deciding on a new system was that they were experiencing problems as a result of the growth of the business. The biggest challenge was to bring everything together — sales, maintenance, the DMO, the ground service, HR, quality, inventory… That was the big challenge and was why Chrono and WAAS were looking for a solution that could bridge across all of those. With ENVISION, all of those options were available and so the goal is to have all employees onboard using the same data and the same platform. Sales will be able to have a good insight into what is coming, for instance, in terms of maintenance events and maintenance can know what is happening with sales. This bridging is the most important feature as far as Chrono and WAAS are concerned in order to support the company’s future growth.

The other challenge was linked to the 737 having a more complex component tree than, for example, a Pilatus, which meant that aircraft management was a consideration; to have good maintenance status reports and forecasts, and inventory management. It was necessary to be creative with the old system in order to track everything that the business wanted to track. That was another reason for the business to be looking for a new software tool and ENVISION had all of the features and capabilities that Chrono and WAAS were looking for. One example is a Fleet Serviceability Dashboard with real-time data to show several items, defects, upcoming maintenance, etc. The Work Package build up was also improved with the new system because it is more efficient. Despite being a part of the Chrono Group, the different operations are all individual companies with their own financial reporting; so Chrono Aviation is a customer of WAAS. The tracking of maintenance work performed was one thing that does not only work for WAAS but also for Chrono Aviation. It was a challenge because the new solution had to account for that structure and that required attention in order to segregate what is internal from what is external. The group had to make sure that customer work orders for similar aircraft and types did not get mixed.

The last challenge was the inventory management which is a significant matter. In the past, inventory had not been so well managed, so slowly WAAS was catching up. With the new system they have the transaction log as well as more features in the inventory management module than was available with the old system. ENVISION addresses every gap that there was on the inventory management side; the workflow helps the store personnel to be more disciplined as well as the requisition process helping a great deal the operation.

“It was necessary to be creative with the old system in order to track everything that the business wanted to track. That was another reason for the business to be looking for a new software tool and ENVISION had all of the features and capabilities that Chrono and WAAS were looking for.”

ENVISION IMPLEMENTATION

What was needed, for the implementation of ENVISION, was to break the task up into a number of areas, a standard implementation approach (figure 1).

ENVISION IMPLEMENTATION

§ Implementation began late 2019

§ Project followed Rusada’s 5 stage proven process

§ Carried out by their in-house deployment teams

The project planning and installation phase ensured concentration on a lot of those issues referred to above and making sure that each of those issues could be translated into a solution within the system. That meant analyzing the existing process, converting it into an improved process and then considering how that new process could be carried out within ENVISION. It’s something that Rusada does at the beginning of every project, sit down with the team at the customer business. The first thing they look at is the existing processes, how things are done currently. That allows Rusada’s team on the ground to understand how the business currently works, what it needs to do and then convert that into how to achieve it within ENVISION, yes, but hopefully with some improvements to the original process.

That then follows into the training of personnel which goes hand-in-hand with the data import process. Initially, Rusada tries to combine those two stages so that the users are being trained but alongside that, the project is getting deep into the data and how to get the data from a legacy system into the new system. That can quite often be a painful process if there is no means to take data electronically or, for example, there’s a lot of work to be done to that data. Quite a lot of Chrono’s data needed to be cleaned and/or adjusted. So, that process quite often has to be done during the implementation which can mean that the process takes a little longer. However, the teams know by then that the data being put into the new system is good which is the most important thing; the last thing that anybody wants is to take data that isn’t correct from a legacy system or have to fix up any potential issues with it. As part of that process, ENVISION will help with that but there’s only a certain amount that it can do so there is sometimes the need for some manual intervention which was what had

to happen on the implementation at Chrono; to make sure that the data was as perfect as it could be before importing it into the system.

Following the data input process, the project moves into the preparation for Go Live phase with multiple phases of UAT (User Acceptance Testing) before the final Go Live and any refresh training that’s required.

That’s Rusada’s standard approach to an implementation and was the approach used for the Chrono case. However, COVID-19 hit and that was a

Figure 1

“…the last thing that anybody wants is to take data that isn’t correct from a legacy system or have to fix up any potential issues with it. As part of that process, ENVISION will help with that but there’s only a certain amount that it can do….”

challenge as many readers will know who were engaged with projects or even just running their business during that time. The project in this case started in 2019 and quite quickly, after a few on-site meetings and progress with training sessions, everything had to go fully online. Rusada had to adjust in order to deal with that; it was something that they weren’t used to as a vendor which had always tried to do as much as possible on site but that was simply not possible.

It caused some problems but the implementation team managed to get around them and companywide, having to take a step back and look at how implementations are done completely remotely now, was a learning curve. It was actually quite positive because, to bring us back to the present day, although Rusada still does go on site to do implementations and it’s important to do that, there is an element that can still be conducted from off site that might not have been so easily accepted before. For instance, if the team were called into a meeting that does not necessarily require face to face. By working remotely, a lot of time is saved and cost for the customer. When the vendor is on site doing an implementation, it can quite easily fill a day with meetings and the time between meetings as well as training sessions. By doing things a little more off site, times can be set, there is no travel time involved so that meeting or training can be achieved within a certain timescale. Also, if a refresher is needed, it can be done but it tends to be less than when the vendor is on site.

The transition was quite hard and fast, Rusada had to learn how to go from on-site implementations to 100 percent remote which all happened within the first few months of this Chrono project. It was necessary to utilize a number of different technologies and it allowed Rusada to expand on the existing technologies that they were using to offer more online training, as well as developing a full online document training site that any of their customers can access.

CHALLENGES

COVID-19 aside, we’ll just look at some of the challenges that have been mentioned and the solutions to those.

Challenge 1 — Visibility across Operations

Chrono’s Operations had their own in-house planning software, including flight booking and maintenance tracking, but there was the need to bring those two together. Rather than changing everything at the same time and because people don’t like change, the decision was to go with an API (Application Programming Interface) to make that happen faster and make the software solutions talk to each other. That gave Chrono the possibility to interface ENVISION with the existing platform. Once that has been done, the system allowed users to group tasks efficiently, to do work orders between flights; Chrono does charter not scheduled flights. As soon as maintenance is booked, Sales can be aware that

there is maintenance booked for the aircraft in question.

This (figure 2) is what is in ENVISION for work package creation and tasks on the calendar.

CHALLENGE 1 - Visibility Across Operations

Figure 2

Figure 2 is from ENVISION and shows the forecast of maintenance events coming due. In this initial challenge, Chrono didn’t want to move away from the existing Ops system that they have so ENVISION has a really flexible capability for APIs. Moving on (figure 3) we can see Chrono’s existing legacy system which has been combined with the maintenance inputs.

