All fleet aircraft operators fly with the same basic business rule in mind – an aircraft sitting on the ground because of maintenance requirements generates no revenue (commercial) and detracts from overall mission readiness (military).

Driven by ever-changing business models, global competition, high fuel costs and other unavoidable doing-business costs, fleet aircraft operators have developed a simple business strategy – control operating costs across the broad spectrum of the aircraft maintenance cycle by implementing processes designed to mitigate economic fluctuations.

Many fleet aircraft operators have realized some value and savings by outsourcing their aircraft maintenance activities to established MROs. In turn, these airlines/MROs are increasingly applying Lean/Six Sigma principles and techniques to their operations to achieve dramatic and sustainable performance improvements.

Unfortunately, most Airlines/MROs never realize peak effectiveness from these initiatives because they have failed to properly support them with an IT solution that provides the broad visibility and effective data needed for true knowledge-based decisions.

In this day and age of fast developing technology the primary goal should be to create a truly global mobile Terminal Operations Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (AMTs) experience that can:
• Access technical documentation and operations
information from anywhere
• Receive and close tasks (work assignments)
• Communicate with tech services
• Review maintenance history planeside
• Check part availability
• Increase operational awareness

One of the limiting factors of achieving this is building a reliable technology back bone that has an uptime of 99.99 percent at a feasible cost point. For an airline to build such a data center it will cost an enormous amount that beats the economics of the equation. You can only truly achieve this through cloud. Cloud enables "Re-sizeable" computing capacity in seconds or minutes and at the same time lets you pay as you go. Costs of achieving a best in class availability, reliability, performance, deployment speed at a fraction of price one spends through traditional hosting, an airline or MRO has to consider cloud and tablet technology.

Employing tablet and cloud based technologies in tandem helps to process timely corrective actions to the flight crew's maintenance write ups and ensures the on-time completion of maintenance requirements, the prerequisite for achieving critical-to-business-success flight-dispatch schedules.

• Smartphone/tablet-based application = always available for cockpit/cabin crew inflight input
• Digital delivery, electronic flight bag (EFB) compatible, and FAA-approved electronic signoff dramatically increase operational velocity while significantly reducing costs
• Touch screen-enabled instant access to in-service/ overnight maintenance data, aircraft maintenance history and current aircraft status
• Safety + Compliance. A digital record, at the pilot's fingertips, that proves maintenance and inspection requirements are up to date

Combining tablet-empowered portability, and a ground-based cutting-edge application, an airline can achieve "smart" efficiencies delivered by today’s cloud technologies and flight deck-based technologies will enable your line-maintenance personnel to achieve previously unattainable levels of productivity. To achieve the real success and savings that will only come with process optimizations and culture changes, airlines and MROs must implement the information technology designed specifically to support Lean MRO operations. Today, success in MRO operations is no longer about simply turning wrenches. It is now all about the tooling that provides reliable, just-in-time information to MRO decision makers.

A common problem in achieving a truly lean Airline/MRO operation is a less-than-comprehensive/complete Lean transformation. Even though MROs spend millions of dollars to transform their facilities into Lean machines capable of collecting significant amounts of data, many Lean/Six Sigma efforts fail because of a lack of effective IT integration throughout the operation.

In other words, ineffective and non-use of IT systems to enable and support Lean methodologies are the two main reasons for Lean-implementation failure.

An effective Lean IT solution is integral to capturing, managing and accessing the comprehensive and highly accurate set of information applicable to Lean MRO processes and assets. Once this information is collected, it must provide enterprise leadership with the core knowledge it must have for effective decision support across the entire product lifecycle. This knowledge can then be leveraged in workflow-driven processes which, in turn, can be tightly focused to achieve metrics-driven Lean/Six Sigma MRO objectives.
Here are the key attributes for effectively establishing a trueLean/Six Sigma-based MRO:
• The solution must be full- lifecycle and must enable the commercial MRO or military depot to deal with fluctuations over time and on a systematic and repeatable basis
The solution must be a metrics-based solution that can easily measure and account for organizational performance and must deal with fluctuating workloads, particularly for those organizations that deal with performance-based logistics contracts
• The solution must allow the airline or MRO access to its historical data and be capable of performing the analytics required to predict material needs and to manage inventory levels
Understanding the maintenance requirements and aligning theserequirements to optimize inventory levels at a micro level ensures that when a given part is replaced, the system natively maximizes asset readiness and uptime and enhances platform/fleet availability
• A matured IT system should be a best-practice tool capable of facilitating Lean MRO processes, practices and techniques
Process analysts will use this tool to establish MRO processes with optimized workflows, maintain complete visibility intomaintenance visits, anduse it to continually monitor for ensuring the optimization of maintenance visit workflow
In essence, an effective IT system allows for re-use of both knowledge and best practices for new programs, as well as for upgrades and enhancements
• Data delivery to the point of maintenance contact on the hangar floor using next-generation and touch-based hardware with wireless mobility is central to advanced IT systems

Data must be accurate, surgical, up-to-date data and highly tailored
Knowledge must enable maintenanceteams to understand, plan and rapidly execute the maintenance visit
• Balance of skills across all hangar bays with right parts on hand before the technicians begin the maintenance visit must be a key feature
Availability of accurate dataon asset under service, including inspection requirements, service procedures, allowable configurations and life-limit cycles significantly reduces the risk of over-flowing/under-flowing assets