TITLE:

“The development of e-enabled MRO-maintenance, repair and operations in the

global air transport industry for optimizing airplane utilization through minimising
downtime: An application case study”.

[Abstract Code: 004-0412]

Zenon Michaelides* and Sadaf Naseri, The University of Liverpool Management

School, e-Business Division, Chatham Building, Liverpool L69 7ZH, UK. Tel: +44
(0)151 795-3602, email: zenon@[Link]

*Corresponding author

Category: e-Business and supply chain integration

Keywords: MRO-maintenance, repair and operations; business model; integration

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ABSTRACT:
The objective of this research is to propose the development of new e-enabled
systems for controlling MRO-maintenance, repair and operations or overhaul in
global aerospace supply chains. Current methods of managing MRO in civil airplane
operations are limited due to their inherent legacy structures, resulting in restricted
visibility and reactive modes of operation, leading to excessive operating costs. Such
costs account for lost revenue when measured in terms of airplane “downtime”. MRO
organisations strive to limit costs associated with “downtime” but are constrained by
the nature of the business model under which they operate. This is particularly true
for MRO operations in vertical sectors such as aerospace, which are process-intensive
and controlled at all levels of the product life cycle, from cradle to grave in order to
meet robust certification requirements. Such requirements involve verification of
supply and operational information, both at the airplane and component levels. This
paper describes an e-MRO system development for a civil aircraft operator in the air-
cargo sector of the industry. The aircraft are based in the UK and support the
movement of freight in global markets. The aircraft are classed as out-of-production
aircraft, typical of many freighter aircraft currently operating and are subject to ageing
aircraft status. As a result most data remains in paper format and has not been
digitised.

Introduction
Maintenance, repair and operations is an area which offers opportunities for creating
new MRO business models by optimising processes through e-enablement,
particularly in sectors requiring global presence and execution. Requirements for
certification involve the verification of supply, manufacturing and operational
information, including generating detailed technical records both at the aircraft
operational level as well as component level. In addition, for those parts classified as
being critical to safety, e.g. engines including their internal parts such as compressors,
the monitoring of MRO operations constitutes a legal requirement under Civil
Aviation Authority regulations. For categorization purposes aircraft are sub-divided
into 3 main areas, namely: airframe and associated structures, power-plants and
components. Each area is typically controlled by 3 key elements, namely: by flight
hours, flight cycles and by calendar limitations, i.e. by date and/or age. MRO
operations ensure such limitations are maintained within safe and acceptable margins,
in accordance with manufacturer specifications, general airworthiness practices and
aviation authority directives. To achieve the above, MRO companies need to
continuously monitor operations in order to generate periodic inspection
requirements, which require the aircraft, its components and equipment undergo
routine and preventative maintenance in accordance with certified schedules.

Literature review
The review of MRO activities and inspections, as required for continued airworthiness
verification, is addressed herein from both a systems development/integration as well
operations management perspective. Typical MRO applications, their modules and
functionality are addressed both within the literature section as well as at the e-
analysis stage, for comparison purposes.

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MRO History and Background Studies
Commercial aircraft maintenance activities form an important part of airworthiness
operations. Such activities consist of servicing, repair, modification, overhaul,
inspection and determination of condition. These tasks involve a variety of operations
which are targeted at restoring parts to meet strict serviceable condition levels.
Broadly, there are two types of MRO inspection requirements or checks which are
needed to be carried out on commercial aircraft, refer to Figure 1:
1. Corrective maintenance, which includes such actions performed as a result of
failure in order to restore a part to satisfactory levels. In general it is about
verifying and replacing faults and includes unscheduled maintenance, and
2. Preventive maintenance, which involves maintaining the parts and items in a
serviceable condition through systematic inspections and checks. This type of
maintenance is termed scheduled maintenance as it is carried out at pre-
appointed times in an aircrafts life and may be controlled either by calendar,
flight hours or/and flight cycles (Wu et al, 2004).

Figure 1: Scheduled versus un-scheduled checks, Komorowski (2003)

Direct maintenance costs (DMC) are defined as the labor and material costs directly
expended in performing maintenance activities on an aircraft or related equipment.
The labor and material expenses are not included in DMC costs. According to Knotts
(1999) the key influential factors on DMC are the maintenance man-hours on and off
the aircraft as well as labor rates and material costs. This could be shown as follows:

DMC = (MMHon + MMHoff) LR + MC

Where MMHon is maintenance man-hours on aircraft, MMHoff is maintenance man-

hours off aircraft, LR is labor rate, and MC is material costs (Knotts, 1999).

