The document discusses advancements in maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) technologies, emphasizing the role of digital capabilities and mobile solutions in enhancing operational efficiency. It features case studies from China Airlines and Columbia Helicopters, highlighting their successful implementation of modern MRO IT systems to achieve cost savings and improved safety practices. Additionally, it outlines the importance of integrating MRO processes into broader enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for better data access and decision-making.

1. V3.4 • OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
PAPERLESS
AND MOBILE
MAINTENANCE
SPECIAL INTEGRATION
CASE STUDIES
Columbia Helicopters Paperless MRO
China Airlines M&E IT Upgrade
Mobile MRO as part of the ERP
White Paper: IFS, AeroSoft Systems Case Study: China Airlines, Columbia Helicopters with IDMR Solutions
PLUS… How I see IT, News, Upcoming and Past Webinars, past Webinar focus, MRO Software Directory

2. V3.4 • OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 Welcome…
Digital capability and mobile technology have
transformed the value of IT by putting what you need,
where you can access it.
It was only a few decades ago when IT first entered the business world. Then, it was seen
as a tool with which simple but repetitive and lengthy processes could be automated and
large tables or charts printed to put records where they were needed. Well, up to a point.
The printed reports were often massive structures whose weight and size meant that they
could only be viewed on a sturdy surface.
Things moved on to where IT became the infrastructure of the business — the means
by which users could access all of the records they needed but one departmental silo at
a time through a heavy CRT screen on their desk. The PCs continued to get smaller but
the process hardly progressed until digital technology, big data and mobile capability
converged with IT to change everything.
Today, we don’t so much access records as view solutions drawing on information
generated in all parts of the business and presented to us wherever we are on whatever device we are holding,
in the form most useful to us and in real time. It has transformed the ways people work and generated fantastic
opportunities to add value to the processes that have to be completed.
In this issue we’ll be looking at how a major airline, when upgrading its MRO IT, took the opportunity to leverage
new capabilities and create a more cost-effective and leaner process with long-term value. There’s also an article
about implementing a paperless regime in an MRO environment that has to reach out into the field as well as
operate a busy engineering hangar. Last issue’s paper on systems integration is concluded with considerations of
how the kind of integration that users would find useful can be achieved. And we look at how mobility can be much
more valuable when integrated into a wider ERP.
Quite enough for one issue, you might think; but there’s also how Michael Denis sees IT, as thought provoking as
ever, and our usual overview of news and information affecting your sector as well as some of the deals that have
been concluded. Aircraft IT live demonstration webinars are previewed and the recorded archive reviewed to help
readers research the software market from the convenience of their own desk and to find a package that could meet
their needs by accessing past webinars with more focus than ever and booking their place on future webinars. It’s a
valuable resource for which readers simply need to register.
It’s Aircraft IT MRO: information that you can use.
Ed Haskey
04 NEWS & TECHNOLOGY
Nothing stands still in the world of the MRO IT
professional. Reading Aircraft IT MRO News at
www.aircraftit.com/MRO and here in the Aircraft IT
MRO e-journal is a great way for busy professionals to
keep up to date with the latest developments.
18 CASE STUDY: SAFER, FASTER, BETTER
Houng Wang, Vice President, Engineering
Division – China Airlines
When upgrading its MRO IT to the latest standards,
China Airlines took a business-like approach
that has already paid dividends in cost savings
and lean processes.
22 UPCOMING LIVE MRO SOFTWARE
DEMONSTRATION WEBINAR
A preview of the live MRO software demonstration
webinars featuring Commsoft on 16th October 2014
and Flatirons Solutions on 13th November 2014.
23 COLUMN: HOW MICHAEL DENIS SEES IT
Autonomics and the Network of Everything (NoE)
The Internet of things is becoming a ‘must use’ in any
talk about technology: the simple term relates
to concepts that are anything but simple; but they
are useful.
24 WHITE PAPER: CMS AND MRO SYSTEMS
INTEGRATION, PART 2
Thanos Kaponeridis, CEO & President,
AeroSoft Systems Inc.
This second article considers how the systems
integration that would be so useful to MRO
businesses might be achieved and what hurdles
would need to be overcome.
28 PAST WEBINARS: KNOWLEDGE
TRANSFER AND ACCESS FOR
INDUSTRY EXPERTS
View Video Recordings of our Past Live MRO
Software Demonstration Webinars. See full
information and view video recordings of past Live
MRO Software Demos, including: Mxi Technologies,
Hexaware and TRAX.
30 CASE STUDY: PAPERLESS END-TO-END
AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE
Israel Revivo, President & CEO, IDMR Solutions
Paul Myrand, Project Manager, Columbia
Helicopters
When Columbia Helicopters Inc. (CHI) wanted
to move towards a paperless environment for
their MRO system, it posed a challenge for their
solution providers.
34 PAST WEBINAR FOCUS: IPAD AND
MOBILE MRO SOLUTIONS
Finding the right iPad and Mobile MRO solution to
match your requirements is so much easier if you
search the library of recordings of Aircraft IT Past
Webinars by category.
36 WHITE PAPER: MEETING THE NEW
MRO ORDER
Espen Olsen, European Director for
Aerospace & Defense at IFS
Given how MRO and demands on engineers are
changing, a mobile solution is attractive; but
integrated into a larger ERP system, mobile can do so
much more.
41 MRO SOFTWARE DIRECTORY
A detailed look at the world’s leading
MRO IT systems.
CLICK HERE: Send your feedback and suggestions to AircraftIT MRO
CLICK HERE: Subscribe for free
AircraftIT MRO
Publisher/Editor: Ed Haskey
E-mail: ed.haskey@aircraftit.com
Telephone: +44 1273 454 235
Website: www.aircraftIT.com
Copy Editor/Contributor: John Hancock
E-mail: john@aircraftit.com
Magazine Production: Dean Cook
E-mail: deancook@magazineproduction.com
AircraftIT MRO is published bi-monthly and is an affiliate of Aircraft Commerce and part of the AviationNextGen Ltd group. The entire contents within this
publication © Copyright 2014 AviationNextGen Ltd an independent publication and not affiliated with any of the IT vendors or suppliers. Content may not
be reproduced without the strict written agreement of the publisher. The views and opinions expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and
do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of their companies or of the publisher. The publisher does not guarantee the source, originality, accuracy,
completeness or reliability of any statement, information, data, finding, interpretation, advice, opinion, or view presented.

3. OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | TECHNOLOGY & NEWS | 5
INTERACTIVE Click here for a demonstration
Flatirons grows the business and
opens new flagship office
HONEYWELL AEROSPACE SELECTS
FLATIRONS FOR TRAINING DEVELOPMENT
SERVICES TO ACHIEVE SIGNIFICANT COST
SAVINGS BY REUSING CONTENT ACROSS
TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS AND TRAINING
FLATIRONS Solutions announced in late September 2014
that Honeywell Aerospace, a provider of products and services
to commercial, defense, and space aircraft worldwide, has
selected the Flatirons’ Training Services group to serve as its
primary developer for training content. The contract includes
developing new training materials, updating existing source
materials, and making modifications to training content used
by Honeywell’s employees and customers for servicing and
maintaining Honeywell products. The selection of Flatirons,
which also serves as Honeywell Aerospace’s single global
supplier for technical publications services, allows Honeywell
Aerospace to achieve significant cost savings by reusing
technical publications content in its training materials.
In 2009, Honeywell Aerospace selected Flatirons as its global
supplier for technical publications services, covering more than
four million pages and 40,000 documents annually. “When
seeking a partner for the development of training content, our
objective was to reduce the overall costs by reusing technical
publications content in the development of training materials,”
said Lewis Mallory, Director Flight Sim Support, Technical
Publications & Customer Product Training for Honeywell
Aerospace.
In collaboration with Flatirons, 75% of Honeywell’s illustration
content in training materials is reused directly from existing
technical documentation. This amounts to a 32% cost
savings for the overall project when compared to the costs
of recreating and duplicating illustrations for each training
project.
“Re-use of technical content across documents or between
technical publications and work instructions is a highly desired
practice in many industries,” said Geoffrey Godet, president and
CEO of Flatirons. “Because Flatirons provides both technical
publications and training content development services,
customers like Honeywell can reuse content to achieve accurate,
high-quality technical information at reduced costs.”
Flatirons’ Training Services group is ISO 9001:2008 certified.
Its technical writers, illustrators, and multi-media developers
use the Six Sigma process to ensure accurate, high-quality
information throughout the content lifecycle.
ACCELERATED GROWTH TRIGGERS
FLATIRONS EXPANSION IN NORTH AMERICA:
NEW CUSTOMER DEMAND TO BE SERVED
FROM FLAGSHIP OFFICE IN BOULDER,
COLORADO
AT the beginning of October 2014, Flatirons Solutions
announced that accelerated growth has spurred expansion
of its North American operations and the opening of its new
flagship office in Boulder, Colorado.
Flatirons has forecasted a 37% growth rate for 2014,
following revenue increases of 33 percent and 13 percent
in 2013 and 2012, respectively. Year-on-year growth comes
from greater demand for Flatirons’ comprehensive set of CLM
solutions and services that help customers across multiple
industries deliver the right information, at the right time, to
the right people while controlling costs and meeting often
complex information requirements.
“Organizations today are faced with some of the most
pressing content lifecycle management challenges they have
seen in decades,” said Geoffrey Godet, Flatirons’ CEO. “Whether
adapting to information requirements driven by the most
modern aircraft being introduced, the need to organize and
use rich media to produce graphically rich, multi-media driven,
and personalized products for consumers, or the basic need
to retire out-dated and expensive business applications that
maintain regulated data, organizations of all types must do
so efficiently and in the most cost-effective way possible.
Flatirons, together with its network of partners, is uniquely
positioned to help customers meet these challenges head on.”
“Such a strong response to our CLM solutions from
customers like General Electric, BMO Harris Bank, the LATAM
Airlines Group, Whirlpool, McGraw Hill Education, and others
has driven rapid expansion,” said Greg Beserra, Flatirons’ chief
operations officer. “The bulk of this demand will be addressed
from our larger, modern office in Boulder, Colorado.”
“Flatirons’ choice of Boulder and its new 37,000 square foot
office reflects the company’s strong history and continued
commitment to both the local community and our top-notch
staff,” said Godet. “Boulder is a thriving technology community
with many of the best and brightest people. We designed
an office that gives our team the ability to brainstorm the
next innovation in a huddle room, tackle customer issues by
drawing on the whiteboard walls, or just take a break with a
bike ride on Boulder’s extensive trail system right outside our
back door.”
180mm Trim
Whatever’s in your fleet,
it’s now in our toolbox.
Your fleet’s growing. Your fleet’s changing. And the Boeing Maintenance Performance Toolbox
is changing with you, providing new tools designed for the digital airline to meet your evolving
needs. Tools for your entire fleet, no matter the OEM. Tools accessible anywhere—from web
to tablet—with or without connectivity. New tools to keep your maintenance at the forefront of
innovation and efficiency, and your airplanes in the air where they belong.
www.boeing.com/boeingedge/informationservices

4. 18 | CASE STUDY: CHINA AIRLINES | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
China Airlines is Taiwan’s largest airline. Over
the years, the passenger and cargo carrier has
developed an international reputation for
delivering superior customer service, having recently
been voted airline with the top mind-share, according to
a leading business management magazine.
A SkyTeam airline alliance member since 2011,
China Airlines is committed to promoting innovative,
high-quality passenger experience and caring services,
including the retrofitting of Boeing 747-400 aircraft
with brand new seats and entertainment systems, in-flight
meals that combine the best of Chinese, Western
and Taiwanese cuisine, as well as mobile phone and
online services that satisfy passengers’ demand for
convenient access.
