Aircraft Maintenance Management Module

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Aircraft Maintenance Management Module

• Aircraft Maintenance Introduction

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General definition

• Maintenance cost is broadly defined as the sum of
  incurred labour, material costs and various
  overheads otherwise known as indirect maintenance
  costs. The labour is normally a process time
  controlled and productivity related where certain
  tools such as lean processes or Six sigma can
  be employed to enhance productivity and
  consequently improve consumed labour.
• The material element is dependant on negotiated
  suppliers contracts and products reliability
  programs.

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1. Aircraft Maintenance Cost Philosophies
Economics

• The maintenance costs represent 10-20 of the
  worldwide airlines direct operating costs. These
  costs are growing in view of introduction of new
  more expensive material, highly sophisticated
  repair schemes especially those associated with
  structural parts and core Engine parts, and
  increasing labour costs.

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• Boeing suggests that there are many other
  influencing factors to the maintenance costs such
  as Aircraft utilisation, Environment and Age.
  Furthermore, Airlines influence costs of its
  operations and maintenance support practices
  similarly component Manufactures influence
  product support and reliability.

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• The Airlines overall maintenance costs are
  categorised as Controllable and Non Controllable
  Costs. The controllable cost element is further
  split into contractual and non contractual costs.
  The contractual cost elements are either
  outsourced or accomplished In-house depending on
  potential benefits or savings in the short or
  long runs.

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• Thus it is of extreme importance to understand
  all elements of airlines maintenance costs and
  contain such costs where practicable through
  introduction of processes and manpower
  improvements, enhanced training and optimisation
  of maintenance interval requirement for both
  ON/OFF aircraft maintenance in liaison with the
  OEMs.

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• The Airline industry currently under tremendous
  pressure in light of the current downturn
  reducing demand especially on premium cabin,
  hence the competition which resulted in fares
  reduction and subsequently low yields than
  breakeven costs.

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2. Maintenance Costs (Direct /Indirect) Breakdown

• The Maintenance costs are the sums of total costs
  pertain to Direct and Indirect Maintenance. Per
  IATA, Direct Maintenance comprises the following,
  by Cost segment
• - Airframe, Engines and component maintenance.
  And by cost element Labour, Material and
  Outside repair Where, Indirect Maintenance
  includes the Overheads costs.

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• Boeing elaborates on these definitions further as
  follows
• Direct Maintenance Cost is, the direct airframe
  and Engine maintenance which consist of the
  labour and material required to perform service,
  repair, modification, restoration, inspection,
  test, and troubleshooting tasks during
  on-airplane and shop maintenance activities.

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• Maintenance Overhead consists of maintenance
  supervision, maintenance training, maintenance
  planning, unallocated labour costs, rentals and
  Utilities.

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• We have to understand the elements that comprise
  the Direct Maintenance Cost (DMC) and Indirect
  Maintenance Cost (IMC). The breakdown of these
  costs is
• 2.1 Direct maintenance costs
• 2.2 Indirect maintenance costs

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2.1.1 ON aircraft maintenance

• This type of maintenance is normally carried out
  during the scheduled aircraft checks as defined
  by the Manufacturers MPD documents where an
  extensive part of Labour Man-hours is expended as
  compared to materials consumed such as filters,
  oil, greases, fittings and minor structural
  parts.

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• Additionally, allotted portion of check time is
  dedicated to tests, inspection, minor airframe
  corrections and components removals which are due
  for routine maintenance. IATA as shown in Figure
  (1) below refer to this maintenance category as
  1st Level Maintenance costs segments that include
  Airframe and Engines Labour, materials and
  subcontracted work.

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2.1.2 OFF Aircraft Maintenance

• This is normally carried out away from aircraft
  on Engines and components in either In house or
  outsourced overhaul shops as these costs comprise
  expended labour, material, testing and
  modifications.
• The above two categories are generally split as
  per below percentages.

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• The ON aircraft Maintenance checks are further
  summarised as follows
• Aircraft Transit checks- this is a normal minor
  check that occurs every flight where walk around
  is conducted by the Engineers to detect any
  obvious damage and/or discrepancy which my
  obstruct aircraft despatch or serviceability for
  further flights. Also aircraft Log books will be
  reviewed to clear or defer all recorded snags.

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1. Aircraft Service or Weekly checks- This check is
   a little more extensive hours are expended in
   general visual inspections and overall Aircraft
   condition. Minor modification (Engineering
   Orders) can be conducted and additional defects
   clearances which require extended times can be
   accomplished during this check.

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1. Aircraft A checks- This is a routine MPD check
   that occurred almost every three months or 500
   flight hours with various tasks scheduled for
   accomplishment. Few access panels, Engine
   cowlings and other doors will be opened to
   perform certain visual inspections and
   rectifications.