CHALLENGE 1 - Visibility Across Operations

With this, Chrono was starting to enjoy a more unified platform but what you see in figure 3 is the old system and some inputs from ENVISION. This combines the

Figure 3

maintenance requirements when an aircraft is due into maintenance or has been planned into maintenance alongside the flying schedule — the charters. This can all be achieved in one system if you’re using ENVISION for monitoring flight operations and maintenance. In this case, two solutions have been combined into one platform with the aid of an API (Application Programming Interface).

Challenge 2 — Controlling Regulatory Compliance

With larger aircraft joining the fleet, Chrono had more complexity and more things to track. ENVISION was able to offer Chrono a way to do what was needed and, for a precise example, on the maintenance side, it can be seen that the operator is now more in control of incoming maintenance. Additionally, there is a great dashboard to be able to quickly see the status of each aircraft (figure 4).

CHALLENGE 2 - Controlling Regulatory Compliance

high-level summary of the fleet including that red status for ‘Aircraft unserviceable’. That ENVISION capability can be configured with a rule set that each business can define, according to what they deem as being unserviceable, for the system. So that might be that, if there are any open defects or if there are any overdue maintenance events, flag the aircraft as unserviceable. Or the airline or MRO might say that if there’s a deferred defect coming due today, then classify the aircraft as unserviceable. It’s entirely up to the customer as to how that is defined. This is part of the flexibility that customers using ENVISION have within the system for defining those rule sets and that definition process is part of the implementation. This page also gives a summary of flying hours, cycles and the three-color coded red, orange and blue boxes signal a summary of defects, are there any open defects? (there shouldn’t be but sometimes it happens), are there any deferred defects? and are there any overdue defects?

“This combines the maintenance requirements when an aircraft is due into maintenance or has been planned into maintenance alongside the flying schedule — the charters. This can all be achieved in one system if you’re using ENVISION for monitoring flight operations and maintenance.”

one is a complex example, each of the links also allows users to assign rule sets so that the workflow of maintenance inputs really can be tailor-made. The user can say that only certain employees or team members can change the status or, in a purchase order example, only people in a particular team can approve up to this value with anything above that value needing a second level of approval or even a third level. This is a really powerful tool that isn’t only for tracking maintenance but is available throughout the whole of the system too, although it’s an ‘out of the box’ solution, you are still able to tailor and adapt the processes in the solution to match the processes of the business using it.

In addition to the order workflow, Chrono and WAAS can do a dashboard (figure 6) making it easy to categorize everything that every individual needs to do.

CHALLENGE 3 - Tracking of Maintenance Progress

Challenge 3 — Tracking of Maintenance Progress

Tracking a work order (figure 5) was important for WAAS who deal with several different customers. Knowing what is where has been achieved with a fully customizable workflow.

CHALLENGE 3 - Tracking of Maintenance Progress

Each dashboard is different because it’s fully customizable so, the way the dashboard is seen for planning won’t look the same as the dashboard seen for QA (Quality Assurance). The benefit of that is that, as a business, users can define mandatory dashboards, i.e., ‘anyone with this job role has this dashboard.’ That way, the business knows that everyone is getting the information that the business wants them to have, as soon as they log-in to the system. Alternatively, it can be left open-ended for users to design their own dashboard have their own charts, it can link into Power BI, they can have their own custom dashboards

WAAS was able to make that fit with the daily operation, not just an open and close work order but something ENVISION offers users is that it’s fully customizable for what Chrono and WAAS needed. Although it looks complex, for WAAS it enables them to know what is where and to effectively map out the workflow for, in this example, a maintenance input, but it could be any workflow. It could be a purchase order approval, annual leave approval… the system allows users to map how a work order moves through a workflow and, although this

Figure 5

Figure 6

“…as a business, users can define mandatory dashboards, i.e., ‘anyone with this job role has this dashboard.’ That way, the business knows that everyone is getting the information that the business wants them to have, as soon as they log-in to the system.”

exactly as they want them. This screen is there to draw the eye to what has to be done including color coding alerts that can be set. If the user goes in and everything is green, they’ll be happy: if everything is red, then maybe there is some work to do that day.

Challenge 4 — Management of Inventory

From the part number control list to the automatic inventory reservation and acquisition, ENVISION has offered Chrono and WAAS a huge step forward. Let’s look at an example that covers a big gap that WAAS had (figure 7).

CHALLENGE 4 - Management of Inventory

In smaller operators, there are a lot of exchanges — buy the parts, receive them, return the unserviceable cores, and get the invoices a month later for example. In the past, WAAS was doing all the back billing and administration manually but now, there is the ability to go back to the original order and re-do the billing from there. In the figure is a vendor order which allows users to check fees charged against costs incurred.

OTHER BENEFITS

To finish up, let’s just look at a couple of other benefits that Chrono and WAAS gained when switching over to a modern system.

Improved data collection: data collection was not really done at Chrono and WAAS prior to the arrival of ENVISION but its availability now has been very helpful in the past year, especially in financial affairs with better reporting on costs and profit. The goal is that, by 2025, pretty much everything will pass through ENVISION in order to ensure good visibility and traceability. That will make possible some proper KPIs with the right tool with which to run the business. Many reports can also be done from all the information that ENVISION unlocks: it’s a super tool to present any kind of data which is a great improvement for Chrono and WAAS.

Modified work flows: Chrono and WAAS have some specific needs, so the fact that they don’t fit any standard mold means that ENVISION helped them to adapt and define the real work flows that fit the needs of the business.

Going paperless: a hot topic today and the aim of most businesses in aviation is also the aim for Chrono and WAAS with the support of the regulator. Paperless

is more efficient and better for the environment, especially trees, when compared with people printing a task card and scanning it back into the system. Chrono and WAAS are pulling together the requirements for things like electronic signature and other features that need to be secure. It’s just a matter of time and getting the approval from Transport Canada.

In the near future, many readers will be facing similar decisions to that faced by Chrono and WAAS so we hope that sharing the experience of this case will help with those decisions.

DOMINIC CAYOUETTE

Dominic started in aerospace 2007 and became a licenced Avionics technician in 2012. He started his career at Aeropro where he was an apprentice avionics technician for five years, and later joined Discovery Air Techncial Serivces where he specialized in aircraft avionics modifications. He joined WAAS in 2015 and helped grow the company from inception to 100 employees today.

PETER MORTIMER

Peter Mortimer is an Executive VP at aviation software provider Rusada. He has been working on aviation projects for the past 15 years having begun his career at Hawker Beechcraft. In 2015 he moved to Rusada, managing implementation projects before moving to Client Services Manager for the Middle East. From there he transitioned into a Sales role for the company, and now works with existing and prospective customers in the Americas and APAC.

