With widespread air travel becoming being severely reined in during the pandemic and airlines across the globe needing to dramatically reduce their passenger operations, the commercial aviation industry has been hard hit by the effects of COVD-19. There is also the added challenge of social distancing rules that carriers, OEMs and MROs must comply with to continue operations. Here, Dan Dutton, VP R&D for Aerospace & Defense, IFS, discusses how e-signatures in maintenance operations could be fast-tracked into use as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
As social distancing measures are implemented around the world, there have been regulatory changes arriving in the commercial aviation industry to help organizations comply with social distancing guidelines. Among these procedural changes was the announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration at the end of March stating that remote technology, including video links, would now be allowed to conduct inspections and sign-off other compliance procedures.
This announcement has been welcomed by technicians and inspectors in the industry who have been advocating the use of such technologies in commercial aviation for years—and many hope that this regulation change will have a long-term positive impact within the sector. Although mobile maintenance has come into the spotlight for the FAA and airlines in recent months, many organizations, including IFS customers, had integrated remote technology into their maintenance operations far before the coronavirus outbreak. But with social distancing taking hold, I predict e-signatures deployment will gain significant ground across the industry. Here is how airlines, carriers and MROs can benefit from e-signatures and remote technology during the pandemic and beyond.
1. Paving the way to digitized operations
E-signature technology is key to eliminating the amount of paper used in maintenance processes and streamlining critical processes inside maintenance operations. When paper-heavy processes are digitized and work is managed electronically it gives organizations the ability to enhance their overall efficiency. Typical uses for electronic documents in maintenance include airworthiness releases, maintenance releases and documents that support getting aircraft ready for release, such as job cards and technical logbooks. In these instances, e-signature capability takes away the time-consuming activities associated with paper in terms of data entry, the re-keying of inaccurate information into the Management Information System (MIS), and inefficient search and retrieval.
Paper-free maintenance planning, labor, part and tool scheduling and work assignment mean that if changes occur, there is nothing to print, shuffle or distribute. All stakeholders can immediately see their new assignments as planners push electronic job cards out to a mechanic’s device. It is this level of functionality that is helping organizations make great strides to achieving paperless maintenance operations in the future—while limiting the social interaction between workers in the short term.
2. Electronic records and audit trails increase accountability
Functionality that ties materials, technical records, engineering and maintenance execution together should be embedded into an aviation maintenance management software system. With e-signatures and the support of an effective aviation maintenance management software system, maintenance tasks can be carried out in one system and designated as requiring digital sign-off. Software ideally will provide alerts to any errors or conflicts in real-time, ensuring all relevant information is available to the signatory before a record is signed.
Electronic documents can increase the security and compliance in organizations. When a document is electronically signed by a technician, inspector, supervisor or other maintenance personnel, it becomes an electronic record, encrypted and permanently stored in the aviation maintenance management database. These records can then be viewed and verified at any time but cannot be altered. Audit trails become much more efficient and the ability to instantly search for and retrieve a specific set of records to perhaps respond to a regulator’s request is hugely beneficial, potentially saving thousands of hours on a yearly basis.
Non-repudiation on a document and a digital trace means someone cannot deny that they have signed something, while quick searches, reports by date and the level of auditing provided by system automation enables technicians to focus on their core job of maintaining aircraft.
3. Paperless processes have both financial and operational benefits
The ‘single user’ nature of paper-heavy processes often create bottle necks in operations. Take an aircraft release for instance. The cash and goodwill cost incurred when a plane full of passengers is waiting to leave while a mechanic fills out a paper form, walks it to the cockpit for a captain’s signature and then returns it to maintenance operations can be significant. Now consider an electronic technical logbook as an example of how airlines can minimize aircraft turnaround times by reducing reliance on paper. Pilot to maintenance interaction could be digital, faster and safer—given the current need to adhere to social distancing measures.
By transforming paper-based processes into an app-based, next-generation logbook approach, airlines can address aircraft turnaround times while reducing paper-based processes—and IFS software has been doing just that. When accessible on a mobile device, this technology eliminates the need for pilots to physically sign-off logbooks and the enhanced data available from this capability means faults raised during an inbound flight can be seen in real-time. A pilot can then consider how a fault might impact flights ahead of time, preventing issues being unaddressed after an aircraft has left for its next destination.
Electronic technical logbooks can also optimize processes in shift handovers. A standard work order for some operators could be up to 200 pages long. The mechanic must then go through every page to identify the open tasks and build a separate list for the next shift—this manual process takes time and it is easy to miss key details. Adding e-signatures provides a real opportunity to help operators refine their shift turnover activities, they can save potentially double-digit hours per day and hundreds of thousands of dollars from a labor standpoint.
Leverage e-signature technology for benefits beyond the end of the pandemic
Social distancing obligations have expedited the wide-spread use of remote technology that has previously been hampered by out-dated regulation. This is an opportunity for key decision makers within the commercial aviation industry to embrace the potential of remote technology that will have an immediate impact helping the industry get back to business safely, as well as bringing productivity and operational benefits. Organizations which choose to leverage e-signatures will not only protect the safety of their workforce and customers but will reap the rewards of streamlined operations both now and in the future.
