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Best Practices and Industry Trends in Lifecycle Asset Management: infoTRAK Supports Leaders in Aviation MRO and Component Repair

Commercial and military aircraft MRO facilities and component repair & overhaul facilities must service a mixture of old and new equipment configurations, respond to unpredictable levels and sources of demand, minimize Turnaround Time (TAT), and maximize throughput for acceptable customer service. The increasing focus on more efficient asset MRO processes and end-to-end asset lifecycle management and reliability are key trends for industry leaders to gain marketshare and new levels of profitability in commercial environments, as well as attain increased military readiness at lower cost in Government environments.

Best Practices in Lifecycle Management of Complex Assets

Increasing demand for aircraft, equipment, and other high value asset availability as well as demand for efficiency of related maintenance services has put great pressure on operators and technical maintenance service providers to find new ways to cost effectively manage complex fleet and asset maintenance operations while meeting demanding customer schedules and managing safety, reliability, and compliance.

It has become a strategic imperative for many operators and technical service providers to use maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) “best practices,” processes, and state-of-the-art systems that reduce turnaround time, optimize equipment/asset utilization, provide a competitive advantage or make better use of tight budgets and scarce resources. In addition, some operators – such as airline operators -- want to implement MRO and Engineering Management systems that efficiently manage both their internal MRO operations as well as “for profit” MRO services to other operators in order to leverage facilities, economies of scale, core competencies, and capital-intensive infrastructures.

Infospectrum’s infoTRAK MRO™ is an integrated but highly modular Technical Maintenance business software suite that supports Engineering, Technical Base Maintenance (e.g. airframe or asset structure, engine, assembly and component MRO & support workshops), line maintenance, planning, inventory and warehousing, purchasing and supply chain management, quality and technical records management as well as overall fleet/asset lifecycle management and control. The system provides detailed project costing, labor hour collection, optional finance modules, or can be rapidly integrated with packaged finance systems such as SAP, Oracle or even home grown systems using our innovative web services and open infoTRAK architecture.

The system manages asset/equipment maintenance plans and detailed configurations as well as maintenance operations and resources, including maintenance requirements, planned/unplanned (routine/non-routine) maintenance execution, component repair and overhaul (R&O), labor skill sets/certifications, tooling and equipment, inventory, repairables, exchanges, and the supply chain of needed parts and support services. infoTRAK MRO manages business support functions such as customer quotation and bid management, complex invoicing, project hours and cost accounting. The system also manages Technical Record keeping with ‘real time’ automated tracking, traceability and audit trails of technical actions taken and materials used for compliance support, such as for SOX compliance, or for aviation-related FAA, EASA, SPEC 2000, and other regional public safety regulatory compliance requirements.