Published on: Sep-07 Author: Lakshmi Narasimhan 2009 Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved.
Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. MRO Systems Complexities 3. The Traditional approach 4. Taking a Different Approach 5. The source of Data on which MRO service decisions are made 6. Data Warehouse (DW) is the solution 7. An Approach to Build DW and potential challenges 8. Conclusion 04 04 05 05 Author s Bio Lakshmi Narasimhan (Lakshmi) has 20+ years experience in airline industry both in business domain and IT. As part of his service with 2 major airlines, leading airline Product Company and leading IT Services Company, he has specialized in business consulting, product conceptualization & implementation and business process management. 2009 Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 2
1. Introduction Despite the challenges Airlines have been facing, potential for opportunity in the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) industry is promising. It is estimated that the world fleet will grow by 60% over the next 10 years and the MRO global market will grow by US$4.8 billion over the next 5 years. Solid growth in new airlines, aircraft fleet and passenger numbers, both in developed and emerging economies (particularly china and India), is adding to the demand for the MRO services. The newly introduced wide-body aircraft Airbus A380, which is certain to introduce new standards, processes and tools, can only add to the complexities of MRO and the operational information to optimize the maintenance processes and labor costs. Geographic spread of (new facilities in Asia Pacific) MRO facilities, poses new challenges of integrating data, customers, suppliers and IT systems for operational information needs. 2. MRO Systems Complexities With a mix bag of IT systems and their proliferation, the Airline companies or the MRO outsourcers are not geared to integrate the operational data and add value to it by transforming it into business information, both for process operation analysis as well as parts inventory optimization. Airlines of 100+ aircrafts can typically hold inventory of 200+ thousand parts in the store. This, includes, high priced items like engines, Landing gears, APUs and other major equipment. Most of these parts have large life spans resulting in very high maintenance cost compared to initial purchase cost. Last but not least, planned men and material (Parts and Tool) at the time of maintenance execution also will help to reduce maintenance cost. 3. The Traditional approach Most of the leading MRO Software provide standard reports/queries. None of them help the Maintenance and Engineering (M&E) section to identify potential areas for better service or saving cost. This results in huge additional effort in generating ad-hoc reports, queries and data extraction to spread sheets. Mainframe based MRO software generate reports (standard as well as Ad-hoc) through batches. The end user has to wait 10 to 12 hours to receive the report and act on it. 4. Taking a Different Approach The modern approach supported by BI&A tools enables M&E to build information entities for decision support, extract, cleanse and load data, build Data Warehouse and drill down the data to get desired maintenance information. Building the Data Warehouse is a one time effort and the end user can generate the reports the way they want using the tools. The major advantages of this BI&A system are: Desired Data is readily available Generates queries/reports on any permutation and combination High data visibility Helps to take quick decision by Engineering management based on recent data Reduces IT cost It is a paper less process The above translates into achieving the key MRO objectives of enhanced airworthiness, high reliability, cost-effective maintenance, preventive maintenance planning and on-time flying. 2009 Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 3
5. The source of Data on which MRO service decisions are made The data flows from multiple main MRP and MRO modules like, Configuration Control, Maintenance Planning, Technical Record, Repair and Warranty, Work Shop tracking, Defect Control, Production Planning, Digital Documentation, Material Planning, Purchase and Logistic, Projects, Inventory and stores control, interfaces to other systems and Invoicing. Some of the data generated is Operation Critical and required for forecasting and trend analysis. Aircraft Configuration records are for each Air Craft and they -will have Install/removal, repair and warranty, defects, Long/Short term maintenance and its accomplishment records. Apart from this, many data from satellite systems like DMS, RMS are also captured. So, when you see the type of data, crucial information is captured which is required for QA and regional DGCA. The accompanying pictures provides the data source perspective. Stores & Part Movement Purchase & Logistic MRP Data Shortage & requirement Handling AR MRP Data AP Inventory & Material Planning GL Configuration Control Production Planning Modification Control Defect Control MRP Data Repair & Warranty Maintenance Planning Shop Tracking 6. Data Warehouse (DW) is the solution Data Warehouse (DW) is the solution for the massive MRO data analysis for decision support for Information Services. It gives flexibility to the Management and end users to review the historical data and take quick business decisions. It also reduces IT development costs. A fundamental concept of a data warehouse is the distinction between data and information. Data is composed of recordable facts that are often found in operational or transactional systems. In a data warehouse environment, data only comes to have value to end-users when it is organized and presented as information. Information is an integrated collection of facts and is used as the basis for decision making. The data warehouse is that portion of an overall Architected Data Environment that serves as the single integrated source of data for processing information. The data warehouse has specific characteristics that include Subject-Orientation, Integrated source of information, Non-Volatile, Time-Variant, Accessible and process oriented. 2009 Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 4
7. An Approach to Build DW and potential challenges The first step is to identify the decision support information requirements and the sources of the subject oriented and non-volatile data. This needs to be discussed with the concerned departments and agreed upon. This process requires collaboration of end users and IT consultants to arrive at the comprehensive and business specific requirements. While creating the requirements, be specific on particular subjects or areas of interest, not simply as computer files. Designing a DW needs many steps including the creation of Universes, Classes, Objects, mapping requirements with data, establish Table joins, decide on summaries and aggregates, indexing and categorizing. It includes deciding on aggregating techniques like Star Schema, Snowflake Schema and deciding the target data base, tables and their relationship. The extraction of data from the operational environment to the data warehouse environment requires a change in technology. Often the selection of data from the operational environment may be very complex. Due to diverse technology platforms, multiple data sources and data inconsistencies, data is to be integrated, reformatted and cleaned before populating the DW. The ETL operation must account for massive volumes of input from the operational databases. Data relationships that have been built into old legacy program logic must be understood and unraveled before those files can be used as input. Developing Data warehouse for any specific areas is very complex. The complexity increases when Legacy system is involved as the source. Esspecially in the MRO space, most of the systems are Legacy based and interfaced with many other external systems like ERP, RMS, DMS., Engine monitoring systems, ACARS, Flight scheduling, etc. The operational MRO sections are many and the skill set and expertise of end users differ from one section to another. So, before taking up any Data Warehousing activity, a clear idea of the MRO Domain is essential and active involvement of the users is required. Otherwise, the desired result may not be achieved. 8. Conclusion In conclusion, the inefficient MRO and M&E services not only incur high MRO costs but also severely impact Airlines in delays and lose revenue opportunities. The impact on the corporate bottom line becomes obvious. And the number of aircrafts in operation multiplies the impact. Investment in new BI&A technology coupled with judicious outsourcing of the data warehousing development and integration projects, wil, certainly yield high returns. 2009 Hexaware Technologies. All rights reserved. 5
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