CHRONO AVIATION

Chrono Aviation Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary Chrono Jet Inc., is a charter airline headquartered in Québec. It operates aircraft in passenger (9 to 120), cargo and combi roles from its three main bases in Canada. There are more than 265 employees in the business with a fleet of 15 aircraft including Boeing 737-200 and -800, Beechcraft 1900, De Havilland Canada Dash 8 and Pilatus PC-12.

RUSADA

Rusada is a leading provider of aviation software with over 35 years of experience in the industry. Its ENVISION software manages over 2,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft for 150 operators, maintainers, and manufacturers in 45+ countries. With its headquarters in Switzerland and offices in the USA, Canada, UK, UAE, India, Singapore, and Australia, Rusada provides global support for a global industry.

Figure 7

Patrick is the CEO and leading network and data integration specialist at IAS. He has worked mainly in airlines and financial institutions over a long career in the IT industry. Patrick holds a bachelor’s in electronic engineering from Dundalk Institute of Technology in Louth, Ireland.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title, and the name of the business

Patrick Clancy: Patrick Clancy, CEO, Integrated Aviation Systems

Aircraft IT: How did REDiFly get started?

PC: REDiFly is the brand name of the software products created by Integrated Aviation Systems (IAS). IAS is the project of our late Managing Director and aviation guru Ari Vihersaari who sadly passed away in July 2021. Ari had a vision for the creation of a streamlined modular and configurable Aircraft Electronic Technical Logbook that would replace the paper-based Aircraft Technical Log (ATL) in commercial and business air operators. We continue to implement his vision. Our core product the REDiFly eTechlog brings to life the previously static data from the paper logbooks thus creating real-time visibility of airworthiness for CAMOs, Fleet Managers, MROs and Maintenance Controllers.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives REDiFly?

PC: We at REDiFly have always said that we are software experts in the aviation industry rather than the other way around. Our guiding principle has always been to deliver a highly customizable application by keeping the end-user at the center of our design process. We aim to establish and nurture relationships by providing a service to our clients alongside a solution that suits them.

Aircraft IT: What has REDiFly’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why?

PC: I have to say getting our initial customer over the line was a great achievement for us as a start-up

company. Industriflyg Stockholm has been with us throughout the pandemic, and we have built a very strong relationship there. We are proud to call them a customer.

Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them?

PC: We are very excited about the world of aviation software and the potential we can reach with digital data. We have thought about this from the very start. I have been working in the field of electronic logbooks since 2010 and have always been interested in the possibilities of a data-driven industry. However, we have had to be quite patient. As we all know, aviation can move quite slowly when

“We aim to establish and nurture relationships by providing a service to our clients alongside a solution that suits them.”

VENDOR JOB CARD: REDIFLY

Patrick Clancy shares the vision for a modular and configurable electronic technical logbook that has made REDiFly a trusted partner for aircraft operators

it comes to change. From what we have seen in the market, operators are much more comfortable starting small and establishing trust with software vendors before committing to a solution. We have found that a flexible system which integrates with current processes, yet is scalable to future needs, can offer a much easier step to take. This is particularly true for an eTechlog application as it touches many areas of an Air Operator’s business.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what REDiFly does for aircraft operations customers?

PC: At REDiFly we add value and increased

efficiency to our customers’ daily operations through the delivery of real-time data for CAMO, Maintenance and Planning. Our accurate digital data delivery and integrations enhance or replace existing workflows leading to company-wide visibility of fleet status.

Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in MRO Aviation IT?

PC: There are many developments in Aviation IT such as Blockchain, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Predictive Analytics, all of which we are interested in. However, for the small to medium operators, these concepts may still be a while down the road. I think

the next ‘big’ thing in Aviation IT will be for digital aviation vendors like ourselves to break down the barriers of competition and communicate effectively with each other, to provide a more informative and accessible landscape for the operators that we cater for. There are many companies out there providing value to different areas of aviation through their software. If we can create communities in which to share our individual services, we can begin to offer our end users a more complete and consistent solution.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about REDiFly?

PC: We would like our customers to say, “Why didn’t we have this before?... REDiFly has enhanced our daily operations by being adaptable to specific

BOUNDLESS BACK ISSUES

START YOUR INVESTMENT WITH OUR EXTENSIVE BACK ISSUES OF IT SOLUTIONS

Aviation MRO

IT: What’s your solution blueprint?

Allan Bachan VP, Managing Director, MRO Operations, ICF.

When new systems replace legacy applications, they often bring their own issues. Data integrity, low adoption, and decreased staff productivity are common complaints. Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) technology is no exception — as systems evolve, we find fresh challenges to overcome. The central tenet of the solution blueprint is design. At its core, the

blueprint solves known problems and plots the course for next steps towards solutions for those to come.

During and after implementation, how effectively does your organization solve known issues? Does your team instead get immersed in learning all about the new system? How much of this is to seek solutions to problems versus expanding knowledge of the software? If you’re operating more in a

software learning mode, than a business solution mode, issues will remain unsolved. Further, the blueprint is a living and dynamic charter that defines organizational and system behavior. It should be continuously measured, monitored, and maintained. So, what’s in a strong MRO information technology (IT) solution blueprint? Three essential elements can help ensure a smoother path during legacy system modernization.

“During and after implementation, how effectively does your organization solve known issues? Does your team instead get immersed in learning all about the new system? How much of this is to seek solutions to problems versus expanding knowledge of the software?”

CLEAR BUSINESS PROCESSES

Well-managed business processes are critical to all operations with advantages:

• Standardization: all stakeholders understand and execute tasks in the same way.

• Redundancy: there is less risk when talent leaves or becomes unavailable.

• Efficiency: performance is optimized, and systemwide variances decrease.

• Consistency: documenting, auditing, enforcement, and compliance are easily realized. To quickly recognize opportunities for improvement, you are best off using well-defined processes. At minimum, responsible roles and organizational units, tasks, decisions, inputs, and outputs should be clearly represented. The entire MRO organization needs a hierarchy of processes for each functional group. At the highest level, these typically include engineering, planning, production, supply chain, human resources, and finance.

Ownership should be assigned using a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) index, and you should conduct periodic audits against predefined performance and compliance criteria. One should also maintain detailed step-by-

step procedures for each task within processes as an easy interactive reference guide for all stakeholders, participants, and actors.

PROPERLY CONFIGURED TECHNOLOGY COMPONENTS

Software and hardware technology assets are essentially tools which enable business processes. They also have dedicated roles within operations and processes. For example, a barcode scanner performs a scanning task, and a printer performs a printing task. Hardware assets like these are easier to understand and map than software. Screens, webpages, and program names and numbers are commonly used to access and execute business tasks. In a software application, this typically occurs using a menu path or a typed, touched, or voiced command. These are examples of software dependents or attributes in the primary user interface. There are several other software configuration attributes which may be known by application-specific software names, including tables, switches, parameters, codes, workflows, licenses, and reports.

