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Summary
With the fortunes of MRO business mirroring that of the airline industry
in the global downturn, MRO players are under pressure to improve
productivity and cut costs. Hence, making investments in technology that
enable higher automation of maintenance, repair and overhaul processes
makes sound business sense. Independent Software Vendors (ISV) of
specialized MRO applications must seize this opportunity and mobilize
their solutions so that processes can be further automated. There are several
factors contributing to the enterprise-readiness of mobility - including
availability of device hardware and network connectivity as well as users
favorable disposition towards mobile usage.
Jun 2009
Given this scenario, making investments in technology that enable higher automation of maintenance and repair processes
seems like an obvious course of action for MRO service providers. Independent Software Vendors (ISV) of specialized MRO
applications must seize this opportunity and mobilize their solutions to automate processes even further, such that their
clients dependence on manual effort comes down and they reap the benefits of higher efficiency and cost saving. It is equally
important that ISVs recognize the need for expedient action.
Mobilization of MRO processes must surely form an integral part of any automation strategy. Advances in mobile computing
and communication technology have enabled MRO software applications to be run on devices such as laptops, portable
computers and PDAs. Past concerns about the enterprise-readiness of mobilization technology or its complexity of use are
no longer valid. Enterprise mobility has taken giant steps in terms of capability, usability and affordability to become a very
realizable option.
The following factors have made mobilization technology ready for deployment in MRO software applications:
Handset options have multiplied manifold, ranging from high-end enterprise devices to low cost models for personal
use. In keeping with the needs of industrial users, such as those working in the MRO business, extra-rugged mobile
devices designed to withstand harsh environmental conditions are also available. Quite clearly, handset availability has
expanded to cater to every type of end use and price point.
Wireless technology has evolved to provide reliable, high speed 2.5 and 3 G connectivity, using which information is
made available online, in real time to the remote field force. In this way, mobility enables dynamic work allocation and
continuous progress reporting from the field, which is otherwise not possible in the traditional MRO workflow.
Mobile usage has found widespread acceptance among end users, who use these devices to perform a number of
functions in their daily lives. Therefore, they can be easily persuaded and trained to use mobility at work.
The good news is that mobility has started to make inroads into the MRO business. With valuable process-related
information being made available online, in real-time to their personnel, the early adopters among MRO service providers
have reaped the benefits of lower cost, reduced cycle time, increased productivity and improved customer satisfaction. A
global corporation with over US $ 11 billion in revenues from their aviation business, cut the time for logging and processing
inspection readings by half when they replaced their paper-based system with one run on pocket PCs. The value of mobility
to the aviation MRO business is once again demonstrated in the response time of one of the worlds largest providers of such
services - 90 percent of all service calls are now attended to within ten minutes or less.
At the start of each day, work requests are created centrally on a software system by a team that may need to put together
information from multiple sources. These work requests have to be printed and manually handed over for use by field
personnel, who, in the absence of mobility, depend on paper-based instructions. Therefore, despite automation, manual
intervention is required to access and transmit the work requests from a central office to various field locations.
Purchase Requests
Maintenance
Engineering
Material Management
M a t e r i a l R e q u e s ts
HR Management
Warehouse
Work
Allocation
Maintenance Personnel
Customer
Relationship/Sales
Pay
to
Status Reporting
Logging Work Hours
Report
Material Handling
Inspection
Logs
Technical Coordination
Once the work request is handed over at the beginning of the day, in the absence of field force connectivity, the central office
has no visibility into the status of the assignment until it is logged into the system after completion. Another drawback of this
workflow is that mid-day allocation or re-allocation of tasks is difficult.
Clearly, this work cycle and related information flow is quite paper and labor-dependent and is riddled with duplicated effort,
human error and process bottlenecks.