One goal of operations management addressing MRO is to achieve a balance pattern

of scheduling maintenance inspections and flight hours so that the results would meet
the FAA regulations as well as airline internal operating policies. In order to achieve
this, maintenance inspections need to be scheduled based on the given flight
schedules. According to Sriram and Haghani (2003), the frequency of scheduled

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checks also depends on combination of factors such as flight hours, landing, and take-
off cycles. The four major types of check that are mandated by the FAA for each type
of aircraft are listed below:

A Check: This is the first check that occurs in the region of every 65 flight-hours.
It covers the inspection of all the major systems such as landing gear, engines, and
control surfaces.

B Check: This is the second check that usually takes place in the region of every
300-600 flight-hours. It involves a detailed visual inspection as well as lubrication of
all the moving parts of the aircraft.

C and D Checks: These two major checks are usually scheduled in the region of
once every one to four years respectively, both requiring about a month of work on
the aircraft (Clarke et al, 1997)

One of the main purposes of having an MRO application is to enable accurate

maintenance scheduling and facilitate demand utilization. According to Brio (1992)
however, such systems are not capable of facilitating such work from start-to-end and
suggests human knowledge and experience still play an important role in the accuracy
and efficiency of such operations. Furthermore, intervention and interaction still
appear to be necessary on the part of users for the purposes of overriding or providing
decision support to the application where needed, such as solving maintenance-
scheduling conflicts. Although such activities are often classed as system monitoring,
they highlight the limitations of such systems and the importance of the human
control element.

Maintenance scheduling
Maintenance scheduling involves the arranging of the sequences in which the work
orders and tasks will be done and deciding who will be in charge of completing the
tasks. Factors to be considered are job duration, required skills, job priorities,
availability of required spare parts, appropriately skilled workers, special tooling and
status of equipment maintenance (Pintelon et al, 1999). Due to complexities
associated with such arrangements and interactions, MRO systems are required to
assist in overcoming many diverse challenges in an efficient manner. Such systems
would facilitate the decision making process by taking all the above factors into
account during the process. Complete automation is not considered possible or
desirable and maintenance scheduling, similar with any other managerial interaction
or decision tool, will often require human judgment to address some of the finer
issues. In other words the aim here is not so much to automate decisions, but to
enable users to make correct and fast decisions based on accurate and most current
information available. The system responsible for providing such information will be
robust and reliable enough to integrate a number of complex IT systems and
applications (Sherwin, 2000), whilst concurrently providing interfaces for complex
operational associations, both within the organisation as well as with its suppliers or
service provides. Such MRO applications would need to be developed around expert
or knowledge-base system models, in order to facilitate the required automation and
decision making features.

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Knowledge-based systems
Knowledge based systems assist organisations and MRO providers to improve turn-
around times by proposing proven solutions to previously known problems on hand or
probable solutions to unknown problems on hand. According to Mustapha et al
(2004), a knowledge-based or expert system (KBS) comprises of computerized
knowledge of an expert in a particular subject domain. Knowledge-based systems are
capable of providing fast and easily accessible knowledge based information in a
useful and practical manner. The software is designed to capture and use domain-
specific knowledge expertise in order to facilitate decision-making or problem solving
tasks (Mustapha et al, 2004), see Figure 2.

Figure 2: Knowledge-based or expert system (KBS), Mustapha et al, (2004)

Knowledge-based systems have the capability to offer a direct rectification course of

action whilst reducing actual time spent on trouble-shooting and minimizing the
involvement of experienced maintenance personnel handling MRO activities
(Mustapha et al, 2004). The full version of the proposed e-MRO system incorporates
such features in order to assist the maintenance personnel reduce time taken to
address known problems. This also results in minimising aircraft downtime.

Aircraft downtime and associated costs

Since much aircraft downtime is directly attributed to rectifying or finding the cause
of problems, reducing it is significant due to the knock-on effect it potentially may
have on the supply of parts required for rectification. This effect happens because
organisations are usually reliant on existing stocks to cover such occasional parts
failures, as lead-time prior to actual demand does not exist. Downtime on such
occasions translates to lost time for the MRO facility, since no direct man-hours are
booked whilst waiting for spare parts and also lost time for the aircraft operators,
since their aircraft remains grounded. Lost time accrues costs to MRO facilities and
aircraft operators alike, which are neither directly recoverable nor contribute to the
progress status of the aircraft.