To successfully execute a ‘create purchase order’

task in an MRO IT system, for example, the following software attributes must be known and configured in 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 launched using the menu path or command by the end user. 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 well-coordinated across all MRO processes. Any best-of-breed MRO IT application on the market today has a range of 2000-4000 configurable attributes. Therefore, imagine the enormous number of permutations and combinations that are possible.

To put it in simpler terms, the settings and options on your smartphone for the same device and apps are different from mine. It’s about user preference. Configuration of software leveraging the above is becoming more prevalent than customizations in today’s world.

KEEPING CURRENT CATALOGS

A full MRO processes catalog is about 300 or so discrete, but interrelated, process diagrams with organizational roles and technology enablers mapped out. This knowledge and specifications repository must always reflect current operations and system configurations. It is the primary go-to for all end-users and system support personnel. It becomes the core of any Center of Excellence or Competence Center framework.

Business processes and procedures need to be continuously measured, monitored, and improved. Also, most MRO IT software applications will have at least one version release per year along with periodic patches, bug fixes, and other updates by the software vendor. The challenge is to remain agile for all business and software changes spanning the

“Software and hardware technology assets are essentially tools which enable business processes. They also have dedicated roles within operations and processes. ”

gamut of the blueprint elements. This includes adjusting and adding processes as maturity and capabilities change, and as system functionality is altered and introduced.

PICTURE TWO SCENARIOS:

An end-user — a maintenance technician — needs to move a part from one aircraft to another. System updates must happen in real-time.

The vendor releases a new version of the system. It includes both major and minor changes. There is an internal desire to launch this release as soon as possible.

Scenario 1 — User manuals

Those familiar with aircraft maintenance know that all of the work done on the aircraft must refer to the approved aircraft maintenance manual (AMM). While cannibalization is frequent in some organizations, the specific situation it is not something a particular technician will do daily. Access to a step-by-step manual, which must be referenced in a corrective action write-up, certainly helps. Regulators ensure the correct and current procedures are followed by quoting the AMM reference.

Similarly, to sustain excellent 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 user manual for the IT system updates is also helpful. Where is this ‘manual’ stored and how is it kept up-to-date? Is it easily accessible by users? The manual should seamlessly interact with the MRO IT system screens by task, and your team’s actual experiences should be key sources for its content.

Scenario 2 — Managing releases

MRO systems need a documented release management strategy and plan. Clear ownership is important; does it belong to the business or the IT organization? The impact of a new system release or change with in-situ business processes and procedures is an easy task in a well-managed environment. All configuration attributes or system programs, along with alerts as to the roles that are affected and how they will be affected, are available within hours or days, not months. Once changes are known and understood, a consolidated project for comprehensive adoption can be defined. This

includes processes, data, and system configuration changes — all well-coordinated and with assigned owners.

Execution of the project includes system configuration, testing, training, and data tasks. This should be seamless within your organizational structure. Done properly, release management is continuous, albeit with varying intensity at certain periods of the year.

A BLUEPRINT BUILT TO LAST

The key to continuous improvement is a complete awareness of your current state at any point. Only then can improvement analysis occur. This current state exists in your solution blueprint. Detailed business processes are mapped with enabling technology components, providing the best possible representation. Structured measurement, monitoring, and improvements to the blueprint need to take place across the MRO business and IT support organization, regardless of whether business or technology initiatives prompt change.

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.

“MRO systems need a documented release management strategy and plan. Clear ownership is important; does it belong to the business or the IT organization?”

“The challenge is to remain agile for all business and software changes spanning the gamut of the blueprint elements. This includes adjusting and adding processes as maturity and capabilities change, and as system functionality is altered and introduced.”

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AIRCRAFT IT MRO

Taking a digital solution to MROs

Israel Revivo, CEO and President at IDMR Solutions Inc. reveals how the business has updated its solution and targeted the wider market

IDMR SOLUTIONS

IDMR is an aviation-based software house that has been trading in the aviation sector for more than twenty years. Its enterprise document management suite contains over twenty modules, with the core specifically developed for maintenance and engineering. Technical documents written in applications such as Word, Excel, PDF, etc., can be converted into digital IDMR documents. The main reason to change from paper to digital is that those paper or PDF documents don’t have proper revision control or have the essential requirements that most authorities require for eSign. IDMR manages not only the document but its content

“The IDMR system offers a full-blown Document management solution and Content management solution (DMS and CMS) platform where documents are electronically signed, routed, revised, and more… users can do everything required to get that document to a signed and approved status with complete revision control over it.”

as well. The IDMR system offers a full-blown Document management solution and Content management solution (DMS and CMS) platform where documents are electronically signed, routed, revised, and more… users can do everything required to get that document to a signed and approved status with complete revision control over it.

UPDATE TO THE IDMR SUITE

On our initial walkthrough with customers, we quickly see how paper-oriented they are. A tremendous amount of time is spent on printing, routing, approving, and signing documents, and more time is wasted when looking up documents after a check or

event. Reducing that effort and optimizing the document process is one of the main reasons we entered this market: that and a passion for aviation. Delivering a platform that does everything the paper documents do and more allows users to create, edit, revise, route, sign, and record, all via a web browser. All of the documents can be routed to mobile devices and signed on those devices, cutting the time from creation to aircraft by days.

Developing an application that mimics a paper document has its challenges. We wanted to be sure that whatever our customers needed to do on paper would be available to them in the electronic version of the document. We also wanted to ensure that regulatory requirements are met and that, when they’re using our digital documents, the records and footprints are appropriately recorded and stored in accordance with our customer’s authorities.

Why develop a production planning board? Once a work package is generated, tasks (task cards, engineering orders — EO — etc.) are typically

printed and placed in slots along a wall, usually grouped by areas, skills, and other categories. First, this can take up a lot of space and requires time and discipline to control the board. Second, and why the digital board was born, you need to be physically in the room to manage a paper-based production planning board. The idea is to digitalize that wall of paper entirely.

We had to take a lot more than grouping into consideration; we saw MROs with colored paper, sticky notes, stapled documents, and stickers... how do we account for everything being done on paper without loss from their process or purpose. We have to optimize the process, get rid of the paper, and give the MRO all the tools they need to switch from that big wall of paper to a screen accessible anytime and anywhere.

In summary, our new digital production board (above) allows our customers to access, on a clear and presentable computer screen, what was previously a ‘wall of paper’.

IDMR Digital Production Board

THE ADVANTAGES OF GOING DIGITAL

There are many advantages to be gained from moving to digital. Obviously, there’s process improvement with the user being able to see and track everything that happens in real-time. The assignments of tasks can be done directly to the mechanics so that it’s possible, at any time, to see who’s working on what; also, the mechanics can communicate back to the office directly from their mobile devices, so there is no more need to for them be going back and forth every time that they need something; for instance, they can request an inspector directly from their mobile device.