CHINA AIRLINES — AT A GLANCE
• Founded in 1959
• The largest airline in Taiwan
• SkyTeam airline alliance member since September
2011
• Fleet: 80
• A330-300, A340-300
• 737-800, 747-400, 747-400F (cargo)
• 27 on order (including777-300ER)
• Hub: Taipei
• Destinations: 120 domestic and international
destinations in 29 countries
• Employees: 11,000 worldwide
• Subsidiaries: Mandarin Airlines, Tigerair Taiwan
• 2013 Revenues: TWD131.753 million
This case study details how its commitment to
standardized Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul
(MRO) practices — supported by Mxi Technologies’
Maintenix system — is enabling a ‘best in class’
maintenance unit that is helping drive significant
business performance returns.
A COMMITMENT TO PASSENGER SAFETY
It should come as no surprise that the primary goal of
any commercial aircraft operator is to deliver the best
service possible for its customers. While this entails
a number of factors to support customer loyalty —
reliable departures and arrivals; friendly and helpful
staff; in-flight comfort and entertainment; innovative
rewards packages and trip promotions — the most
fundamental of all is the promise of passenger safety.
As Taiwan’s largest air carrier, operating in a highly
dynamic and competitive market in the Asia-
Pacific region, we have no choice but to continue to
consolidate our reputation as an industry leader in this
area. Over the years, we have implemented a number
of key in-house flight safety programs, designed to
foster an open and highly-collaborative environment
dedicated to preventing safety incidents both in the air
and on the ground. Of note, for instance, are…
• China Airline’s Safety Management System (SMS)
systematically manages all forms of aviation risks in
areas such as flight operations, in-flight services, and
ground handling. We have a safety report policy that
encourages employees to quickly and honestly report
all identified incidents and hazards, in the spirit of
reducing the probability of unsafe incidences.
• An Aviation Quality Database, built within the SMS,
was introduced in 2013 to more efficiently collect
work process issues, conduct risk assessment, take
appropriate risk control measures, and monitor the
subsequent status.
• A Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) was also
established to enable experts and trained observers
to collect and assess data on flight crew behavior
and strategies for managing threats and correcting
errors. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses
of an airline, LOSA is a means for China Airlines to
self-assess its safety margins in flight operations
Aviation safety is China Airlines’ utmost mission —
each and every employee is fully committed to it by
integrating safety consciousness into our operations,
system design, and organization.
EFFECTIVE MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS:
A PREREQUISITE FOR SAFETY
The Engineering & Maintenance Organization (EMO)
is no exception to this rule. In fact, we consider the
quality assurance of maintenance work as the best
foundation for flight safety. Since the formation of our
maintenance unit in 1959, China Airlines has worked
hard to certify staff and operations according to latest
safety regulations and practices. Today, we are the
largest and most modern aircraft body maintenance
center in the region. We count on more than 1,200
professionals working out of five hangars to deliver a
complete range of internationally certified line, heavy
and shop maintenance work on various types of aircraft
and engines, both for our own passenger and cargo
fleets, and for over 40 other domestic and international
airlines.
We never rest on our laurels in our dedication to
safety but continue to evaluate and monitor the
training and certification of all maintenance personnel,
to ensure ongoing compliance with new and evolving
CAA certification requirements. This commitment
inevitably found its way into the EMO back office —
specifically, how we function on a day-to-day basis and
what systems are used to support our maintenance
operations.
Our network of legacy mainframe systems often
could not deliver the data insights we felt were critical
if we wanted to evolve the business and introduce
new efficiencies. For the most part, these systems
worked in siloes, each isolated from the others, and
Safer, faster, better
Houng Wang, Vice President, Engineering Division – China Airlines explains how
modern MRO IT is playing a key role in performance excellence at China Airlines

5. OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | CASE STUDY: CHINA AIRLINES | 19
each operated by its own set of processes for capturing
and storing data. This made it very difficult to access
and share timely maintenance information across the
organization.
In our highly competitive marketplace, we understood
that success would hinge solely on factors that could
be controlled, namely driving greater operational
efficiencies. With the need to fulfil aggressive
corporate expansion plans, coupled with the need to
accommodate an evolving fleet, we soon recognized
“…we consider the quality assurance of maintenance work as the best foundation
for flight safety. Since the formation of our maintenance unit in 1959, China
Airlines has worked hard to certify staff and operations according to latest safety
regulations and practices.”
that it was no longer viable to continue with the status
quo. Subsequently, China Airlines committed to
investing in more modern IT systems to support the
business, including EMO.
EVOLVING THE EMO DEPARTMENT
The search for an MRO IT solution extended beyond
simply selecting a system that could do a better job of
storing maintenance transactional activity or executing
existing maintenance processes. This initiative was
based on three key objectives:
• Integrate the entire EMO department using a single,
seamless approach;
• Strengthen configuration control and record
keeping, for more agile compliance reporting;
• Minimize in-house system customizations.
In addition to generating substantial cost savings, we
were motivated by the possibility of driving stronger
visibility into our operations, both ‘day of’ and
historical. Doing so would not only simplify ongoing
compliance with regulatory standards, it would also
help us better understand why things happen and
how, through preventative maintenance, we could
best minimize the risk of it happening again in the
future. Such proven practices would typically lead to
better performance and greater productivity during all
maintenance visits, both scheduled and unscheduled.
Based on these goals, we engaged in an active market
assessment of vendor solutions. We eventually turned
to Mxi Technologies and its Maintenix software as
the best option capable of supporting the increasing
sophistication of our fleet, and our demand for
operational efficiencies in line with corporate strategy.
We envisioned Maintenix to be our system of record
for maintenance and engineering needs across our
entire fleet of Boeing and Airbus airplanes, as well as
those aircraft handled by our burgeoning third-party
maintenance services practice. It offered the promise
INTERACTIVE Click here for a demonstration
MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS CONTROL MAINTENANCE PLANNING MAINTENANCE SUPPLY CHAIN
DELIVERING
ON THE FLIGHT OPERATIONS PROMISE
Watch the new video series from Mxi Technologies and discover
how Maintenix® delivers information insights across maintenance
operations control, maintenance planning, and maintenance supply chain.
Watch them all today at www.mxi.com.