Controlling the costs associated with these types of checks remains a challenge for
commercial MRO providers. The objective is to provide fully serviceable aircraft
when required by an airline at minimum cost and minimum down time. According to
a study by Maple (2001) maintenance costs typically account for 10-20 per cent of

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aircraft-related operating costs. A significant part of that figure is directly attributed
to downtime. It is widely accepted that maintenance costs of a commercial aircraft
make a significant contribution to an aircraft’s cost of ownership. The majority of
MRO providers use some method or application in order to achieve higher
productivity rates and lower operation costs whether they are direct or indirect
maintenance costs.

Case study: system overview

The case study presented herein addresses the need for development of suitable e-
MRO systems, the purpose of which is to enable the current or facilitate the future
effects of growth projections in the aerospace sector in an efficient and empowered
way.

System capabilities
The e-MRO application was developed as a technology demonstrator, rather than a
commercial system. Its development was based on the RAD-rapid application
development principle. This prototype application uses mathematical algorithms to
identify and generate both general inspection requirements for aircraft and
components, as well as specific task checks on a scheduled or unscheduled basis. It
has the capability to resource operations by assigning employees to each task within
their job group category, such as avionics or electrical, whilst allowing both the
supervisor and the employee to monitor their hours worked or view progress at any
time against given benchmarks for that specific operation. The supervisors may call-
up work cards and confirm, after viewing the details of the card and checking for
technician’s signature and notes, that such work has indeed been carried out in
accordance with approved processes and procedures prior to closing-off that work
card. This feature enables operations to be completed both efficiently and within
controlled guidelines, whilst at the same time assuring the safety and integrity of the
checks by re-affirming task status at any time.

Furthermore, the system has the ability to track aircraft operations through the
imputing or recording of flight hour and flight cycle information for all life-controlled
associated parts and structure. In effect, scheduling and resources allocation takes
place through this interface and results in the system maintaining an important health-
monitoring baseline for the aircraft. The parts supply interface is also enabled at this
level, as well as at the planning and task execution level. In other words, the parts
monitoring interface enables advance tracking of replacement components or
scheduling of associated services, such as workshop slots for overhaul, prior to the
planned removal dates. This results in parts, plans or tools being available at the time
when required without incurring delays leading to downtime. Since this feature also
has the capability to track log-book entry items, many un-scheduled item
replacements are also identified prior to requirement thus facilitating technical
operations.

System implementation
Implementation of such systems increases competitiveness in the marketplace, as the
potential exists to achieve better turnover figures partly due to reduced task
completion times. This efficiency gain has the potential to directly affect man-hour
rates, as MRO-associated tasks are more often billed as such, i.e. per man-hour rather
than on fixed-price contract.

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Currently most MRO providers and airlines are adopting or have already adopted
some type or method for the control of their MRO processes and operations.
Although the aircraft industry is considered as inherently traditional in its approach to
systems implementation, many companies in this sector are keenly observing or
reviewing developments including the technologies driving them. Harmon et al
(2001) state that regardless of a company’s strategy it has to realize the need to adapt
to the new business environment, which has been created by the Internet and the web
in order to stay competitive in the industry.

Case study Methodology

To meet this requirement a 3-stage methodology was adopted, namely: e-proposition,
e-prototyping and e-analysis, based of research by the DOMAIN Group at the
University of Liverpool, U.K. The first stage addresses the value proposition and
involves the identification of new e-enabled MRO models, classification of
supply/service networks and action based mapping of technical task requirements and
material information flows affecting operational and/or business processes. The
second stage addresses the prototype application development and involves client and
server-side development, application hosting and networking and systems integration
map. The third stage addresses the value analysis and involves review of the new e-
MRO model key elements and comparison/qualitative analysis of e-MRO model
benefits over the traditional MRO model, see Figure 3.

e-Proposition
Proposition • Identify new e-enabled business model
(e-proposition) • Action based mapping of resources, information
flows and business processes

e-Development
Prototype • Rapid Application Development –RAD toolset
Development • Application hosting and networking, client and server-
(e-prototyping) side development
• Systems integration map
e-Analysis
Analysis • Comparison analysis of previous business model to e-
(e-analysis) enabled business model
• Qualitative analysis of business benefits
• Revisit key questions raised