The idea is first to optimize the planner’s board but also to get the aircraft out of the hangar quicker, to get it safely released faster. We highlight safely because the system ensures that everything that is required to be signed off is signed off: the QA (Quality Assurance) process is helped by the IDMR system by not allowing the mechanic to submit their task until they properly sign it. The system validates their skill requirement, RII, ETOPS, and more: it also checks that all mandatory parameters are met before the tasks are submitted.

Replacing the MRO planning board with a digital solution also reduces the risk of anything being missed or forgotten or a sticky note simply falling off the board. We had a customer that had half of the paperwork rained on when the wind blew rain into the hangar. Paper can go missing, get damaged, and suffer many things that are all eliminated by going digital.

CHALLENGES FACED WHEN DEVELOPING THE SOLUTION

The biggest challenge was that every airline and every MRO does things a little bit differently. They all are trying to reach the same endpoint, but every customer we meet has a nuance that says, ‘this is the way it has to be done.’ that uniqueness or sometimes their ‘magic sauce’ has to be accounted for when delivering a digital solution. We overcome that by allowing our customers to customize the software, not full-blown customization of the platform but customizing some of the screens. For instance, where a customer is used to having a sticky note of a specific color, while it might not seem that big a thing to us, a different MRO might have that color meaning something else. So, allowing the MROs to customize items such as colors, custom holds, notifications, and ad-hoc categories will enable them to match their current process. The more we can replicate in digital form what our customers do today with paper, the easier it makes the transition to digital and training.

TRAINING AND APPROVALS FOR A NEW SOLUTION

Training is always involved in implementations like this, but the idea is to minimize the activity. Even in the digital world, our task cards look exactly like the paper document they replaced. Similarly, the digital planning board has the same look and feel as the previous paper-based board. Over the past two

transition as seamless as possible.

Regarding approvals, we, the IT vendor, work with our customers and provide aid in the documentation required to get certified. Our R&D department is continuously working on ensuring our modules meet and exceed regulatory requirements. However, it is up to the airline and MRO to obtain the proper certifications before going to an eSign arrangement. Most airlines are happy to get an approved electronic version of their card because they can feed it directly into their records system.

For the sake of clarity, the new function that IDMR has, which is the MRO production board, is a process improvement board and does not typically fall under a regulatory requirement, unlike the eSign of the actual cards.

THE FULL PICTURE

Of course, this new production board and task card capability will sit alongside IDMR’s established manual and document management capability. The idea is that if a customer uses the end-to-end solution in the IDMR system, they can generate, import, and customize OEM cards directly from an AMM (Aircraft

Maintenance Manual). This allows the mechanic to have all the steps, including tables, images, and forms, embedded in their digital card. eSign is made available at each step and is defined by programs to optimize the work. So, from the creation of the task card, all the way to the e-signing of that card can all be accomplished on the platform. Every quarterly revision of the AMM gets reconciled by the airline and updated downstream to the mechanics.

WHAT IDMR HAS LEARNED AND WHAT WE TEACH

The most significant thing we’ve learned during this development is not to develop in silos. Initially, we would take one key Airline or MRO and ask them, as a Beta customer, to show us what to do. We then worked with them to develop the module; we figured they all work the same way, right? Big mistake! We have learned to engage a larger pool of Airlines and MROs of all sizes (large, small, and medium). As developers, we like to pretend that we know what our customers do in the real world, but that is rarely the case. The biggest lesson is to go out to customers to see what they do, to learn their processes, and not to stick with just one customer but to see how different operations work. We started the production board planning with one MRO then quickly realized that while all MROs provide the same mechanical services for the aircraft, they all have different things that they need and, if we fail at those little things, that project will be unsuccessful.

During the analysis and early implementation phase, we travel to our customers and walk them through the product we listen and learn. We then take back our notes and optimize the software to exceed our customers’ requirements.

BENEFITS

We’ve already mentioned the short-term benefit of getting the aircraft out of the MRO shop safely and faster. The long-term benefit is a big one because if an airline or MRO uses all digital task cards, they can start trending and optimizing, even at the MRO level. They’ll be able to see any trends, such as with nonroutines, materials that keep getting requested, materials with long lead times, and more. IDMR’s software can start alerting on these trends and can offer suggestions. Many predictive maintenance opportunities start surfacing when a digital platform is configured correctly. Before starting a check, the system can trend which non-routines typically get raised and which materials might be needed (not already in the package). All this allows the MRO to be more efficient and get the aircraft flying as soon as possible.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Our goal at IDMR is to continue to Soar Above Paper and grow with our industry. In 1998 we started with a single Task Card document; today, we are proud to

offer solutions for virtually all technical forms and documents. We are sure that this new module will reveal even more opportunities to help digitalize the MRO sector. Providing a true end-to-end paperless solution moved us into the MRO space. Developing this new production planning board module is a natural progression in optimizing and reducing the turnaround time of the aircraft.

For many MROs, going from paper to digital is a big step. One of the most important lessons we can offer is knowing the difference between a digital document that manages and controls the actual data and an electronic document like a PDF. A PDF is an electronic version or image of your paper, but it is far from providing the trending and mining potential of a digital platform. Often, when we go to a potential customer, they’ll tell us that they’re digital, but the question is, what does digital mean to you? PDFs show you an electronic version of the document, which is convenient and space-saving, but you cannot do anything more with a PDF than with a paper document. We spend a lot of time educating and demonstrating the differences between a PDF document and a digital platform. A more significant ROI (Return on Investment) is derived when a platform such as IDMR allows mining and reporting and helps to use the data to drive safety and efficiencies.

ISRAEL REVIVO

Following an executive career at major airlines, Israel (Izzy) identified limitations in the industry’s way of authoring and circulating documents and set out to streamline and improve it. In 1998, he founded IDMR Solutions Inc. dedicated to airlines and MROs’ transition to digital, paperless operations. IDMR has grown into a global software provider, offering airlines and MROs an end-to-end solution to fully e-sign documents. Izzy continues to lead the company and to develop new ideas for solutions..

IDMR SOLUTIONS

IDMR Solutions Inc. develops customized airline software for maintenance documentation and is a global provider of easy to use and all-encompassing Technical Documentation Management Solutions designed exclusively for Fleet operators, MRO providers, and OEM organizations. IDMR’s Technical Documentation Management Solutions have proven success in increasing operational performance and decreasing operating costs while ensuring airworthiness, safety, and regulatory compliance at multiple airlines. They offer complete authoring, viewing, revising, eSigning, and distributing of manuals and forms.

