Point to Ponder- 1:
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 encountered a ‘bird strike’ and lost both engine powers. As the pilot jostled to control the aircraft, the 1st officer struggled with the three-page emergency procedures checklist, in an attempt to restart the engines.
In a split second decision, the pilot ditched the aircraft into the Hudson River. By the time all the 155 passenger and 5 crew members were rescued, the aircraft was almost submerged. Airbus commented that for similar scenarios, Airbus A320 has a "Ditch Switch" that closes all openings underneath the aircraft and ensures slow flooding. The flight crew did not have the information when required the most!
Point to Ponder - 2:
An interesting statistic was presented in an article on cost saving when an airline moved from ‘paper-based’ to ‘e-enabled’ technical documents management system. It was observed that the on-board documents weigh roughly 100 kg in international flights and 40 kg in domestic flights!
The estimate reduction in fuel consumption was calculated to be around 10 per cent; churning out an annual ‘Per aircraft fuel savings’ of around Rs 7 Crores!
Point to Ponder - 3:
In any aviation organization, maintaining and using technical documents has always been a challenging task. The following hurdles just made the situation worse:
- Non Standard Data Format: Boeing and Airbus provides manuals in SGML format. Whereas ATR and CRJ provide manuals in PDF format.
- Non Standardized Task Cards formats: The task card (work/job card) definition and format are varied across OEMs.
- Volume of Data: Each revision incorporation involves huge volume of changes
- Non Compatible to Digital Signature: AME is forced to go though chores of paperwork for each task
All the above points boil down to the requirement of a technical document system which is:
- Hand held device Compatible (i-Pad, smart phones, PDA, etc) - ensuring stepping ahead of bulky paper work and efficient-effortless data retrieval
- Efficiently manages task creation/revision/retrieval
- Compatible to digital signature
Ramco M&E has been integrated with a technical document management system (IDMR) to answer to all the above hurdles. The robust integrated process meets the requirement of any airline, setting the bar a notch higher for the industry.
The cumbersome task creation/revision process is simplified to:
- OEM provided manuals (AMM,CMM, MPD) are parsed by the system
- ‘New’ tasks get created; existing tasks get ‘Revised’ – Automatically!
The endless paperwork for work package and compilation of associated tasks is just as efficient as:
- Work Package is created by planner/shift in-charge. With the click of a button, the system generates a set of key documents:
- The complete work package and the associated tasks with illustrations and required details
- List of all ‘Material requirements’ including tools, equipments and consumables
- A Master tally for efficient tracking
- A list of references which may be require
- The ‘Package’ gets stored in a ‘web location’ and the web link is sent to the planner/shift-in-charge.
- All that is left is taking a physical print of the documents (in case you want to maintain the ‘dirty finger print’ copy from the shop/line).
Few of the offerings of the integrated solution are:
- One touch access to all task cards on hand held devices
- Hassle free task creation/revision
- Central work planning and package distribution
- Printing of package at work center
The solution provides the pilot with information on emergency situations, reduces the load of ‘on-board’ manuals and makes the task authoring process efficient, all culminating in an efficient, safe and profitable airline.
In a nut shell, lead the industry with ‘The Solution’ or watch your competitors do!