Figure 3: The DOMAIN project research methodology map, Michaelides et al,

(2003).

e-Proposition
Current MRO systems are based on methods traditionally designed to support all the
relevant maintenance phases for the operator’s fleet of aircraft. However, the
emphasis of newer methods of managing MRO operations is deep rooted in
economies and maintaining competitive margins in a wider spectrum of activities

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which include suppliers and service providers. From an operations management
perspective, this translates to enabling better turn-around times to be achieved, thus
minimising aircraft downtime, which is inherently associated with losses in gainful
revenue. This can only be realised through accrued efficiency gains as a result of
allowing system users to better manage resources which are directly and indirectly
associated with the maintenance operation as a whole rather than just the task on
hand. More significantly, the objective is to realign traditional MRO operations and
to establish and foster a culture of pro-activity on an ongoing basis rather than allow
actions to be based on a reactive event such as upcoming inspection intervals. By
optimizing schedules and integrating the maintenance function with real-time check
status and progress information, incidents of unplanned maintenance tasks and
inspections may be significantly reduced.

Thus, by utilizing the e-MRO system all persons involved in the overall task of
supporting the aircraft on an ongoing basis, such as parts suppliers and route planners,
(not only technical staff such as supervisors, mechanics, technicians, and engineers)
will all be knowledge powered and be able to better contribute to the reduction of
maintenance downtimes without compromising safety. In order to better achieve this,
the e-MRO system may be integrated with ERP systems, such as SAP or other
modules such as SCM-supply chain management or CRM-customer relations
management or best-of-breed systems such as APS-advance planning and scheduling,
see Figure 4.

Figure 4 e-MRO system integration

It is proposed that new e-MRO models are developed, based on shared information
structures and transparency of the overall activity through utilisation of concepts such
as Internet presentation layers (IPL), see Michaelides (2003). This will be supported
by suitable e-business technologies as well as operational structures based on
collaborative methods.

e-Development
The e-MRO system comprises of a front-end interface with a robust MySQL back-end
database. APM (Apache, PHP, and MySQL) open source technologies were used to
develop the system. Information and data originate and end at the browser. Such
flows invoke the PHP engine through the web server and query or update the database
through the MySQL Server interface. Informational and transactional data flows are
shown in Figure 5.

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 1 2 3
MySQL
Browser Web Server PHP Engine
Server
6 5 4

Figure 5 Sequential data flows in web database application (Welling and

Thompson 2003).

The e-MRO system architecture enables integration with other systems. This
integration could be at the ERP-enterprise resources planning system module- level,
such as HR-human resources, SCM-supplier management system, or MM-material
management. It is possible to further integrate the core system application directly
with the TR-technical records module and IFPM-integrated flight parameter
monitoring module, although the latter is currently under separate development. See
Figure 6 for e-MRO system high-level schema indicating data-centric tier for A and B
Checks. C Checks were incorporated into the version 1 production release.

Figure 6 e-MRO system high-level schema

In designing the prototype system, rapid application development (RAD) toolsets

were used. This ensured minimum time elapsed between prototype version
development and production version release. When developing such dynamic
applications there are broadly two different methods:
1. client-side dynamic pages, or
2. server-side active pages.
In designing the e-MRO prototype system the second method was adopted using PHP
as a server side scripting language. Typical e-MRO system components are shown in
Figure 7.

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 Figure 7 e-MRO prototype system components, adapted from Ismail (2004).

Dynamic content is linked directly to the MySQL Version 4.1.11 database using
Apache server technologies. Specifically, Apache HTTP server was used as the web
server for the application and PHP Version 5.0.4 was used as a server side scripting
language. PHP is short for hypertext pre-processor and is an open source product
scripting language designed specially for the web. Each time an HTML page is visited
the embedded PHP code will be executed. The combined use of PHP with Apache
web server ensured the system could handle large amounts of traffic. According to
Williams and Lane (2004), “PHP is an open source project of the Apache Software
Foundation and it’s the most popular Apache web server add-on module, with around
53 per cent of the Apache HTTP servers having PHP capabilities”. The system
architecture for the e-MRO system is shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 e-MRO System architecture.

User and data Interface

The e-MRO System eliminates the need for most of the paper documents and
procedures that are required. Digital records and documents are stored within the
system and backed up regularly on incorporated or independent storage devices.

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From a user perspective, it is easier for personnel to carry out their duties while
spending less time searching for related documents and instructions.