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VENDOR JOB CARD: RUSADA

Mary-Clare Stephens has spent over 14 years as part of the Rusada team, having begun her career at former UK airline Thomas Cook as a Data Analyst. Mary-Clare joined Rusada initially as a Business Consultant, before progressing to the roles of Project Manager, Regional Manager, and her now current role as Head of Client Services.

Aircraft IT: Your name, your job title, and the name of the business?

Mary-Clare Stephens: Mary-Clare Stephens, Head of Client Services at Rusada

Aircraft IT: How did Rusada get started?

MCS: Rusada began over 35 years ago as Russell Adams, an aviation and MRO consultancy. After successfully developing our first software system in 1987, we expanded into the market and in 1993 released the first version of our ENVISION solution. Today we have 150 staff members in offices across the globe, and our software helps support over 2,000 fixed and rotary wing aircraft for 150 customers in 50 countries.

Aircraft IT: What is the guiding business principle that drives Rusada?

MCS: At Rusada, people are the heart and soul of our company. The overall satisfaction and success of our employees and customers is our mission as a business.

From Sales through to post-implementation, our customers are the focal point of everything we do, and every employee in every department at Rusada contributes to this. Going above and beyond is our modus operandi — we won’t settle for anything less.

Mary-Clare Stephens reveals the teamwork, continuous improvement and change management capabilities that ensure that Rusada implementations add all-round value to clients’ businesses

“From Sales through to post-implementation, our customers are the focal point of everything we do, and every employee in every department at Rusada contributes to this.”

Aircraft IT: What has Rusada’s greatest business achievement been to date, and why?

MCS: I have worked at Rusada for 14 years and in that time, the team we have built to develop and enhance our software, to build our business and to support and assist our customers is our biggest achievement. Every day, I feel proud to be surrounded by such dedication, team spirit and positivity — it truly is inspiring. We all have our bad days, but our colleagues are always there to lend a helping hand and find solutions for any problems.

Aircraft IT: What have been your disappointments and what have you learned from them?

MCS: In the Client Services team, one of our biggest challenges is Change Management, and more specifically, resistance to change. Implementing a new software brings many benefits and efficiencies for our customers, but we often find that changing how people have worked over many years can be very unsettling, resulting in resistance and, in some instances, refusal to adapt.

We take every implementation as a learning experience and where we have been faced with disappointment or resistance, we use that experience practically to ensure our teams are fully equipped to manage these scenarios and come up with positive suggestions to overcome them in the future… ‘Lessons Learned’ is what it’s all about.

Aircraft IT: In a sentence, how would you summarize what Rusada does for aircraft maintenance customers?

MCS: We use our experience, knowledge, and feedback from our valued customers to continuously improve our software, our services, and our approach.

Aircraft IT: What do you feel will be the next big thing in maintenance Aviation IT?

MCS: The idea of Predictive Maintenance is something that’s been around for a while, but hopefully its wider adoption will start to take place in the next couple of years. When we get to the point where Predictive Maintenance data can be shared and combined with the historic records in your M&E solution it will be transformational for the way maintenance is forecasted, planned, and executed. Then, when you layer things like AI (Artificial Intelligence) on top of this, the potential is very exciting.

Aircraft IT: What do you want your customers to say about Rusada?

MCS: I would hope that our customers would say: “The Rusada team always has a solution, no matter how big or small the problem is, there is always a collaborative approach to resolving it… no matter what.”

Customer feedback is critical to how we develop our software, and our processes for implementing and supporting it. Amongst other feeds, input from our customers plays an important role for us as a business. From the outset, we work closely alongside our customers to understand their business and develop ways to make our software more efficient for them and for future users of ENVISION; this in turn helps us to expand our business for the benefit of all.

Aircraft IT: Mary-Clare Stephens, thank you for your time.

“We use our experience, knowledge, and feedback from our valued customers to continuously improve our software, our services, and our approach.”

“… one of our biggest challenges is Change Management, and more specifically, resistance to change. Implementing a new software brings many benefits and efficiencies for our customers, but we often find that changing how people have worked over many years can be very unsettling…”

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

W: www.2moro.com

T: +33 (0)559 013 005

E: sales@2moro.com

Locations: France (HQ), Canada and Malaysia

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Aero One, Aero-Webb, BFly

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• MRO: Line, Base, Engine maintenance

• Airworthiness and Fleet Management

• Flight and Crew management

• Material Management

• ERP: Finance, Purchasing, Sales, HR

2MoRO is a software development company dedicated to the aviation market. Our teams are located in Europe, America and Asia. We work with partners and resellers worldwide and our software solutions are used in more than 20 countries.

We propose 3 different software solutions in order to fit every type and size of Aviation, Aerospace and Defense companies. Our solutions have been chosen by aircraft and engine manufacturers such as Airbus Helicopters, Dassault Aviation or Safran Group but also by aircraft operators, airlines or independent MROs. We also have a R&D department and can help you in data migration.

Aero One® and Aero-Webb® have been designed to complement your ERP solution regarding aviation and MRO specific needs. They are certified by SAP®, and Aero-Webb® can also be used as stand-alone. BFly®, our latest software, is a new way to create customized software for aviation and enables users to collaborate, design personalized screens, workflows and business processes.

At 2MoRO, we are proud to offer a very dedicated customer service, as reflected by our 95% retention rate. We work mainly on a fixed-price base and we are ISO 9001 certified for aviation software development, maintenance and support.

ADSoftware

W: www.adsoftware.fr

T: +33 (0)4.50.89.48.50

E: contact@adsoftware.fr

Location: France, Thailand, South Africa, Brazil

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• AIRPACK

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• AIRTIME — Fleet management & CAMO

• AIRSTOCK — Inventory control & Logistic

• AIRDOC — Documentation management

• AIRSTAT — Reliability and statistic reports

• AIRWORK — Time Tracking Software

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.

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

• Wings NG

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Fleet Management

• Maintenance Engineering

• Material Management

• Production Planning

• Labor Collection, Billing

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.

Aeroxchange

W: www.aeroxchange.com

T: +1 972 556 8500

E: support@aeroxchange.com

Location: Texas, United States

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Aeroxchange

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• MRO

• Supply Chain efficiencies

• Exchange of documents

• Commercial trancactions

• Procurement

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.

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.

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.

Aerostrat

W: www.aerostratsoftware.com

T: +1-888-558-2860

E: info@aerostratsoftware.com

Location: Seattle, USA NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Aerros

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Heavy/Base Maintenance Planning

• Capacity/Workload Planning

• Maintenance Schedule Optimization

• Maintenace Event Performance Tracking

• Heavy/Base Production Schedules

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.

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.

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.

ASQS (Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions)

W: www.asqs.net

T: +43 1 306 1234

E: sales@asqs.net

Locations: ASQS GmbH, Vienna, Austria; ASQS Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand; Calgary, Canada

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...)