6. “In addition to generating substantial cost savings, we were
motivated by the possibility of driving stronger visibility
into our operations, both ‘day of’ and historical.”
of a full end-to-end suite, including functionality for
maintenance program management; configuration
management; engineering; planning; materials
management; and line, heavy, and shop maintenance.
From the outset, we opted for a phased
implementation approach. While the conventional
wisdom among some is to proceed with a full system
implementation from the start, we were looking
for the path with the least risk. A phased approach
offered us the ability to gradually wean ourselves off
legacy systems and build in the necessary integrations
to others, most notably to our SAP ERP system. It
also gave us the time to effectively handle change
management among staff who would need time to
acclimatize to a new system. Most importantly, it
allowed us to evaluate progress and measure results at
key intervals, assessing fit to the overall business plan,
and implementing necessary modifications before
moving on to the next stage.
The project was split into two key phases — with
the first phase focused on core competencies
in engineering, planning and technical records
management. We have already successfully achieved
the completion of this phase, introducing key usability
and process enhancements across the entirety of our
MRO operations.
The final phase, currently underway, supports our
move to real-time management of line and heavy
maintenance events, as data is captured at the point
of maintenance execution. This will be of significant
benefit to the growth areas of our business, namely
our expanding third-party MRO services for global
customers such as Continental Airlines, FedEx, Korean
Air and Japan Airlines, among many others.
The Maintenix system will also extend its footprint
into such specialty areas as materials management. For
instance, China Airlines currently uses a warehousing
system called ASAR, or Automatic Storage Automatic
Retrieval. ASAR is quite robust, capable of retrieving
information on more than 120,000 parts and materials
20 | CASE STUDY: CHINA AIRLINES | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
within just 50 seconds of inquiry. To capitalize on this power, we plan on integrating the
system with Maintenix. This will enable a completely seamless ‘Just in Time’ supply model,
helping us cost-effectively execute timely parts requests and fulfillment in line with increasingly
competitive serviceability targets.
POSITIVE RETURNS TO DATE
To keep a finger on the pulse of project success, every month we conduct a Time Quality Cost
(TQC) assessment, measuring the impact of the new Maintenix system against 18 operational
metrics. Despite only being in the early stages of phase two, we are already seeing tangible
benefits in the way we conduct our maintenance practices. Of significance are…
• A 10 per cent increase in line management process efficiencies, resulting in annual cost
savings of US$560,000;
• A 3 per cent increase in A Checks delivery efficiencies, resulting in annual cost savings of
US$213,000;
• An average reduction of 30 days layover in scheduled aircraft maintenance, resulting in
savings of US$1,352,000 (DVC);
• An average reduction of 25 days layover in unscheduled aircraft maintenance, resulting in
savings of US$1,133,000 (DVC).
Collectively, the positive results we have experienced to date cannot be understated.
Optimizing the way we perform line and A Checks, coupled with the significant reduction in
layover times, mean our aircraft are spending more time in revenue-generation mode, and less
time in the hangar.
Factoring in the cost reductions achieved to date, we are setting ourselves up well for stronger
financial performance. In 2013 alone, China Airlines saw its EMO operating costs go down by
US$3.5 million — a significant achievement when you consider how the market’s increasingly
competitive nature is forcing operators to deliver greater services with fewer resources.
Moving forward, taking advantage of the real-time logistical support and complete cost
Maintenix Capacity Summary
Maintenix Planning Viewer
Maintenix Work Package
Maintenix Station Capacity

7. analysis afforded by the Maintenix system, we expect to further
increase our maintenance cost control and drive continuing
improvements in repair quality and efficiency.
PROVEN PRACTICES
The success of any MRO project is naturally rooted first and
foremost in having a modern, comprehensive system that is
backed by a committed team of professionals. We have been very
fortunate to work with a knowledgeable and helpful team from
Mxi throughout the project. However, other key factors go a long
way to ensuring a smooth transition and faster time to returns.
Over the course of the project to date, we have recognized a few
proven practices that have contributed greatly to making this a
positive experience.
Naturally, every MRO IT project will come with its own
unique challenges and needs. Fundamentally, though, there
are three paramount practices that would serve to help any
operator of any size tackle the task of evolving maintenance IT
and operations:
• Maintain executive buy-in — no matter the size or scope of the
project, it all starts with the top level of the airline. Unless they
are wholly committed, the project will not meet its objectives.
From the start, China Airlines’ MRO IT modernization project
has received strong support from the Executive Steering
Author
HOUNG WANG
VICE PRESIDENT, ENGINEERING
DIVISION – CHINA AIRLINES
Mr. Houng Wang
is responsible for
all Engineering
activities at China
Airlines, including
system engineering,
engineering planning,
supply, technical information
planning and accounting. He
joined China Airlines in 1982 as
a mechanic. Since then, he has
filled different functions and has
held various senior positions
within the airline’s Engineering and
Maintenance Organization. Prior
to his current post, he was Vice
President of Quality Assurance.
About…
MXI TECHNOLOGIES
Mxi Technologies
is a provider
of integrated
and intelligent
maintenance
management software, support
and services catering to the
global aviation industry, including
commercial and defense operators,
third-party MROs, and OEM
aftermarket service providers.
Maintenix® software is designed
to help aviation organizations
maximize the revenue potential
of their aviation assets through
standard, lean, and predictable
maintenance. Featuring a modern,
web-based and mobile-enabled
architecture, Maintenix delivers
advanced capabilities such as
controlled workflow, automated
maintenance and materials
planning, point-of-maintenance
access to real-time information, and
paperless execution and compliance.
Mxi’s customers range from small
organizations to the largest global
enterprises, with single to multi-site
deployments.
INTERACTIVE Give us your opinion
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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | CASE STUDY: CHINA AIRLINES | 21
“…optimizing our Engineering & Maintenance Organization will go a long way to maintaining a
positive customer experience and driving greater brand loyalty. Most importantly, it supports our
unending commitment to delivering the safest and most reliable passenger and cargo service…”
Committee. They understand the implications
and complexity of such an undertaking, and how
there may be bumps along the way. Having senior
management in our corner has helped us stay on
course, maintain focus on the corporate objectives
in play, and make the hard decisions with greater
confidence.