The legacy data, such as maintenance schedules, task job cards, manuals and
instructions were converted from the scanned paper versions to HTML and PHP files.
Using OTS-off the shelf commercially available OCR-optical character reading
software the data was transformed from .TIF image format to editable word
documents, whilst ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the data was maintained.
Furthermore, all technical documentation from the regulatory authorities and aircraft
manufacturers, such as release to service certificates were electronically uploaded into
the system. Using this method of data storage and retrieval enables records to be
available for indexing and searching by the users, with the objective of enhancing the
productivity of engineers and technicians.

Supervisors and inspectors manage both work completion status and approvals
activities on line. These electronic signatures indicating release, approval or
verification are stored in the database for further review and for maintaining the audit
trail. This also addresses the issue of maintaining credible technical records, either
historical or current, which constitutes a legal requirement for both operators and
MRO providers alike. This may be graphically viewed with the aid of a use case
diagram, see Figure 9.

Figure 9 Use case diagrams for supervisor activities.

The use case indicates the sequence of actions that are carried out by the system and its
actors (Bennett et al, 2001), as graphically represented by the supervisors and other
systems that interact with the MRO system. The preceding activity diagram shows step
by step details of the actions that a power user, such as a supervisor would adapt in the
e-MRO system. All activities are enabled once the user signs into the system. A

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separate activity diagram exists for various levels of users. Varying privilege levels are
set in place to control/manage the extent of users’ involvement, according to
nature/level of tasks or operations. For example, work card tasks are classified
according to:
1. nature, associated with users trade, such as electrical or avionic, and/or
2. operations, based on either:
a. approval level, such as inspector, or
b. seniority, such as supervisor or operator.

Front-end user interface

Users are able to access latest information associated with their assigned maintenance
tasks at any stage of the MRO process, see Figure 10.

Figure 10 Assigned job list interface

Furthermore, by using either fixed or mobile devices users may access, review and
update job status information pertaining to any task on an ongoing basis. Part status
or similar supply information may also be dynamically viewed when waiting for
urgent deliveries, such as parts classified as AOG-aircraft on ground. Finally,
inspection status is updated on an ongoing basis and allows for accurate progress
reviews to be carried out.

The Job List Management application within the system allows the supervisors to
assign employee identification numbers to tasks and also to sign off work cards after
technicians complete the task. The supervisors are able to use the specific interface to
assign a particular technician to a task. The technician will be able to access his/her
personal job list after the supervisor had assigned then a task and save the job in the
system as completed once cleared. There are types of jobs, which may be assigned to
a work group rather than an individual. In that case the system will authorise all the
technicians within that specific work group to access the job list, view the jobs, and if
required assign a task to themselves. The e-MRO system will recognize the tasks that
have been assigned to a work group. The system shall generate a list of remaining
jobs which need to be allocated within that assigned task group. When a technician
starts working on a specific job that specific task shall become inactive for all

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members within the same group until the technician finishes the job and signs off the
job list. This is aimed at preventing duplication of assigned tasks. However, the task
in question may remain active in another task group, for example with a different
trade, such as avionics, in order to allow for concurrent task execution.

After each task has been signed by the technician or the engineer responsible for
completing the job, the supervisor is responsible for final release of the completed
work card. Work cards will remain open until every single element on the card has
been carried out, approved or electronically released by the supervisor. The status of
a work card may be complete but the full inspection will remain unreleased until the
supervisor has confirmed all work cards have been carried out, inspected where
appropriate and are accounted for, see Figure 11.

Figure 11 Work card detail interface

In order to better manage the task on hand, supervisors are afforded visibility of the
complete task including all work-in-progress. The system generates tables containing
all the Job List information for WIP jobs. At any given time should a technician be
faced with a challenge or require assistance they may send an instant message to a
supervisor through the e-MRO system. Supervisors will receive such messages either
as B2B on-line screen alerts or as email messages to their account. Response times
are monitored in order to reduce any possibility or extent of downtimes arising as a
result of WIP delays.

e-Analysis
The generation of MRO requirements is dependent on both historic records and
current technical/operational requirements. The multi-disciplinary nature in which
such records are processed currently results in disparate methods of MRO control and
execution, many of which remain paper-based to date. Furthermore, due to the
traditional manner in which such records have been generated and maintained in the
past, migration from such methods to more advanced electronic formats of e-MRO
constitutes a significant change and necessitates the development of more suitable
business models. These models are largely driven by integrative initiatives across

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disparate information and process domains. By adapting such models to e-MRO
operations, these domains are further extended to include networks of suppliers and
service providers, thus facilitating the creation of proactive rather than reactive
systems. Such systems are based on the notion of improving visibility through the
incorporation of next generation Internet technologies. The scope of such e-MRO
applications extends beyond traditional linear process execution thus facilitating
concurrent networks and collaborative models, which are underpinned by suitable
integrative technologies. Subsequently, the practical implications of this research are
realised through the development of e-MRO systems with global application.