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.

Asia Digital Engineering (ADE)

W: www.ade.aero

T: (+60)3-8660 4333

E: sales@ade.aero

Locations: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Engineering Maintenance Services (EMS)

• Digital & Innovation Services (DIS)

• Engineering Support Services (ESS)

• Component & Warehouse Services (CWS)

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.

Aviation InterTec Services

W: www.aviationintertec.com

T: +1 807-625-9260

E: info@aviationintertec.com

Locations: Canada, Malta

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• RAAS

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.

The Boeing Company

W: www.boeing.com/supportandservices

T: +1 206-655-2121

E: BoeingSupportandServices@Boeing.com

Location: Over 65 locations around the world

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Airplane Health Management

• Business Consulting

• Maintenance Performance Toolbox

• Optimized Maintenance Program

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.

BytzSoft Technologies Inc.

W: www.bytzsoft.com

T: 001 201 270 8019

T: 0091 965 704 2657

E: sales@bytzsoft.com

Location: Over 65 locations around the world

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.

Comply365

W: www.comply365.com

T: +1 (877) 366 2365

E: info@comply365.com

Location: USA

Communications Software (Airline Systems)

W: www.oases.aero

T: +44 1621 817 425

E: info@oases.aero

Location: UK

Conduce

W: www.conduce.net

T: 0044 333 888 4044

E: info@conduce.net

Location: Nuneaton, UK

CrossConsense

W: www.crossconsense.com

T: +49 69 4035 7600

E: contact@crossconsense.de

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)

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

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.

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.

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.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• OASES Modules

• OASES Mobile

• OASES Techlog

• OASES Cloud

• OASES Web

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Continuing Airworthiness

• Material, Warranty & Commercial Management

• Planning & Production

• Line Maintenane

• Complete MRO workflows

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.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• eTechLog8

• eCabinLog8

• eCentral8

• eTraining8

• eForm8

• eDoc8

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Electronic Logbook (ELB)

• Cabin Log

• Electronic Forms Designer

• Document Viewer

Conduce pioneer mobile aviation solutions.

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.

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.

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

Aircraft Fleet View

ACSIS

AviationDW

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.

Dent & Buckle

W: www.dentandbuckle.com

T: +35 444 08300

E: info@dentandbuckle.com

Location: Iceland, Poland, USA, Singapore, United Arab Emirates

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• dent & buckle software

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Aircraft structural damage reporting

• Integration with MRO systems

• Mobile apps

• Integration with 8-tree dentCHECK

• 3D aircraft models

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.

EmpowerMX

W: www.empowermx.com

T: +1 866-498-3702

E: info@empowermx.com

Location: Frisco TX, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• FleetCycle® Execution Suite — MRO Manager (FCXM)

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)

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.

eTT Aviation

W: www.ettaviation.com

T: +1 208-424-9424

E: info@ettaviation.com

Locations: Boise, ID, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• MISA: Complete Aviation Management Information System

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Accounting

• Maintenance

• Inventory Management

• Purchasing

• Human Resources/Payroll

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.

EXSYN Aviation Solutions

W: www.exsyn.com

T: 0031-20-760 8200

E: hello@exsyn.com

Location: Amsterdam NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• NEXUS, AVILYTICS

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Aircraft Data Management

• Data Migration

• Data Integration

• Aircraft Reliability Management

• Predictive Maintenance

• Robotic Process Automation

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.

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.

FlightWatching

W: www.flightwatching.com

E: beaujard@flightwatching.com

E: contact@flightwatching.com

E: romain.blanquet@flightwatching.com

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

Contact us for your customized digital solutions.

flydocs

W: www.flydocs.aero

T: +44 1827 289186

E: sales@flydocs.aero

Locations: Birmingham UK

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.

Flatirons Solutions

W: www.flatironssolutions.com

T: +1.303.627.6535

E: info@flatironssolutions.com

Locations: Europe, Asia, USA, Middle East

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED CORENA Suite

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Content Management System (CMS)

• Interactive Electronic Technical Publisher (IETP)

• Maintenance & Engineering

• Flight Operations

• Tablet Solutions & Mobility

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.

Gamit

W: www.gamit.co.uk

T: +44 1279 818800

E: roam@gamit.co.uk

Location: London UK (HQ), Basel Switzerland, Beirut Lebanon

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• ROAM — Online digital airworthiness records archive and records complance manager.

• RDOC — ROAM Document OCR & Classification engine, through the use of configurable algorythems RDOC can recorgnise your documents easily, accuratly and fast.

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Airworthiness records archive

• Status Builder

• Document Indexing

• Communication module

• Outsourcing

Gamit was founded in 1990 to provide technical support for operators, MRO’s and leasing companies, including on spare parts, technical support, records auditing, on site representation, and technical consultancy. Through years of experience, Gamit developed ROAM, airworthiness records management solution and an online enterprise solution that is more than scanning a document into a PDF and storing on the company server. It uses advanced technologies to deliver an aviation specific document management solution. ROAM is highly scalable making it beneficial for an engineering team looking after 5 or 500 aircraft.

One of the key benefits is allowing users to have full access to an entire library of records from birth, online. This means its users can simply navigate and identify key documents and prepare an aircraft for sale, lease or lease redelivery. The user can package up records quickly and easily, either themselves, or outsourcing the task to the ROAM support team.

IDMR Solutions

W: www.IDMR-Solutions.com

T: +1-347-565-4367

E: sales@IDMR-Solutions.com

Location: New York/Tel Aviv NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• InForm

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Technical Publication

• Engineering Orders

• Task Cards

• Planning

• Maintenance Programs

• Electronic Signatures

IDMR Solutions 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

W: www.ifs.com

T: + 613-576-2480

E: AndInfo@ifsworld.com

Locations: 60+ Worldwide NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• IFS Cloud, IFS Maintenix

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

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.

Jet Aviation Staffing

W: www.jetaviation.com/services/staffing

T: 1-201-637-2211

E: neil.engerran@jetaviation.com

Location: 47 Locations Worldwide

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Permanent & Direct Hire Placement

• Temporary & Freelance Placement

• Outplacement

• Staffing Marketplace

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.

• 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

Laminaar Aviation InfoTech

W: www.laminaar.com

T: +65 6239 0150

E: contact@laminaar.com.sg

Location: Singapore, Denver, Bangalore, Mumbai

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• ARMS®2.5, ARMS®NS, ARMS®on the TAB, InfoPrompt 2.5

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Network / Commercial Planning with Optimizers

• Flight Operations / Fleet Following

• Flight Planning & Dispatch

• Crew Operations Management with Optimizers

• Maintenance, Engineering & Logistics

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.