• Keep the communication lines open — this is
particularly important in handling the change
management hurdles typical of IT projects of this
size. At China Airlines, we have built a strong
team of dedicated professionals who consistently
champion the cause to the broader user base.
Providing regular status updates and encouraging
feedback fosters a shared sense of ownership and
pride in the project. This cultivates more openness to
embracing change for the good, and helps everybody
stay mindful of the higher goals at hand.
• Measure, measure, measure — as mentioned earlier,
we took a phased rollout approach in order to
grant us the time to repeatedly measure project
impact at key intervals along the way. Doing so helps
maintain project alignment against core corporate
objectives, identifying any issues or hurdles and
adjusting implementation plans accordingly to get
the project back on course. It also helps with the
broader change management issue. Taking the time
to identify and promote quick wins and early returns
along the way both validates system performance,
and gradually dilutes user skepticism.
MAINTENANCE IT AS A
MANAGEMENT PRIORITY
There is no denying that modern information
technology has the power to exercise significant
influence over business performance. For airlines
looking to differentiate from the competition, innovation
should be a top strategic imperative. China Airlines
understands this all too well. We firmly believe
that optimizing our Engineering & Maintenance
Organization will go a long way to maintaining a
positive customer experience and driving greater brand
loyalty. Most importantly, it supports our unending
commitment to delivering the safest and most reliable
passenger and cargo service in the industry.
With a proven implementation plan, and supported
by a committed vendor and internal team of
champions, China Airlines is on the right path to
making its business performance objectives a reality,
helping us remain agile and top of mind in today’s
highly-competitive market. n

8. 22 | WEBINARS | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
Upcoming Live Software Demonstration Webinars at www.aircraftit.com/MRO/Webinars.aspx this October and November.
This October and November will bring a great opportunity for readers to attend a program covering one the digital future for M&E/MRO software solutions. To find out more about the digital
future, what it will mean for M&E/MRO, what changes it will bring and how to prepare for it, you’ll save a great deal of time and gain a lot of what you’ll need to know to inform a good decision
by simply attending this informative webinar with a leading software solution provider.
Sign up to free live online software demonstrations for a perfect introduction to the world’s leading MRO Software vendors and to learn how they can assist and add value to your operations
LIVE M&E / MRO SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION OF OASES
WEBINAR [ETECHLOG & TECH RECORDS; RELIABILITY
REPORTS; REPETITIVE DEFECT INVESTIGATIONS]
n WEBINAR OVERVIEW
Register to attend this Webinar and for an excellent chance
to view a live online demonstration of one of the industry’s
leading and most cost effective end-to-end aircraft M&E/
MRO IT Solutions: OASES from Commsoft. During the
Webinar you will see some cutting-edge new developments
in M&E/MRO Software including: Electronic Tech Log
(eTechlog) and Technical Records Management; Repetitive
Defect Investigations and Reliability Reporting.
The Webinar will begin with a high level tour of OASES
and the rich functionality the software provides including:
Continuing Airworthiness, Planning, Production, Line
Maintenance Control, Material Management, Commercial
Management, Warranty. You will see how the different
modules seamlessly integrate with each other and with
other IT solutions, such as an eTechLog, creating significant
company-wide increases in efficiency via the sharing of data.
Then the Commsoft experts will provide a detailed live
demonstration of some of the OASES system highlights and
latest cutting-edge M&E / MRO software developments
n HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE WEBINAR
Click on the ‘Register for Webinar’ link, select your preferred
Webinar Session and enter your details. Full instructions on
how to access the Webinar will be emailed to you.
If you can’t attend the live Webinar Sessions, sign up
anyway and you will receive immediate access to the
Webinar recording as soon as it is loaded to the Aircraft IT
Website.
n SESSION 1: 16th October 2014
06:30 GMT/UTC
n SESSION 2: 16th October 2014
14:30 GMT/UTC
n DURATION: 1 hour plus Q&A.
INTERACTIVE Join the free webinar
Click here to view full details and sign up for this webinar
n WEBINAR OVERVIEW
Are your mechanics suffering from tablet envy? Does it seem
like all other departments apart from engineering get all the
cool tools whilst the benefits in maintenance are actually
greater?
Did you know that the average wide body aircraft
generates around 8000 sheets of paper from maintenance
activity each year? The cost of paper, distributing it, faxing
it, archiving it, shipping it, storing it and so on amounts
upwards of up $5000 per aircraft per year after year.
Not to mention the headache for engineers filling out
known data on paper forms, labor productivity, aircraft
cycle time and utilization, inefficiencies of interpreting dirty-finger-
print copies and the duplication of effort between
paper and IT systems. It is time that we moved to a
paperless industry!
Register to attend this webinar and you will learn how
Flatirons’ CORENA Knowledge Center and CORENA Pinpoint
Mobile are delivering real paperless solutions to real line and
base maintenance mechanics delivering real efficiencies and
real cost savings. Learn how our mobile solutions deliver
knowledge to mechanics at the point of performance where
OEM technical publications are put onto tablets in the
hands of the people who matter and how mobile electronic
task cards are set to revolutionize the way we carry out
maintenance.
n HOW TO SIGN UP FOR THE WEBINAR
Click on the ‘Register for Webinar’ link, select your preferred
Webinar Session and enter your details. Full instructions on
how to access the Webinar will be emailed to you.
If you can’t attend the live Webinar Sessions, sign up
anyway and you will receive immediate access to the
Webinar recording as soon as it is loaded to the Aircraft IT
Website.
ENABLING THE MOBILE WORKFORCE TO
INCREASE AIRCRAFT UTILIZATION
n SESSION 1: 13th November 2014
07:00 GMT/UTC
n SESSION 2: 13th November 2014
15:00 GMT/UTC
n DURATION: 1 hour plus Q&A.
