Systems Reliability Monitoring - How to get proper insight on the reliability of individual aircraft systems without requiring significant resource to do so
Systems reliability monitoring is arguably one of the most important metrics when it comes to overall aircraft & fleet reliability. However, tracking each individual complaint, on each aircraft system, on each aircraft in the fleet can be a tedious task. Adding to this mix, the actual usage of this complaint data for adequate trend analysis. How can you get proper insight on the reliability of individual aircraft systems without requiring significant resource to do so? In this times it might even support your decision making of which aircraft to retain in the fleet and which to phase-out.
Systems Reliability Monitoring
Systems within aircraft are categorized according the Air Transport Association (ATA) numbering system. This numbering system assigns a 2-digit number (starting from 00 to 99) to any aircraft system. In addition, a second “sub”- ATA number is assigned to every subsystem of an aircraft system. Finally, a third set of ATA numbers is assigned to individual aircraft components.
An example could be ATA 32-40-10:
32 - Landing gear
40- Wheels and Brakes
10- Main landing gear brake assembly
The industry refers to this as the ATA spec 2200 standard.
Whenever a complaint is raised by either flight crew, maintenance crew or cabin crew it is recorded in the aircraft Technical logbook and assigned to its corresponding ATA chapter. In the case of heavy maintenance findings, each finding is recorded in the work package of the heavy check and assigned to its corresponding ATA chapter.
Typically, these recorded complaints and findings get entered in digital databases, referred to as Computerized Maintenance Management Software (CMMS) / MRO software / M&E systems. They serve as bases for trend analysis per specific ATA chapter, fleet and aircraft in order to identify if ay aircraft system has an exceptionally large amount of technical complaints being raised that would justify the launch of a further in-dept reliability investigation into that specific aircraft system.
Within Avilytics all complaints on every aircraft and every ATA chapter is captured. For the entire time period the aircraft is operating with the airline.
The Systems Reliability workspace allows to identify for any particular trend around technical complaints being raised in specific aircraft ATA chapters. Providing abilities to monitor on a per-aircraft and/or per-fleet bases and spotting ATA chapters that stand-out in terms of technical complaints being raised.
Quick metrics also provide the ability to spot seasonal trends, compare individual aircraft or even compare full years and fleets with one another.
The insights retrieved from the systems reliability workspace serve as the bases to start aircraft systems reliability investigations.
How to ensure data quality in usage of ATA aircraft system codes?
Data quality in the registration of technical complaints is important in order to be able to make adequate trend analysis of complaints per ATA chapter. Having each technical complaint description recorded against their correct 4-digit (main system – subsystem) ATA code will greatly help in identifying trends to further investigate. However, memorizing all 99 main systems and subsequent subsystems also seems an impossible task to ask from anyone.
Tip: Automated RPA routines to verify complaint descriptions and corresponding ATA chapters will assist in increasing data quality
Validating each technical complaint entry ca be a tedious and lengthy task. Using robotic process automation to perform these validations automatically will greatly help in improving data quality in an automated way. Key in the creation of such an ATA chapter validation RPA bot, is the creation of a widespread ATA & complaint description keywords matrix in order to match complaint descriptions with their corresponding 4-digit ATA chapter code.
How to prevent time consuming data extraction and manual trend graph analysis?
As systems reliability analysis work with significant amounts of data being produced per aircraft, making sense of this information can be a tedious process. Dependant on how the information per aircraft is collected and stored it could require manual data collection, extractions, editing or manual enhancements prior to being able to produce any trend analysis per ATA chapter, per aircraft, per fleet. Additionally, the more manual the process is, the more prone to error it will be and lead to false complaint analysis.
Tip: Using an automated reliability software will prevent any manual data editing and manipulation as well as ensure direct availability of systems reliability analysis.
An automated reliability software will either directly connect to your database source(s) for technical complaints or allow for a central facility to store/insert this information. By following predefined data rules, it will also enforce an adequate level of data quality and be able to produce direct meaningful insight into aircraft systems reliability per ATA chapter, aircraft and fleet(s)
Click here to try the Aircraft Systems Reliability Module now for free!
What is AVILYTICS?
AVILYTICS is a fully out-of-the-box aircraft reliability management solution that focuses on providing insights in technical reliability, upcoming potential technical failures as well as organizational efficiency analytics. It combines the traditional scope of aircraft and fleet reliability management with advanced techniques from predictive analytics to also build AOG risk profiles of aircraft, identify aircraft based reoccurring defects and measure organization performance. A full holistic approach to using data in order to increase aircraft availability and fleet performance.