Lufthansa Industry Solutions

W: www.lufthansa-industry-solutions.com

T: +49 40 5070 30000

E: marketing.sales@lhind.dlh.de

Location: Germany, Switzerland, USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• DocManage Product Suite, DocSurf Mobile, EFFOM, DocCreate

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• IT Solutions and Process

• Consulting for MRO

• Electronic Flight Operation Manuals

• Airline Job Card Content Management

• Predictive Analytics and Maintenance

• RFID

Lufthansa Industry Solutions is an IT service company for process consulting and system integration. This wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Group supports its customers with the digital transformation of their company. Its customer base includes both companies within Lufthansa Group as well as more than 150 companies in various other industries.

The products EFOM and DocSurf Mobile were developed together with Lufthansa Airlines based on 15 years of common experience and excellence in electronic flight operations manuals and processes to fulfill both current and future requirements. EFOM — A manufacturer independent Content Management System. Functionally mature and  based on 17 years of experience, EFOM makes it possible to fulfill FlightOps requirements, e.g. expandable for new publishing backends; flexible to integrate new documents; open for customized enhancements or to integrate business processes such as Compliance Management. DocSurf Mobile — A Library Viewer for MRO and FlightsOps documents is available as a native iOS app or Windows application. The revision service allows change lists to be checked and content to be compared with a previous version. Navigation is intuitive and includes a fast and easy search. A user independent management of favorites and notes is provided, keeping this information revision safe and available.

M3 Solutions

W: www.m3-solutions.net

T: +1 888-318-4808

E: sales@m3-solutions.net

Location: Fort Lauderdale USA, Europe, Asia

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• M3 Platform – Mobile Device Synchronization and Asset Management Solution

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.

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.

MRX Systems

W: www.mrxsys.com

E: contact@mrxsys.com

Location: Luxembourg/Monaco

NVable

W: www.nvable.com

T: +44 141 280 0050

E: contact@nvable.com

Location: Glasgow, UK

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Blue EYE, Blue MRO, Blue STOK

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Quotation & Invoicing

• Project Management & Reporting

• Work Report Automatic Generation

• eJobCard iPad App

• Supply Chain Management

The 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.

Thanks to more than 10 years of customer feedback and perpetual development, MRX Systems brings a complete, secure and scalable solution to challenges faced by operators, CAMOs and MROs. The system is divided into three modules, each of them designed to meet the specific operational needs of their users.

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.

Multi-User, 100% paperless, always up-to-date, and Cloud based, all data is accessible at any time worldwide enhancing operation and maintenance efficiency

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• ConNVerge for Aviation

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Electronic Techlog

• Electronic Forms (Assessments)

• Document Management

• Operational Analysis

• Station Operational Compliance

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.

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.

Bring everything together and do IT better when you bring onboard CoNVerge and NVable.

Output42

W: www.output42.com

T: +353 23 88682200

E: info@output42.com

Location: Ireland, Poland, United Kingdom

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• dent & buckle, BladeFix, CabinSurvey

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Software development

• Data migration

• Aviation Data and Reporting Services

• System integration

• Data Transformation

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.

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.

W: www.qoco.aero

T: +358 10 501 4001

E: hello@qoco.aero

Location: Finland NAME OF PRODUCTS MARKETED MROTools.io, EngineData.io, OpsMetrics.io

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Intelligent maintenance

• Data management and integrations

• Lean operations

• Process consulting

• SaaS solutions

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.

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.

Solutions offered include the following SaaS solutions: MROTools.io for tool management in aircraft maintenance, EngineData.io for intelligent integrations between collaborating players in aviation, and OpsMetrics.io for fully transparent collaborative decision making. 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.

Ramco Systems

W: www.ramco.com/aviation-suite/

T: +91 44 2235 4510

E: contact@ramco.com

Location: 21 offices worldwide

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Ramco Aviation M&E Solution, Ramco Aviation MRO Solution, Ramco Anywhere Apps, Ramco flyMORE

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.

RecoSense Infosolutions

W: www.recosenselabs.com

T: +1 206 451 350

E: Info@recosenselabs.com

Location: United States, Canada, India

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

DocuSense

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.

REDiFly

W: www.redifly.com

T: +41 43 555 31 65

E: las@redifly.com

Location: Switzerland (HQ), Ireland

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

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.

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.

ROTA.technology Inc.

W: rota.technology

T: +1 321 710 7682(ROTA)

E: info@rota.technology

Location: Melbourne, FL USA and global

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Consulting, MXF Software, PDS(Process Development System) and custom applications

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.

Rusada

W: www.rusada.com

T: 03333 440730

E: information@rusada.com

Location: Switzerland, USA, UK, UAE, India, Singapore, Australia

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Envision

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.

Seabury Solutions

W: www.seaburysolutions.com

T: +353 860 621311

E: mkt@seaburysolutions.com

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.

StaffNow

W: www.staffnow.aero

T: +35 987 857905

E: info@staffnow.aero

Location: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• StaffNow

KEY BUSINESS/SOFTWARE AREAS

• Staffing

• Engineering

• Production

• Quality

StaffNow is the first digital platform connecting aviation maintenance technicians with MRO/OEM companies in a fast, transparent, reliable and streamlined way.

StaffNow transforms the real staffing industry processes into digital ones following EASA/FAA regulations. All available contractors in StaffNow are pre-checked to ensure their eligibility to work. The profiles are ready for your Quality and Production departments’ review. This ensures that you get the contractors you need exactly when you need them.

Ready to streamline the way you source? Try StaffNow - your digital contracting workforce source.

Swiss Aviation Software

W: www.swiss-as.com

T: +41 61 582 72 94

E: marketing@swiss-as.com

Location: Basel, Switzerland; Miami, FL, USA; Singapore; Tokyo, Japan

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• AMOS

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.

TRAX

W: www.trax.aero

T: +1 305.662.7400

E: sales@trax.aero

Location: Miami, FL, USA; West Sussex, UK; Tokyo, Japan; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

NAME OF PRODUCTS MARKETED

• 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.

TrustFlight

W: www.trustflight.io

T: 44 (0) 330 229 0219

E: info@trustflight.io

Location: Leamington Spa, UK; Edinburgh, UK; Luton, UK; St Helier, Jersey

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Tech Log, Task Cards

• Digital Logbook

• CAMO (service)

• Aircraft Registry (service)

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.

Ultramain

W: www.ultramain.com

T: +1.505.828.9000

E: sales@ultramain.com

Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

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

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.

Vistair Systems

W: www.vistair.com

T: 01454 550663

E: info@vistair.com

Location: United Kingdom and USA

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• DocuNet

• SafetyNet

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.

Yonder

W: www.yonder.info

T: +41 43 215 27 94

E: contact@yonder.info

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

NAME OF PRODUCT MARKETED

• Yonder Mind

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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