INTERACTIVE Join the free webinar
Click here to view full details and sign up for this webinar

9. Autonomics and the
Network of Everything (NoE)
to optimize asset utilization, labor productivity and supply effectiveness.
Networked autonomics are alive and well in aviation. But these initial
capabilities have been stove piped along OEM specific closed proprietary
networks.
MRO business networks need open universally interoperable MRO
technology networks in order to optimize planes, parts, people and plants
across the industry.
The last elements of an open modern set of data and content standards
are being put in place by the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association
of Europe (ASD) via the SX000i specifications. The open autonomic
MRO Network of Everything is about to become a reality. At least that’s
how I see IT. n
Michael Denis: How I see IT
“It’s Official: The Internet Of Things Takes Over As The Most
Hyped Technology,” wrote Gil Press on Forbes.com announcing
Gartner’s annual Hype Cycle report on Emerging Technologies.
So what is “The Internet of Things” (IoT) and what does it have to do with
aviation MRO?
IoT isn’t about the Internet nor about Things, rather, it’s about machines
connected across networks of autonomous agents automatically processing
events, without human intervention, to create value by adaptively analyzing
big data to diagnose and prognosticate granular knowledge in order to
provide value to human consumers of one.
Wow – that’s a mouth full of consultantese!
Like many innovations, the capabilities of IoT originated in military
research and development. Network Centric Warfare and Network
Centric Operations (NCO) were strategic capabilities undertaken by the
US DOD, UK MoD and NATO in parallel with Sweden’s Network Based
Defense (NBD). NCO and NBD leverage previous capability developments
commonplace in A&D (Aerospace and Defense) such as Reliability
Centered Maintenance, Condition Based Maintenance, and the Machinery
Information Management Open Systems Alliance (MIMOSA).
Central to NCO/NBD methods and capabilities is the concept of sense
and respond. Sense and respond logistics (S&RL) is commonly equated
with autonomic logistics; but in fact S&RL only includes the non-adaptive
mechanics of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and Machine-to-Human
(M2H) transactions. The Network of Everything (NoE) adds to S&RL and
IoT, Human-to-Human (H2H) interactions, collaboration, knowledge
formation and complex decision making.
Diagnostics, prognostics, health management are common terms in both
medicine and aviation service lifecycle management. Another common
term adapted from biology is autonomic. The autonomic nervous system
is the involuntary, autonomous and automatic control system for visceral
organs functioning below the level of consciousness. The characteristics
of an autonomic system are automatic, autonomous and adaptive. Hmm,
sounds a bit like what those technology geeks were describing for the
Internet of Things.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics developed the Autonomic Logistics
Information System (ALIS) for performance based service lifecycle
management of the F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter. New generation
commercial aircraft create up to 1 terabyte of data per flight from the
plethora of sensors on board. That data is being processed in flight
and post flight, combined with human actions and content, and then
analyzed to prognosticate who should do what, where and when in order
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | MICHAEL DENIS | 23
Michael Wm. Denis,
Vice President Strategy & Marketing,
Flatirons Solutions
INTERACTIVE Get involved with the debate
Click here to send comments
INTERACTIVE SOURCES: Click below to read more.
FORBES: It’s official: The Internet Of Things Takes Over
Big Data As The Most Hyped Technology
GARTNER: Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2014
WIKIPEDIA: Autonomic nervous system referencing
Dorland’s Medical Dictionary
LOCKHEED MARTIN AERONAUTICS:
Lockheed Martin’s Autonomic Logistics Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS)
Information System (ALIS)

10. 24 | WHITE PAPER: AEROSOFT | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
CMS and MRO systems
integration – Part 2
In an industry full of standards, Thanos Kaponeridis, CEO & President,
AeroSoft Systems Inc. considers the challenges of electronic data interchange

11. OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | WHITE PAPER: AEROSOFT | 25
“…to begin with, we have to say, the process is
complicated which is both a challenge and a block to
true standards-based CMS and MRO systems evolution.”
In the previous issue we considered some of the underlying causes of
a seeming inability to integrate the various M&E and CMS systems
that we use. In this issue we’ll consider some specific matters and some
thought processes that might just take us forward to the more integrated
environment that people have been seeking for decades. However, to begin
with, we have to say, the process is complicated which is both a challenge
and a block to true standards-based CMS and MRO systems evolution. Let’s
consider a couple of examples to illustrate what I mean.
TOOLBOX VS PURE ISPEC2200 OR S1000D
Say you start making your COCs in Toolbox, then extract the collection (for
a Boeing 777 it would be iSPEC2200, in the case of a Boeing 787 it would
be edits to the data modules in S1000D). If you extract them in SGML or
XML, such content does not parse against the iSPEC2200 DTDs or S1000D
Rev 3.0. So, when you’re looking in Toolbox and considering what content
you can extract directly from it, you will have to do work to actually make
it comply with the open standards established by ATA. Take the Service
Bulletin, for example: we had a case in the last few months. It’s now at about
revision 9 of the DTD and, accidentally, one of our customers inserted a
revision 4 service bulletin in SGML. Unfortunately, there’s a slight difference
between the two: in rev4, effectivity was quoted as text in a para; in rev9 it’s
quoted as table data. The result is that we have an application build looking
for a new table that isn’t going to find it inside a para.
Consider the MTCM: Boeing has an MTCM and so does Bombardier but
they’re not the same structure and MTCM per se is not part of iSPEC2200.
An Airbus customer would say, ‘what’s an MTCM?’ because they have an
MPD/AMM and have to create Task Cards. FIM and FRM are separate
documents in Boeing but go as a single TSM in Airbus. Why do we need
an MTCM if an MPD contains the AMM references for each MID? In
a perfect world, an MTCM is really a document that comes together by
the intelligent combination of the MPD/record data with the AMM/
detailed instructions, contained in AMM tasks. And, just to compound
the confusion, the XML delivery of MPD from Boeing (for B767/757)
is missing key sections which are included in their .PDF version? Ditto
the Excel/XSL version: but, if you don’t catch that and deal with the data
individually, you don’t have a fully compliant environment established.