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• Aircraft C checks- within this check the
  aircraft is grounded for an extended time where
  many routine MPD tasks will be carried out. As
  majority of access panels are opened, a detailed
  visual inspection will be carried out on
  airframes linkages, structural fittings and main
  systems (such as oil, hydraulic and fuel)
  functional or leak checks and major components
  defect rectification. The interior cabin such as
  seats will be removed fro refurbishment. Galleys
  and toils will receive servicing and repairs.

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1. Heavy Aircraft checks or D checks as some
   airlines call it. The aircraft will undergo a
   detailed visual inspection almost in every area
   including main structure where a NDT and
   application of special die pent rants will be
   carried out to detect possible skin cracks.
   Within the cabin the primary structural parts
   removed for corrosion treatment especially
   galleys, floor panels and seat main frames.

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OFF Aircraft Maintenance

• The OFF aircraft Maintenance are further
  summarised as follows
• a) Engine Repair and Overhaul Maintenance
  during aircraft operations, The Engines are the
  most stressed items where every time the aircraft
  takes off, Engines parts rotate at a very high
  speed with thrust causing certain wear to such
  parts at an accelerated pace. Engine internal
  parts especially turbine and combustion chambers
  are manufactured from special materials in order
  to withstand the high temperatures and pressure
  put on the engine during operations.

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• Hence, the maintenance is often significant and
  expensive and that is the reason where majority
  of airlines outsource engine maintenance to
  OEMs/MROs to alleviate the burden off airlines
  from investment in development of such highly
  sophisticated overhaul shops with special
  required repairs.
• Normally the Engine initial shop visits expenses
  from Aircraft induction to maturity is relatively
  less expensive than aging Engine maintenance as
  main LLP parts requires replacement then and such
  parts impose a high cost to the Engine
  Maintenance.

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• In general terms, the difference between engine
  and airframe maintenance is that Engine material
  costs will exceed 80 of the total maintenance
  while airframe maintenance will equally share
  labour and material by 50/50.
• The Engine performance maintenance costs
  optimisation is measured by the time it stays on
  wing as achieved by the continuous OEM
  development causing less removals and
  subsequently lower maintenance costs.

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• Component Repairs, Modifications, and
  Replacements
• This maintenance includes normal scheduled and
  unscheduled components repairs to restore its
  serviceable condition. The parts are often
  categorised into rotables, repairable and
  expendables whereby a multiple number of
  repairs/resets is possible to rotables parts and
  considered as assets for the airline.
• The maintenance costs associated with this part
  depend significantly on whether these can be
  repaired In house or outsourced. This decision
  highly depends on two factors, the Turn around
  time and the Warranty aspect.

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• In other words, if the OEM TAT is reasonable,
  then it is quite sensible to despatch such
  components for repairs outside under warranty
  without spending much hassle to develop such
  capability and waste Engineers energy on
  warranted components especially during the
  initial five years from Aircraft induction. There
  are occasions where rotables or repairable parts
  are scrapped due to economic conditions BER ,i.e.
  Where the Repair cost exceeds the 65 threshold
  of the unit cost

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In-Direct Maintenance Costs

• 2.2 Indirect Maintenance Costs
• The Indirect maintenance cost or otherwise known
  as Overhead cost is defined as the sum of all
  labour and material costs for support services
  which add to the total maintenance of the
  aircraft. The elements of IMC include the
  overhead costs of but not limited to, Facilities,
  Stores, Equipment, administration, Engineering
  technical services, Materials management and Engg
  training.

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• The IMC costs vary significantly amongst airlines
  subject together with organisational structure
  and the level of In/outsourcing plus work
  efficiencies.
• Therefore The IMC costs fall within the category
  of controllable airline maintenance costs but
  this factor cannot be controlled nor quantified
  by Aircraft manufacturers.

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• The use of automation and sophisticated control
  system especially in the tech records, planning
  and materials management, drastically reduce the
  labour requirement and size of these support
  services departments and subsequently slash the
  IMC costs.
• Therefore, the IMC costs overheads need to be
  reviewed frequently to envisage possibility of
  introducing processes improvements.

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• The ideal tool for this exercise would be Six
  Sigma which looks at the work environment to
  analyse the adopted processes, then propose
  solutions for the purpose of working smarter and
  cut inefficiencies (Turner 2005).

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Operating Cost Breakdown
Total Operating Cost (TOC)
Airplane Related Operating Cost (AROC)
System Related Operating Cost
Payload Related Operating Cost
Ownership Cost
Cash Airplane Related Operating Cost (CAROC)
Passenger Related Cost
Cargo Related Cost
System Related Cost
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• Food
• In flight services
• Handling
• Baggage handling
• Commissions
• Reservations and sales
• Advertising

• Fuel
• Cockpit crew
• Cabin crew
• Maintenance
• Landing
• Navigation
• Ground handling

• Depreciation
• Financing (airplane and introductory investment)
• Operating lease cost
• Hull insurance

• Handling
• Commissions
• Reservations and sales
• Advertising

• Airplane general and administrative
• Passenger general and administrative
• Cargo general and administrative