Process
Line
Maintenance
Heavy
Maintenance
Engine
Maintenance
Component
Maintenance
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
High
Medium
Low
Low
High
High
High
High
Reliability Analysis
High
High
High
Low
High
High
High
Medium
High
High
High
Low
Inspection Logs
High
High
High
Low
High
Medium
Low
Low
Status Reporting
High
High
Medium
Low
High
High
Low
Low
Material/Part Management
High
High
High
High
Customer Relationship
High
High
High
Medium
Note: High/Medium/low indicate degree of manual effort intensiveness and time criticality of activity completion
As mentioned earlier, mobility-enablement of the above processes can significantly improve productivity, work efficiency
and customer service, and potentially save up to 25 percent of effort and time. By facilitating online information access,
integrated data management and automation, mobility-enablement helps MRO organizations achieve high process efficiency
characterized by:
Automated work order processing, order authorization/tracking, invoicing, maintenance planning, resource allocation
and reliability analysis
Access to online maintenance data and manuals and the ability to log in maintenance, repair and inspection data
Dynamic work allocation, automation of EFB/ETL and status reporting
Real-time management of warehouse operations including procurement, inventory management and shipping
Access to customer data including status updates, warranty details, history and pricing terms.
The impact of the resulting improvement in process efficiency will be felt across the organization in terms of achievement of
Key Performance Indicators such as:
Higher customer satisfaction resulting from, among other things, improved fleet availability
Shorter cycles, which deliver benefits such as cost saving for the service provider and reduced Aircraft on Ground time
for their aviation clients
Lower cost of service as a result of better resource utilization and enhanced productivity
Assured compliance with safety and regulatory standards
Improved morale of a workforce that is motivated to work with technology that improves their working conditions
and personal productivity
Device diversity
Will their mobility-enabled offering be compatible with a range of devices including consumer,
enterprise and industrial handsets? Can it be delivered over different channels of access such as the
mobile phone, tablet PC, PDA and Internet?
Usability
Will the mobile-enabled solution be intelligent enough to recognize the specific context of every
operation, and therefore deliver the optimal user experience in that context?
Cost
What are the costs associated with mobility-enablement of their software applications, and their ongoing maintenance?
Performance
What performance standards will it achieve? How manageable is it, particularly under remote
conditions? Will information be secure?
Partially Mobile
Desktop Based
Semi Automated
Fully Mobile
Enterprise mobility strategy in place
Standardization of mobile technology
across applications
Web and mobile strategy integrated
Paper Based
Inaccuracy of Information
Inconsistency in user inputs
The mobility platform must not only be versatile enough to support various device categories and
multiple web browsers running on different development platforms, but also have the flexibility to
extend support to an ever expanding range of devices in future.
Seamless
A mobility solution based on open architecture will enable updates to the MRO process software at
device level and facilitate the integration of other messaging channels.
Optimization
Software vendors must be assured that their choice of mobility solution is optimized for various
considerations including connectivity, user preferences and ambient conditions.
Manageability
A solution that follows XML-based standards improves manageability at both the service provider and
administrator ends.
Security
The mobility solution must provide fail-proof end-to-end data security - at device, OTA and server
level.
Connectivity
The use of a single platform offers the convenience of uninterrupted support on online, offline and
occasionally connected modes.
Cost
Commercial terms must be scrutinized to ensure that the vendor provides maximum value at
a reasonable cost of development and implementation; time-to-market is an equally important
consideration.
Integration
Finally, while the solution must be able to integrate all types of applications ranging from legacy to
service-enabled, it must do so in a completely non-intrusive manner.
REFERENCES
PricewaterhouseCoopers-CII report on Changing Dynamics - Indian Aerospace Industry
White Paper from Siemens- Knowledge-centric MRO transformation
A report from VZM Management Services -Commercial Aviation & Maintenance Market Outlook 2009
A paper Computers on the Shop Floor By James Careless
A white paper Closing the Information Gap in Maintenance& Repair Operations: The High Impact Benefits Behind
Complete Work Packages By Cheryl Jones-Richter Marketing Strategy Manager, Xerox Global Services June 2004
OTA Over-The-Air