And these are just references to the situation with the large OEMs who are
very versed with the standards and processes. How about the 16,000 or so
CMMs — the lower tier manufacturers in the manufacturing supply chain
— how many of them have adopted or use any of the above standards?
How many have moved beyond MSWord and .PDF, the lowest common
denominator in this world of small suppliers.
TYPICAL CHALLENGES TO MRO/CMS INTEGRATION
Here’s a challenge: you have an older MRO system — sort of middle of
the road because it even allows you to author and edit job cards in SGML.

12. 26 | WHITE PAPER: AEROSOFT | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014
However, you’ve decided you’ve got to replace it and you’ve shopped
around and sourced a state-of-the-art current MRO solution, one of the
market leaders today. You had (in the legacy system) the top part of the
task card (mostly MPD and visit specific data) and the bottom (detailed
instructions and data capture during the visit) and now you want to
migrate to a CMS integrated with your state of the art MRO.
What you’ll find is that you’re purchasing iSPEC2200 digital data
subscriptions from the OEM’s, but you also want to keep the task cards
that you’ve authored, especially your in-house task cards from your initial
MRO system, and you only want to introduce the MTCM for the standard
scheduled interval tasks. A heck of a lot of data conversion is involved with
this situation where we’re talking about state-of-the-art MRO and CMS
systems as well as original data that, in parts, was in SGML and in others
as records in a relational database. And yet, you’ve been let to believe that
it might be more straightforward since, after all, the legacy MRO, the ‘new’
MRO and the CMS all have Oracle underneath!
OLD MENTALITY AND OUTDATED PROCESSES
In reality, low cost MRO shops expect to receive paper printed task cards
(or .PDF which they print in their facility). They execute them then sign
them off on paper and return them in boxes of paper: so there needs to be
a capability to scan them and do indexing and OCR or ICR conversions as
the only remaining alternative to link them to transaction oriented MRO
or CMS systems, modern systems that would otherwise accept true open
digital data.
The same goes for the old 8130/EASA Form 1: most are printed and
filled and signed by hand — then scanned for linking with or attaching to
transaction oriented systems. Everybody is hung up on where do we put
their logo and signature column or box on job cards (totally locked on the
page/print paradigm) without understanding the concept of linking the
approval event and its audit trail to the information unit. They need to ask,
how do you do conditional intelligent branching in a job card where you
read, observe a condition on the aircraft or component and then execute
this path versus the other when undertaking the maintenance? And how
do you capture all that information and feed it back to the MRO system
or have it directly authored into the MRO system; or architect job cards
that truly capture ‘part off/part on’ information during the visit but also
inspection data in a comprehensive manner and relate it back to the MRO
system so that the data can flow among the different systems at the airline
vs their 3rd party MRO supplier?
DATA CONVERSION — CLAIMS VERSUS REALITY
In aviation we have had an incredible array of standards for many years
so you can pick any, many or all of them and yet you cannot, at the push
of a button, move electronic data, for example, from one MRO system
to another, even though they’re almost all on Oracle! You cannot move
a complete Maintenance program or job card work-package with its
associated scheduling (the emphasis again is at the push of a button) from
one airline to a 3rd party MRO facility, complete the work, capture the
findings and accomplishment authorizations and return the package to the
originating airline. And if you want to move all of the parts information,
what if the old system used 25 digits to capture part numbers while the
new one uses 20? Get XML to solve that one and then bring in 20 years of
history and then you’ll be able to say to yourself that you’re ready to take
compliance on the new system.
Even in the CMS industry, where we take absolute pride in abiding by
standards, have you ever tried to migrate Jouve (ex-ITG/Flatirons+Corena
now) to Enigma? Have you tried moving data from Corena S1000D to
TechSight? Or maybe IDMR to TerraView? What do you think it would
take to move a mature fleet database with five to 10 years history (as
some of these systems are older than that) with substantial local content
and associated ‘audit history/workflow meta-data’ to move across these
systems?
In every system implementation the biggest challenge by far is the data
conversion — and proving that you in fact have all the data correctly
migrated after the process. Various workarounds are often used such as
converting minimalist amounts of current data and keeping the history in
a dormant version of the legacy system — this is often required for SOX
compliance.
Building bridges between different systems is a complex endeavor; so here
are some hypothesizes that might be presented to you.
Hypothesis 1: You can move an electronic/intelligent set of Job Cards
from one MRO system to another (at the push of a button), process them
and return them to the original MRO. We’re talking about a round trip in
which the airline sends it to the MRO; the MRO accomplishes the work
and sends them back, with all the customization that the airline wanted in
the first place.
Hypothesis 2: You can (at the push of a button) move complete
maintenance data records from one MRO system to another, process them
and return them to the original MRO.
Hypothesis 3: XML makes data interchange easy, transparent and
pushbutton plus you can edit XML data like MSWord.
All of the above are at best ‘marketecture statements’!
Hopefully I’ve convinced you that there are some difficult questions to ask
in assuming the above and that serious due diligence needs to take place
to validate these claims… which are absolutely not true. In saying that, I’ve
just spread FUD, an acronym from the bad old days (fear, uncertainty and
doubt). Typically, vendors that don’t have solutions usually do that; spread
fear, uncertainty and doubt. But let’s look at what the regulators are saying;
this (figure 4) shows some results from an FAA study carried out in 2012
and it’s worth considering. The bottom line is what’s important, that there
is technology and software and processes but that they’re under-utilized
across the industry.
What are the Regulators saying…
• 60% of aviation incidents were procedure related or involved
technical documentation.
• The "two top errors" on the maintenance floor are :
• "information not used"
• "procedures not followed".
• 36% of all regulatory actions against aircraft maintenance
technicians are for "not using proper technical documentation"
• 64% of all incidents registered in the Aviation Safety Reporting
System (ASRS) are related to technical documentation or
procedural challenges or both.
• The data is extremely complex in all its interrelations.
• There is available software technology and know-how that it
is not being fully exploited to solve the issues.