The need to develop next generation e-MRO systems may be described as being
driven by a 2-tier requirement. The first requirement is associated with market
dynamics and the ongoing need to develop optimum methods of delivering value in
the highly competitive airline operations area, including airfreight sector. According
to industry statistics for global commercial aviation presented by the International Air
Transport Association (IATA, 2005), this is viewed as an area of high growth
potential. The second area addresses the effects of such growth from a regulatory
perspective, in ensuring mechanisms reinforcing safety standards and certification are
not only maintained but improved upon in order to counteract the potential negative:
effects associated with rapid sector growth. The International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO, 2005) predicts the magnitude of such growth to result in
doubling in numbers of aircraft expected to enter service within a decade and tripling
in some areas such as the Gulf region (Flight International, 2006a). According to The
Seattle Times (2006) the whole focus of the aerospace industry has shifted eastward
in recent years to the Middle East and Far East. In order to meet the challenges
associated with the above projections, MRO facilities need to develop new methods
of operating more effectively whilst incorporating the latest advances in Internet tools
and information technologies, which would facilitate the global sharing of related
MRO data.

Future work
The MRO system is currently capable of providing limited reporting functionality on
some aspects of the captured data within the database. Future system enhancements
however are planned to extent this capability by including forecasting information
based on current fleet utilization figures from current operations, both at
organisational as well as manufacturer levels, as well as from historical data that has
been preserved within the e-MRO system database, see Figure 12.

Figure 12 Future information and process flows

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Future e-MRO versions shall incorporate the IFPM-integrated flight parameter
monitoring module. This module allows for on-line management of flight
parameters, such as flight hours, flight cycles and calendar limitations. The
application is designed to monitor the airframe, its engines (including controlled
internal parts) and components by tracking the following individual as well combined
factors: flight hours, landing, and take-off cycles. Frequency of scheduled checks
depends on such monitoring (Sriram and Haghani, 2003). The IFPM-integrated flight
parameter monitoring module is currently been developed independently and is not
automatically uploaded into the e-MRO system.

Conclusions
MRO remains a highly competitive area which is subject to many challenges
associated with socio-economic and socio-political fluctuations. Over the recent
years such drivers have initiated new opportunities and shifted the focus of
competitive markets eastwards (Flight International, 2006b), where high growth
figures appear promising in sustaining global expansion plans. However, the
aerospace sector is inherently highly volatile and remains one which is affected to its
core by an ever increasing list of current and potential factors, from terrorism to
SARS and avian flu. The very nature of some such factors is unpredictable as they
have the ability to both fuel and constrain the growth rate of an industry, already hard
hit and only recently showing signs of recovery. As a result, this industry can ill
afford to have failures or losses in areas such as MRO, where they are relying on
effective and efficient systems to support their existing business models and maintain
some semblance of stability and security in their operations. Such a sense of stability
could be enhanced within ones immediate operating environment through the reliance
on effective and robust solutions. This would allow companies to focus on other
areas, such as pursue new business or expansive ventures. With many new MRO
ventures widely planned and expansion plans existing for many others (Read, 2006),
maintaining a competitive edge in the market remains challenging.

This paper has reviewed systems used for managing existing MRO operations in the
civil aircraft sector and has discussed the problems/constraints inherently present in
carrying out such operations under current socio-economic conditions. The paper has
discussed the role of e-business tools and technologies in enabling and supporting
next generation business applications. A case study was presented describing the
development of an e-MRO system for a UK based cargo aircraft operator. Utilisation
of the e-MRO system has enabled improved visibility of the MRO task and afforded
better optimisation through advance scheduling operations. Furthermore, the system
allows a more proactive approach to the MRO requirement and enables advance
sourcing and monitoring of supplies and service requirements. Finally, future work
was presented outlining the need to incorporate the forecasting functionality as well as
the IFPM-integrated flight parameter monitoring module.

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