Boeing improves maintenance record keeping for airlines

Boeing, airplane-manufacturing company has introduced a digital records management capability to its Maintenance Performance Toolbox suite of products that will enhance maintenance operations and reduce costs for airlines.

The maintenance performance toolbox records module will provide an industry standard platform to manage scanned and digitally produced maintenance and flight records.

The new tool will eliminate the operational challenge of managing cumbersome, paper-based maintenance records, working in tandem with other maintenance performance toolbox application solutions to increase efficiencies related to both day-to-day airline maintenance operations and the management of leased airplanes.

The Vice President, Digital Solutions, Boeing Digital Aviation – a business unit of Commercial Aviation Services, Per Norén said that: “Automation of the maintenance record keeping process is a new and essential component of our Maintenance Performance Toolbox and we are pleased to provide airlines with the foundation for establishing more efficient maintenance operations.

“Our new records solution lowers costs related to daily records and the end of lease management, as well as eliminating redundant processes and reducing delays in aircraft maintenance processes. This new system truly allows airlines to unlock the potential of fleet-wide digital records management”, he added.
However, the Records module will create intelligent digital maintenance documents, featuring dynamic records search capabilities.

The record-keeping tool will also improve airline maintenance workflow capabilities and tie into maintenance planning solutions, establishing systems that work in concert to further enhance the automation of processes and overall efficiency.

Meanwhile, Boeing said it expected to sell 150 more of its popular CH-47F Chinook helicopters to foreign countries within 2022, with the helicopter drawing strong interest from new countries outside the 19 nations that already operate it.

The Vice president for cargo helicopters, Steve Parker stated that the company expected a number of buyers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including “quite a number of new additional countries,” he added.

Parker said that there could be news before the end of the year about additional foreign orders for the twin-rotor heavy lift helicopters, through direct commercial sales and government-to-government foreign military sales.

There are 30 remaining options in a five-year contract that ends in fiscal 2017 that can be used for foreign orders, Parker told reporters.

He said some countries that already operate the helicopters could place additional orders to benefit from the lower pricing in the multi-year contract.

There are 874 Chinooks in service around the world, including about 100 CH-47 D-models, some of which could be upgraded to the current F-model used by the US Army, he noted.
Germany is one of the countries looking at a possible purchase, US Army Colonel said the Project Manager for cargo helicopters, Rob Barrie at the annual Association of the US Army conference.

Barrie said the Army would not order enough CH-47F helicopters to justify another multi-year contract until the latest Block 2 version was in full-rate production around 2024.

He however said the Army was looking at bundling Army orders with potential foreign orders to drive down costs through an umbrella or block-buy contract with Boeing, which needs to produce about 24 orders a year to keep production economical.