Figure 4
“Everybody is hung up on where do we put their
logo and signature column or box on job cards
(totally locked on the page/print paradigm) without
understanding the concept of linking the approval
event and its audit trail to the information unit.”
Figure 5
The next chart (figure 5 above) provides a snapshot of what the study
concluded about the distribution of the root causes of technical
documentation issues based on a statistical sample. The most important
recommendation of the workshop that produced these statistics was that
“the industry has to make more use of the available software technology
and know-how that already exists which is not [currently] being fully
exploited to solve the issues.”
THE PARADOX OF OUR INDUSTRY
We take too long to build Standards — even though we’re copying them
from others (iSPEC2200 came out of CALS, S1000D from AECMA). We
also take too long to develop them to our own versions and then we take
too long to adopt them and adapt them. We keep changing them and we
watch the world go by while other industries bring forth revolutionary
standards and technologies which do amazing things that we wished
we could do. And we are stuck. We have a lot, yes, there is SPEC2000,
iSPEC2200, S1000D, SPEC2300 to potentially make the electronic data
interchange between OEM’s and airlines and MRO’s and amongst end-users
of the data, transparent and easy. We have Electronic Signature and we even
have nose-to-tail communications on aircraft and communications from
aircraft to the ground with ACARS/ARINC CMC protocols for data capture
and transmission from aircraft to ground. Yet the encoded values for such
protocol data streams for various errors and fault conditions on the aircraft
are totally different across aircraft types even from the same OEM. So you
require different intelligence to analyze the codes from a 737 and a 757 and
a 767. Yet we fiercely defend our standards.

13. OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 | AIRCRAFT IT MRO | WHITE PAPER: AEROSOFT | 27
INTERACTIVE Click here for a demonstration
Author
THANOS
KAPONERIDIS
PRESIDENT AND CEO AEROSOFT
SYSTEMS INC.
Thanos Kaponeridis
is the founder of
AeroSoft Systems Inc.
established in Toronto
Canada in 1997.
He has brought AeroSoft from
a start-up through organic and
inorganic growth to become a
unique niche player in the M&E
Systems marketplace with their
two MRO products of DigiMAINT
and WebPMI plus DigiDOC (CMS).
Thanos has built up his aerospace
and aviation experience since
engaging at Bombardier Regional
aircraft in 1992 where he managed
the development of the iSPEC2200
compliant digital document systems
for the CRJ and Q400. He was
a long-standing member of the
ATA/EMMC/TICC eText and FOWG
since 1994 in the development of
digital document standards. Prior
to Bombardier, Thanos was an
accomplished IT/IS senior consultant
with his own practice and prior to
that with the Canadian subsidiary
of Gartner Group, offering strategic
and tactical planning of IT/IS to
multi-national corporations. Mr.
Kaponeridis holds a Bachelor of
Applied Science from the University
of Toronto in Industrial Engineering
and a Master of Science from
the University of London (UK) in
Ergonomics / Human Factors.
About…
AEROSOFT SYSTEMS
AeroSoft
Systems
Inc. was
established in June 1997 and
now has 25+ customers with over
1000 aircraft globally. There are
three distinct products, two in
MRO/M&E: DigiMAINT and WebPMI
plus DigiDOC as an aviation CMS.
DigiDOC integrates agnostically with
any MRO/M&E system
“We take too long to build Standards – even though
we’re copying them from others (iSPEC2200 came out
of CALS, S1000D from AECMA). We also take too long
to develop them to our own versions and then we take
too long to adopt them and adapt them.”
INTERACTIVE Give us your opinion
Click here to have your say
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Click here to read all future editions
only supplier of 2 MRO
‘best of breed’ plus
Oering DigiPLAN, DigiREPORTS, Analytics and
B2B for DigiMAINT and WebPMI MRO systems.
Our DigiDOC CMS is agnostic
of MRO with proven integration
with any competitors’ system,
in addition to our own.
iSPEC2200, S1000D, DITA, SPEC2000, SPEC2300
A HEALTHY DATA INTERCHANGE ENVIRONMENT
Let me digress a little — it is relevant. The company that actually enabled
XML editing within MSWord in 1994 was i4i and that’s the technology
whose patents, ultimately today, gives you .docx. After that, i4i specialized
in the Medical industry and participated in work on the HL7 standards,
an application level interface; it’s built on the ISO Layer 7 interconnect
model and its application to application interface. That’s because you can’t
go to one doctor and then change your doctor or hospital next week and
not be able to have your data totally move from one place to the other or
say ‘well, we need a lot of conversion’ or ‘we’re going to lose some of your
information’. But that’s the kind of answer that we accept in the aviation
industry. So, you say, ‘so what?’
The ‘what’ is that, in aviation, we need an application level interface
that we haven’t even come close to developing. The existing standards
that we have, as we use them, do not allow for transparent moves of data
at the push of a button for the round trip as I described above. Establishing
such a ‘product independent’ data interchange in our industry will
make the playing field level and will allow buyers to make their choices
according to true ‘product features and functions’ and not because
“I bought a plane from an operator that uses ABC MRO software, so I’ll
install ABC MRO in my company.”
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
AECMA Association Européenne des Constructeurs de Matériel aérospatial/
European Association of Aerospace Manufacturers
AMM Aircraft Maintenance Manual
CMC Central Maintenance Computer
CMS Content Management System
COC Customer Originated Changes
DTD Document Type Definition
FIM Fault Isolation Manual
FRM Fault Reporting Manual
ICR Intelligent Character Recognition
MID Maintenance Instruction Document
MPD Maintenance Planning Document
MTCM Multidimensional Trellis Coded Modulation
OCR Optical Character Recognition
SOX Sarbanes-Oxley Act
TSM Troubleshooting Manual

14. Untimely Information and
Delays Cost the Airline
Industry $5 Billion Annually!
Real Time Content at the Point of
Performance Increases Technical
Dispatch Rates and Punctuality!
Struggling to Get Accurate, Real Time Information?
Get in touch to learn how our Content Lifecycle Management Solutions can
help you overcome your challenges!
www.FlatironsSolutions.com  www.Corena.com